From their inception in 1935, comic books -starring Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel- had been primarily written for and aimed at adolescents. There were always the occasional outlier artists who pushed back against the commercial constraints of comic books and envisioned the next evolutionary artistic leap in the artform, and Charles Biro was one of those artists. In 1949, the ambitious Biro -who had previously co-created the realistically brutal comic Crime Does Not pay- editedand wrote an over-sized comic aimed at adults called Tops. Like several other radical adult comics projects that would follow, it proved to be a commercial failure, and lasted only two Life magazine-sized issues. The original comics have since become a legendary holy grail among comics fans and historians, fetching as much as $6,000 on the collector's market, written about, but rarely seen and never reprinted. Until now. Fantagraphics' TOPS collects both issues of this over-sized experimental comic in their entirety. These pulpy, sexy, and melodramatic stories wer drawn by some of the best craftsmen working in comics at that time: Dan Barry, George Tuska, Bob Fujitani, Fred Kida, Bob Lubbers, Fred Guardineer and others. It includes two stunning pre-EC crime tales illustrated by Reed Crandall, reminiscent of his Crime SuspenStories work. Over-the-top story titles include “I'll Buy That Girl,” “Marriage Swap Shop,” “The Prize Was Death.” The actor Melvyn Douglas (believe it or not) takes the reader on a utopian tour entitled “How Would You Live Under A World Government?” - a positive spin on global Socialism! Editor/historian/cartoonist Michael T. Gilbert has meticulously restored the original 1949 pages and added contextual material by historians Ken Quattro, Roger Hill, and others.Tops is a landmark work of historical importance and a mind-boggling reading experience from a bygone era.
