Targitt #2
Published and © by Atlas (Seaboard), June 1975
Title: “A Crude Awakening”
Synopsis: Targitt heads to Alaska to foil a plot by an American corporation and Third-World powers to manipulate world oil prices.
Writers: Gabriel Levy and Ric Meyers
Artist: Howard Nostrand
Review: Much as with the series’ debut (see review), Targitt #2 owes its limited success to the above-average visual storytelling of 1950s comics-artist Howard Nostrand. The script is slightly better this time out, but still offers little in the way of originality or characterization. Targitt’s adoption of a superhero-style costume feels driven by an editorial mandate to goose sales – for all the good such changes would ultimately do for the entire fascinating-but-flawed line of Atlas (Seaboard) titles (see reviews). And Nostrand’s art – which, again, offers fantastic storytelling – is rendered in a cartoony style no longer in vogue in the 1970s.
Grade: B
Cool factor: Howard Nostrand work continues to be a treat (though perhaps not the right fit for this material).
Not-so-cool factor: The gun violence is pretty over the top for a Code-approved book.
Notable: Indicia lists publication month as April.
Character quotable: “What’s the rush, boys? … ’Cause you’re just in time for breakfast! EAT LEAD!” – John Targitt, serving it hot
Editor’s note: This review was written Dec. 5, 2022.
