So cool seeing this book. I was working for Catalan Communications when Torpedo was published. It was literally a three person operation in a Greenwich Village loft.
How good it is that you are helping to spread the work of Jordi Bernet, one of the most important classic comic book authors in Spain. He has a lifetime of artwork on his shoulders, not just the Torpedo series and has even worked for DC Comics at certain times. As an anecdote I will say that the comic Torpedo 1936 initially appeared serialized in the Spanish version of Creepy magazine, perhaps to lower the overall terrifying tone with the notes of black humor you commented on in the video.
I can't get over how incredibly well staged every single panel is throughout all of Torpedo. When I got to that first Bernet panel the first time I was reading through, I was floored by how beautifully cinematic it was. Felt like it was pulled straight out of Robert Siodmak's "The Killers"! And his inking in the first volume especially is just bafflingly incredible. Gahh, so inspiring! :D
Love Torpedo. I first came across it in a back issue bin at the Ohio State Fair. Around high school. Still have them. They were reprinted as single issues. I was thrilled when IDW decided to reprint the whole thing.
Great to see Bernet featured on Kayfabe! These books are loaded with dark humor and stellar art. I think they are an excellent introduction or bridge from American crime comics to more European-style, bande desinee storytelling.
Absolute favourite. The IDW editions are great reprint volumes. Highly recommended. I recall hearing the same story; Toth was not a fan of how dark and “cynical” the stories were. Toth still, to his credit and professionalism, certainly didn’t phone it in. I’d also kill for a fraction of Bernet’s cartooning ability too. Thank you for looking at these.
I think you guys just kicked off a new obsession for me. Everything about this is right in my wheelhouse for crime comics. Another cool video, thanks guys.
I learned of Bernet through 100 Bullets. There was an issue made out of splash pages by various artists and Jordi Bernet had the best looking one. Bought a bunch of IDW Torpedo reprints after that.
Hahaha, YES!! I just bought this book a couple weeks ago. My only complaint with the book is Toth is only on the First 2 chapters.. However Jordi Bernet's inks are killer as well and I fell in love with the book right away what a great find.
Another well-done video! Along with Toth and Kubert, I see a LOT of Frank Robbins influence, especially in the faces, definitely the later Frank Robbins. Torpedo was probably an influential comic, especially arriving so early in the Eighties, almost anticipating the B&W indie boom. As well as the EC influence, I see a lot of Warren and DC horror influence in these as well (of course both were influenced by EC originally). There's a very Dick Tracy sort of horror to these, also, with the slow deaths and drawn out agony. By the way, that mark that looks like a lower case "i" is an upside-down exclamation mark, as the initial exclamation mark in Spanish (like the question mark) precedes the word and is upside-down. Torpedo was originally published in Spanish, I believe. The word balloons have been translated but the sound effects look original. Bernet could definitely draw hats, and you guys are spot-on saying he probably has a hat rack full of them in the studio for reference. No one in their right mind would even leave the house in the Thirties without a hat. The cliché of the Italians being the gangsters and the Irish being the cops is VERY Thirties, and mostly down to the times that the main periods of immigration happened. The Irish and the Germans came in mostly from the middle to the end of the 19th Century, as you can see from such comics as Bringing Up Father and the Katzenjammer Kids, whereas the Italians arrived slightly later, with the peak being the first ten years of the 20th Century. So the Irish and the Germans were slightly more established by the time many of the Italians got here, although in mostly blue-collar jobs, like being beat cops. Cheers, guys! Another interesting video!
I don't think Toth would've stayed long on this series anyway, but he really didn't want the guy pissing in the street in the third story. I think you can tell in the second story that he wasn't really into it, but the first one has some of his best pages. The second page is so perfect, I love the little details like the stray hairs when he lifts his hat. Jordi Bernet is fantastic, another big influence on him is Frank Robbins (I get the feeling that Johnny Hazard was a pretty popular strip with Spanish cartoonists at a time). It's pretty obvious in his earlier stuff for a german publisher, but it's still there. Especially in the way he draws women's faces and just goes wild with the inking- but that's Kubert, too.
