Comments on: Jack Staff: Everything Used to Be Black and White

By: How Much Does Schedule Matter to an Ongoing Comic? Jack Staff News and Opinion » Comics Worth Reading

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:58:15 +0000

[...] plugging the four collections available so far for the title (start with Everything Used to Be Black and White), and announcing that the next book, Old Beginnings, New Endings, will reprint the six issues he [...]

By: Jack Staff Fails at Monthly Goal » Comics Worth Reading

Jack Staff Fails at Monthly Goal » Comics Worth Reading — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:00:09 +0000

[...] in October, Image announced that Paul Grist’s Jack Staff series would be going monthly starting January 2008. The Jack Staff Special would appear January [...]

By: Giving up on Grist » Comics Worth Reading

Giving up on Grist » Comics Worth Reading — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:27:00 +0000

[...] talk about Paul Grist. I used to love his work, but the newer books aren’t as entertaining to me. They certainly aren’t worth the [...]

By: *Superhero Comics Worth Reading » Comics Worth Reading

*Superhero Comics Worth Reading » Comics Worth Reading — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 23:59:12 +0000

[...] Jack Staff: Everything Used to Be Black and White [...]

By: Comics Worth Reading

Comics Worth Reading — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 00:11:00 +0000

[...] For more Grist, try his other series, Jack Staff. He illustrated Phil Elliott’s stories in the Slave Labor graphic novella Absent Friends and contributed to Bizarro World, an anthology with twisted takes on DC superheroes in which Grist writes a Batman story and illustrates a Flash story written by Eddie Campbell. [...]

By: Matthew Craig

Matthew Craig — Sat, 20 May 2006 18:27:14 +0000

Brussels being the home/captial of the European Union, it plays off the often ambiguous, often conflicted feelings that some Brits have towards the whole European Project to have the iconic British superhero cooked up in a laboratory outside the UK. I mean, how can he be Captain Britain if he's got "Made In Belgium" tattooed on his Richard Harris? He's not the quintessential British superhero: he's an entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, somewhere between Bucks Fizz and Samantha Janus. //\Oo/\\

By: Comics Worth Reading

Comics Worth Reading — Sat, 20 May 2006 17:59:46 +0000

[...] Grist makes the point in the afterword that superheroes, especially red-, white-, and blue- costumed ones, need color, but I never thought of Jack Staff as a traditional superhero comic. (In my review of the previous collection, I praise the black-and-white art as best-suited to Grist’s style.) Along with the color seems to have come more direct punch-em-up stories, which I found a little disappointing. [...]

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sat, 20 May 2006 17:29:23 +0000

On the bright side, the as-yet-uncollected issues #6-10 seem to be closer in style to the original series. Or maybe it’s just jumping around enough to confuse and mislead me. :)

I don’t get the Brussels joke… ?

By: Matthew Craig

Matthew Craig — Sat, 20 May 2006 17:16:05 +0000

Cheers, Johanna. Yeah, I’ve got SOLDIERS on the pile next to me, and I keep avoiding it, for some reason.

Re: the article,

If I’d written it a year later – i.e., last year – I would have had to confront Millar’s concept for Ultimate Captain Britain, who was bioengineered in a laboratory in…wait for it…Brussels.

People underestimate Mark Millar sometimes.

//\Oo/\\

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sat, 20 May 2006 16:10:30 +0000

Interesting article, Matthew, thanks for the link. I think you and I have similar opinions about the second trade.

By: Matthew Craig

Matthew Craig — Sat, 20 May 2006 15:05:34 +0000

I’ve never found the in-jokes to get in the way or even call attention to themselves.

I know all these characters – well, the TV series they are derived from – and it’s never jarring. Unlike certain lists of names that appear in movies/novels I could mention.

Incidentally, Sandford and Son’s progenitor, STEPTOE and Son, were tapped for Jack Staff.

I’ve long had a bee in my bonnet about Patriot Heroes. I’m finally going to put my money where my mouth is, this summer. Grist’s book will be a hard act to follow. Jack Staff easily makes my Top Ten Superhero Books (your tallest shortarse metaphor may vary).

…I’m not sure I enjoyed the first trade from the colour series as much, though….Hmm…

//\Oo/\\