Jacqueline Jones - a Crime Comic for Kids of All Ages

I was completely unaware of this comic, and likely would have never heard of it, had it not been for my friend Kevin.  He came across the comic, purchased it, read it, and liked it, so he told me about it, and well ... since it has a female lead, it was pretty much a given that I was going to get it.  Apparently, the comic was funded via Kickstarter back in 2023, and hard copies are now available via Etsy (which is where I got my copy, and it is autographed by the creator as well!).  While the premise is not necessarily new, the execution and production of the comic, and the story behind the comic, is definitely worth while, and the comic itself - all I can say is WOW!

 

Jacqueline Jones is the creation of Carrick Esquivel, who wrote and penciled the book, with the help of Jesse Hansen and Johnny B. Gerardy (inkers) and Jeromy Cox (colors and letters).  The title is the main character's name, Jacqueline Jones, a dedicated police officer in the 1950s who managed to become a cop because she "misspelled" her name as "Jack" on the application (because, let's face it, back in the 1950s, how many women were police officers, patrolling the streets and fighting crime?).  While DC Comics may have had Liza Warner as Lady Cop back in 1975, Esquivel gives readers a 6'2" Amazon-like officer nicknamed "The Lady in Blue" by the good citizens of the city of Themis (which is appropriate, since that is the Greek goddess of justice, divine order, and law).  Esquivel plays the story appropriately for its time period, as Jones faces discrimination because of her gender, gets heckled by her fellow officers, and gets underestimated by the criminals she takes down.   But she fights back, and she fights back hard!

 

One thing I definitely enjoyed about this first issue is that it is not a long, drawn-out origin tale.  In fact, Esquivel manages to give readers everything they need to know (for now) about Jacqueline Jones' backstory in just three pages - showing how she got into the policewomen's bureau and moved up from writing parking tickets to eventually becoming the city's first patrolwoman.  This leaves plenty of pages to tell the real story - Jones is tipped off about a cache of guns found behind a local bar, only to come face to face with some very deadly henchman of a crime lord named "the Czar."  An attempted bribe, a rough-and-tumble fist fight, an exploding patrol car, and a good, old-fashioned car chase with bullets flying fill the remaining pages, as Jones fulfills her oath to bring evil to justice.

 

And Esquivel gives readers a wonderfully surprising cliffhanger on that last page, as we find out the identity (sort of) of the Czar - which makes me anxiously waiting for issue two (which, based on Esquivel's Facebook page, appears to be nearing completion).  

 

The art is perfectly matched for the 1950s setting.  Each panel has the feel of a mid-20th Century cartoon (think Fleischer's Superman cartoons), and you can easily, and the action scenes give off an impression of real movement. The hair styles, the clothes, the cars, the architecture - Esquivel nails it.  The inks are not heavy, for which I'm thankful, as I feel that thick inks can ruin beautiful comic art; and the colors integrate so many wonderful shades of blue in pretty much every single panel, it keeps the focus on the fact that the main character in the book IS the Lady in Blue!  Readers even get some fun pages at the end of the book, including a Jacqueline Jones paper doll with Jackie's Crime-Fighting Gear!

 

The last couple of pages offer fans a look at some real life ladies in blue, with photos of various female police officers that work in San Diego, and to whom Esquivel has shared his creation - after all, these lades were the inspiration for his fictional lady in blue.  Such a wonderful dedication to these hard working women who help keep our streets safe, not just in San Diego, but all across this great country. Jacqueline Jones is definitely a love letter to these officers, and one that's well worth the read!  Looking forward to reading the adventures of Officer Jones for many years to come!

 

RATING:  10 well-aimed garbage can lids out of 10 for bringing to the comic page a non-super-powered superhero that honors the real life superheroes who protect our streets every day!

Dan Hyland, Police Reporter

This book is not one I had ever really planned to purchase and read.  I had seen it numerous times at various used book stores and antique malls, but, again, I'm not overly interested in books with male lead characters.  I prefer the female-led mysteries, as they seem to be more mystery-focused and less adventure-focused.  However, this book happened to be at a local used book store that I frequent, and it was there on the shelf week after week, month after month, and I finally told myself that if the store ever has a sale, I will get it and see what it's about.  Well, wouldn't you know it, the store had a sale, so I decided that since it was less than $10 and it had a pretty good, in tact dust jacket, I would bite the bullet.  And while the story is not exactly my normal cup of tea, so to speak, I would say it was worth the small price I paid for it.