Definitely a Frank Robbins influence in the way Bernet portrays women's faces in this book! Johnny Hazard seems like it was more well-known overseas than it was in the US.
I read in a interview somewhere that Jordi Bernet (a very Catalonian name by the way) had never visited New York at the time of drawing Torpedo, he just used photographs as reference to create the environments and backgrounds of the series.
I think the "icrack" mentioned at 13:27 might not be the letter "i" but rather an upside down exclamation point. I could definitely be wrong about that though. Either way, keep up the great work fellas. I find your channel and your work to be immensely entertaining!
One of my favourite Spanish comic book characters! Luca AKA Torpedo is a politically incorrect character, sexist, racist, bully and a murderer, a real arse, but fascinating as well!, scripts are very intelligent and well constructed, I haven't read the English versions but in the Spanish versions, the wordplay is totally mind-blowing!
I got Sanchez Abuli to sign my IDW collected edition Vol. 1, at the Beja Comics Festival in Portugal. He found it odd that someone from Portugal had an English language edition. All of the people around me had Portuguese editions from the 1980s.
Hello from Holland. Jordi Bernet is the bomb a great tradition of Spanish comic book artists.
So cool seeing this book. I was working for Catalan Communications when Torpedo was published. It was literally a three person operation in a Greenwich Village loft.
How good it is that you are helping to spread the work of Jordi Bernet, one of the most important classic comic book authors in Spain. He has a lifetime of artwork on his shoulders, not just the Torpedo series and has even worked for DC Comics at certain times. As an anecdote I will say that the comic Torpedo 1936 initially appeared serialized in the Spanish version of Creepy magazine, perhaps to lower the overall terrifying tone with the notes of black humor you commented on in the video.
I can't get over how incredibly well staged every single panel is throughout all of Torpedo. When I got to that first Bernet panel the first time I was reading through, I was floored by how beautifully cinematic it was. Felt like it was pulled straight out of Robert Siodmak's "The Killers"! And his inking in the first volume especially is just bafflingly incredible. Gahh, so inspiring! :D
And the squared panels only make them look even more like a classic Siodmak film...
I'd love to see you review Corto Maltese
Love Torpedo. I first came across it in a back issue bin at the Ohio State Fair. Around high school. Still have them. They were reprinted as single issues. I was thrilled when IDW decided to reprint the whole thing.
There is no badass as badass Luca Torelli, call him TORPEDO. Not even Alex Toth could stand it!!
Great to see Bernet featured on Kayfabe! These books are loaded with dark humor and stellar art. I think they are an excellent introduction or bridge from American crime comics to more European-style, bande desinee storytelling.
Absolute favourite. The IDW editions are great reprint volumes. Highly recommended. I recall hearing the same story; Toth was not a fan of how dark and “cynical” the stories were. Toth still, to his credit and professionalism, certainly didn’t phone it in.
I’d also kill for a fraction of Bernet’s cartooning ability too. Thank you for looking at these.
I think you guys just kicked off a new obsession for me. Everything about this is right in my wheelhouse for crime comics. Another cool video, thanks guys.
I learned of Bernet through 100 Bullets. There was an issue made out of splash pages by various artists and Jordi Bernet had the best looking one. Bought a bunch of IDW Torpedo reprints after that.
Jonah Hex was my first exposure to Bernet. Didn’t know about Torpedo. Great stuff!
Honestly you can tell the quality of an artist by how they can take a grid page layout and make it interesting.
You have no idea of how long I have hoped and waited a Torpedo video. So I bless it with an unconditional like.
Hahaha, YES!! I just bought this book a couple weeks ago. My only complaint with the book is Toth is only on the First 2 chapters.. However Jordi Bernet's inks are killer as well and I fell in love with the book right away what a great find.
I'm late to the game and just discovered Torpedo a few months ago. Brutal noir and a very cynical world.. nice to see y'all cover it!
Another well-done video! Along with Toth and Kubert, I see a LOT of Frank Robbins influence, especially in the faces, definitely the later Frank Robbins. Torpedo was probably an influential comic, especially arriving so early in the Eighties, almost anticipating the B&W indie boom.
