X-9: SECRET AGENT CORRIGAN

One of the best lines — and truest — in IDW’s X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan (288 10x11-inch pages, b/w; $49.99) as drawn by Al Williamson and written by Archie Goodwin is in the Introduction by Mark Schultz, himself an artist of no mean talent. Writing about his friend Williamson’s surpassing draftsmanship, Schultz calls it “graphic lyricism,” saying also that Williamson is “recognized as perhaps the pre-eminent scion and practitioner” of Alex Raymond’s manner of drawing. No surprise, as Schultz says: while just a boy, Williamson had taught himself to draw by imitating Raymond’s style. Here in this volume, however, we can see that Williamson not only equals his master’s achievement, he often transcends it. The book reprints Corrigan from January 30, 1967, when Williamson and Goodwin took over the classic adventure strip, through August 30, 1969, in the first volume of what IDW promises to be a complete compilation of one of the most remarkable and satisfying collaborations in comics history.

Schultz’s Introduction provides an affectionate and respectful review of Williamson’s career in comic strips, with a short nod to his comic book endeavors, too (the National Cartoonists Society gave him its division award as Best Comic Book Cartoonist in 1967 for his work the previous year in a series of Flash Gordon comics), and Bruce Canwell, associate editor of IDW’s Library of American Comics, supplies a history of Secret Agent X-9 in an afterword, calling the roll of all those who had drawn the strip since its debut on January 22, 1934.

Canwell’s is an impressively workmanlike job on a strip history with an impressive roster of creative talent, and his text is nicely illustrated with samples of the work from many of the artists who participated in that long history. But it’s Schultz who supplies the coda for the volume and for the strip and its creators: “They gave the dying newspaper adventure strips one last blaze of glory. Between Williamson’s remarkable drawing skills, his ability to create an amazing illusion of action and movement panel to panel, his elegant black-and-white design, and Goodwin’s deftly constructed narratives and tight, efficient dialogue, their run on the renamed Secret Agent Corrigan remains one last stand-out achievement in that genre. ... They loved what they created, and it shows.”

“One last blaze of glory” — another true statement at the conclusion of Schultz’s bundle of truths about Williamson and Goodwin. (You can find an exhaustive examination of how Corrigan at the hands of this duo is superior in the Usual Place, Rants & Raves, Opus 269.)