Dan Hyland, Police Reporter is a story about ... well ... Dan Hyland, who happens to be ... a police reporter.  The book opens with a brief, two-page introduction to Dan and explains how he became a reporter for the Chicago Daily Star.  Then it moves right into a dangerous scenario, as Dan must fly a plane into Chicago during a turbulent storm, then he joins his fellow newshawk, Billy Parker, as they evade the guns of Jules Sparoni and his gangsters - after all, it's the evidence against Sparoni and his men that Dan has brought back to Chicago!  And if it gets published in the newspaper, then Sparoni is done for good.  Of course, the he and Billy make it to the Star, and their editor, grumpy old George Anderson Gargan, takes the article with barely a word of praise and tells Dan to head home and get some sleep.

After such an exciting opening scene, the story slows down a bit.  In the apartment that Dan shares with Billy, he opens a letter postmarked from Hollywood, California and receives some very unexpected news - his uncle Ray Hyland, who helped Dan make it in the newspaper world, has gifted Dan with the Norfolk Clarion, a small, weekly newspaper in Norfolk, Indiana, which Ray Hyland had built up and turned it into quite a success (p. 36). It seems his uncle previously sold the paper, but the new owner could not handle it, fell into default in payments, allowed the paper to become a mouthpiece for the criminal element in the area, and nearly bankrupt the paper.  Dan's uncle is hoping he can rebuild it into the great paper it once was.  Of course, that would mean leaving his established career in Chicago and starting all over in a small town.

The story then picks up the pace as Dan moves to Norfolk, meets the current editor of the paper, Leslie Wysong (who Dan mistakenly believes is a man and is shocked to discover Leslie is actually a pretty young woman [p. 88]), and begins his new career as the owner of the Norfolk Clarion.  His first order of business is to figure out who "the Ghost Gang" is that has been terrorizing and robbing the Chicago and Southern railroad's Midnight Special.  Dan figures if he can solve that mystery and stop the attacks on the train, he can help boost sales for the paper and get it back on track.  When it turns out that the city's big-wig, Con Sheldon, may be behind the robberies, it only makes Dan more determined than ever - and with Leslie and the rest of his newspaper staff joining his crusade, he can't help but feel success is within his grasp.  But Con has other ideas and puts into motion a new plan that does more than just rob the mail and money from the train - it makes the entire train disappear in the middle of the night!  How did he do it and where is the train now?  Dan publishes a special edition, letting the citizens of Norfolk know that he will solve the crime and make his city safe - but can he accomplish that before time runs out?

The majority of the book follows Dan (and later Billy, as he travels to Norfolk to get the story for his Chicago paper) as he tracks down the missing Midnight Special and fights the criminal element led by Con Sheldon (gotta love that name - "Con" - pretty much says everything about the man!).  I give the author credit for coming up with a creative means whereby Con and his men were able to "steal" the entire train and make it disappear between stops.

And speaking of the author - Norton Hughes Jonathan (almost sounds like his name is backwards, doesn't it?).  I have never heard of him before this book, and looking online, it appears he was not an overly prolific author.  He did write some books under the "Eagle Scounts banner - The Movie Scout (or The Thrill Hunters), The Lost Empire (or Larry Hannon Carries On), and Speedway Cyclone, none of which I've ever heard of, let alone seen.  It appears he also wrote another book called Gentlemen Aren't Sissies, which is toted as a "guidebook" for the modern young man of the 1930s.  Interestingly enough, that book is illustrated by none other than Pelagie Doane, who provided the art for the early Judy Bolton books!  What little else I could find on the author states he began writing at the age of seven, when he started his own little newspaper called the South End Scoop.  I suppose that may account for his writing a novel about a newspaper reporter, since it is something he apparently thought of becoming when he was a child!

Not being a series, this is the one and only appearance of Dan Hyland, and while the story was a half-way decent read, it's probably not a character I would continue to read if it were an ongoing series of books.  Although, I will admit, the story does feel like something that would have made a decent noir film in the 1930s or '40s.

 

One last thing I needed to make mention of - something odd I have discovered about Goldsmith books is that the first chapters usually begin on page 11, 13, or 15 - yet, I am unable to figure out how they come up with that numbering, as there are never 10, 12, or 14 pages before that!  So, I'm at a loss as to explain why they start the opening chapter at such a high number, instead of as page 1 (or, at the very least, the actual page number for the page count that comes before!). 

RATING:  7 quarry holes filled with cold, jagged stones out of 10 for a crime story with an ingenuous way of making a train disappear!