As well as the EC influence, I see a lot of Warren and DC horror influence in these as well (of course both were influenced by EC originally). There's a very Dick Tracy sort of horror to these, also, with the slow deaths and drawn out agony.
By the way, that mark that looks like a lower case "i" is an upside-down exclamation mark, as the initial exclamation mark in Spanish (like the question mark) precedes the word and is upside-down. Torpedo was originally published in Spanish, I believe. The word balloons have been translated but the sound effects look original.
Bernet could definitely draw hats, and you guys are spot-on saying he probably has a hat rack full of them in the studio for reference. No one in their right mind would even leave the house in the Thirties without a hat.
The cliché of the Italians being the gangsters and the Irish being the cops is VERY Thirties, and mostly down to the times that the main periods of immigration happened. The Irish and the Germans came in mostly from the middle to the end of the 19th Century, as you can see from such comics as Bringing Up Father and the Katzenjammer Kids, whereas the Italians arrived slightly later, with the peak being the first ten years of the 20th Century. So the Irish and the Germans were slightly more established by the time many of the Italians got here, although in mostly blue-collar jobs, like being beat cops.
Cheers, guys! Another interesting video!
I love the mix of nostalgia novelty and quality (Id file this under quality)
When the story flipped to Bernet I just KNEW I had to have this.
I don't think Toth would've stayed long on this series anyway, but he really didn't want the guy pissing in the street in the third story. I think you can tell in the second story that he wasn't really into it, but the first one has some of his best pages. The second page is so perfect, I love the little details like the stray hairs when he lifts his hat.
Jordi Bernet is fantastic, another big influence on him is Frank Robbins (I get the feeling that Johnny Hazard was a pretty popular strip with Spanish cartoonists at a time). It's pretty obvious in his earlier stuff for a german publisher, but it's still there. Especially in the way he draws women's faces and just goes wild with the inking- but that's Kubert, too.
Definitely a Frank Robbins influence in the way Bernet portrays women's faces in this book! Johnny Hazard seems like it was more well-known overseas than it was in the US.
I read in a interview somewhere that Jordi Bernet (a very Catalonian name by the way) had never visited New York at the time of drawing Torpedo, he just used photographs as reference to create the environments and backgrounds of the series.
Jordi Bernet is great. One of the greatest I´d say.
Thrilled you got around to the brilliant Bernet! If you haven't already check out his horror/noir serial "Kraken".
I think the "icrack" mentioned at 13:27 might not be the letter "i" but rather an upside down exclamation point. I could definitely be wrong about that though. Either way, keep up the great work fellas. I find your channel and your work to be immensely entertaining!
I recommend Jonah Hex back in 2006, 2007. Bernet’s art is amazing on this series
Well... Abuli... another STRONG contender for "the luckiest man in comics"...
"¡" may look like an "i" but the spanish origin of the comic makes it an inverted exclamation mark (! ¡)
One of my favourite Spanish comic book characters! Luca AKA Torpedo is a politically incorrect character, sexist, racist, bully and a murderer, a real arse, but fascinating as well!, scripts are very intelligent and well constructed, I haven't read the English versions but in the Spanish versions, the wordplay is totally mind-blowing!
I see a lot of Steve Dillion in Bernet’s art. Great video
"That fat guy hot dog" LOL
this is a cool video i never heard of this comicbook thanks for sharing with all your newer videos this year so far keep it up
I got Sanchez Abuli to sign my IDW collected edition Vol. 1, at the Beja Comics Festival in Portugal. He found it odd that someone from Portugal had an English language edition. All of the people around me had Portuguese editions from the 1980s.
¡¡¡Great stuff!!!
Hi guys. New subscriber here. Love your stuff. How about covering Nick Drnaso's "Sabrina," and Jules Feiffer's "Kill My Mother" trilogy?
What do you guys think about Blacksad
Jim, page 60 full moon.
Brotherman comics/ series- would be into you guys doing an episode on those books- th-cam.com/video/BogLEJTGWHk/w-d-xo.html