In the Summer of 1958 Jack Cole, syndicate cartoonist, playboy gag artist, comic book pioneer, husband and friend to many, was discovered in his car by three local boys with a severe self inflicted head wound. An hour later at the hospital, he would be announced dead. An earlier phone call in the day, and two letters he wrote (one to Hugh Heffner, and the other to his wife) leave no doubt that Cole had chosen to take his own life. The reasons for this choice, to this day, are still only known to one person, his widow. Cole, has been remembered by comic history as a pioneer, both for his creation of Plastic Man, and his Playboy illustrations. In recognition of his accomplishments he has been recognized in the Eisner Hall of Fame. While at the surface, this seems like a sad end to an ordinary life, in reality, like his most famous creation, Cole’s life was by far less than ordinary.
Cole was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania and grew up in a large family with five other siblings. With a family of this size, money was always tight. To follow his dream, Cole would secretly save what money he could, and spend it on mail order lessons. In between waiting for these packages he would ape the gags and strips that he would find in the local paper. Cole’s dedication to practicing his art resulted in steady improvement. This is not the only time that Cole would show his ability to be intensely determined in pursuing his goals.
At the age of 17, wanting to see the Olympics, but having no way to get to L.A., he would convince his parents to let him bike from New Castle, PA to California. Once getting there, he found that he didn’t have enough money for admission to any of the events. Despite the set back, Cole never regretted this trip, and eventually published this story in Boy’s Life. This would be his first published work.
Once Cole was with done school, he continued to work on his goal of becoming a comic artist. By day he would work in a can factory, and by night he would draw and submit his work to various publishers/studios. Eventually he would find himself living in Greenwhich Village, working full time at what could best be described as a comic factory. During this period in comic history, comic books were often nothing more then a collection of newspaper comic strips printed in a magazine format. When publishers couldn’t find strips to reprint, they’d hire ‘factories’ to make cheap knock-offs of the popular panel strips of the era. Cole’s long days of copying his favourite strips from his local papers paid off for him, as he easily excelled at the job. While not entirely excited by this work, Cole was making a modest living. This would change in 1938 however, when a book called Action Comics was released. The Golden Age of comics had arrived, and it forever changed how comics were viewed.
All of a sudden there was a demand for original stories and people wearing bright colorful costumes. For artists like Cole, who were desperately seeking a creative outlet, and a desire not to be confined by ‘the traditional’ comic strip reprint book, this change was truly a breath of fresh air. After doing a few traditional hero books, Cole soon found himself working on the anthology book called Police Comics. It is here that he would introduced a character that would become his lasting mark on comicdom: Plastic Man.
With its disregard for many of the story telling conventions of the period, Plastic Man found itself becoming the lead feature in Police Comics. Plastic Man was one of the first heroes who was not confined to the typical human body; he could stretch, change shapes, and bring in elements of abstract and surrealist art, all while not disrupting the narrative. At the peak of the book’s popularity, Cole was making a page rate of $35 ($305 in 2006 dollars), and received a $2,500 ($21,805 in 2006 dollars) bonus if an issue sold over 200,000 copies. Working on a Plastic Man solo book, and a Plastic Man lead story in Police Comics, Cole was making more money they he ever imagined. No longer was he struggling to make ends meet, and instead, he found himself buying various properties, including a fourteen room mansion. He had come a long way from his humble beginings in New Castle. Despite this success, Cole was starting to feel artistic burnout. Each month, he was struggling more and more with the deadlines. It was becoming clear to Cole that it was time to move on.
As Cole’s interest waned, the interest of Dr. Wertham and The Senate rose. After Wertham and The Senate were done with comics, even if Cole had wanted to continue working, it would be virtually impossible to find a job that paid the money he had grown accustomed to. Furthermore, Cole found his name and work dragged through the mud during the hearings, as a short story he did in True Crime Comics became one of the centre pieces of the trials. The short story written and drawn by Cole, entitled, “Murder, Morphine and Me”, graphically depicted a woman having a needle placed in her eye, a central image used in the hearings. While it was not solely his work that caused the hearings to occur, it became one of the faces of the problem. Cole would never work in the traditional comic book market again. Even if he did, he would no longer find the freedom that he had grown accustomed to.
In the final eight years of his life, Cole, under the pen name of Jake, would find work with a new men’s magazine called Playboy. His single panel gags proved so popular, that ‘Jake’ was the first permanent artist for Playboy, and would produce at least one gag panel per issue for the remainder of his life. The style that Cole used here was a departure from his previous comic work. In fact, Hugh Heffner, a fan of Jack Cole’s Plastic Man, did not believe that this was the same man he had working for him. Cole’s work for Playboy would later be reprinted as a set of bar napkins, and became the second piece of merchandise produced by Playboy (the first being a set of cufflinks with the familiar bunny logo). It was also during this later period of his career that he would show a third artistic style.
Once again, using his birth name of Jack Cole, Cole started producing his own three panel newspaper comic strip, entitled Betsy and Me. By the time of his death, Betsy and Me, was syndicated in 50 papers nationwide and was slowly, steadily finding an audience. Jack had fulfilled a childhood dream.
Then it all ended.
Cole had a very full life, but I can’t help but wonder how else he could have influenced the comic art world if he had lived another fifty, ten or even five years. How would Cole have responded to the love that people show towards his work and creations today? How would he have reacted to being entered in the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1991, and later the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 1999? Would he have been inspired by Eisner, and done an original graphic novel about his 1932 bike ride? How would he have reacted to the Silver Age? Would he have participated in it? Would he be angry at Marvel for the common likeness shared between Mr. Fantastic and Plastic Man?
Much like the reasons that led Jack Cole to take his own life, we will never have answers to these questions. In place of these answers we are left a full body of work, by a man who lived a short life.
If your interested further, please check out the excellent biography of Jack Cole, entitled “Jack Cole and Plastic Man” by Art Spiegelman and Chip Kidd.