Bravo for Adventure Celebrates the Romance of Early Aviation in Graphic Novel Style
By Mark Rhodes
By the 1970s, the great comic artist, Alex Toth, (who was much revered for his striking, crisp work on comics such as The Green Lantern and especially in animation where his work for cartoons such as The Super Friends and Space Ghost made him a pop culture hero for Gen X) became disillusioned by the dark turn that mainstream comics had taken not to mention tiring of the constant interference of editors. He also realized that the opportunities for him to continue to do the kind of work that had become his trademark style would likely diminish. The result of this was that Toth looked to Europe, which had an established tradition of taking comics more seriously publishing “graphic albums” with characters who combined super heroic qualities along with psychological complexity. The result of this was Bravo For Adventure reprinted by IDW Publishing (www.idwpublishing.com) as part of their Great American Comics Series. Bravo was a very deliberate look back to a simpler time in comic storytelling featuring a dashing aviator hero improbably named Jesse Bravo who was orphaned in his teens but was a talented flyer working his way from Alaska to the Navy to Hollywood where his aviation skills and uncanny resemblance to Errol Flynn got him notice as a stunt pilot, air circus performer and charter pilot. He met and developed a rapport with Flynn and worked as an aviator in the movies. This kind of hero, particularly in the anti-hero rich 1970s, was a very obvious throwback to the kind of uncomplicated, adventure driven characters that Toth appreciated as a young man such as Steve Canyon. The plotting of Bravo For Adventure is melodramatic noirish stuff that would not be out of place in an early aviation serial such as The Grey Ghost or The Red Ace. Jesse Bravo has ups and downs financially, romantically, mechanically, and so on. This is fairly boilerplate stuff, but Toth’s art elevates the storytelling to something memorable. Toth is the rare comic artist whose work in black and white is superior to his work in color, mainly due to his mastery of light, dark, and shadow, which elevates the story, giving it a narrative impact beyond the story lines.The back-story of Bravo is convoluted. The original series didn’t make it into print due to the publisher’s poor sales and was published here and there by minor comic publishers. This edition is a nice reminder and rediscovery of Toth’s masterful work as well as tonic for fans of aviation in popular culture.
