Adam-12 #2

In my review yesterday of Emergency! #1, I promised a surprise pick today. Well, I kept my word. It's Adam-12 #2 from Gold Key Comics. 

Adam-12 was a half-hour police procedural that ran on NBC from 1968-1975. A spin-off of the cult classic series, Dragnet, this show followed officers Malloy and Reed as they served the people of L.A.'s Rampart District in their patrol car, #012.

It's interesting to note that while this comic book series was produced by the Gold Key/Whitman conglomerate, sister series Emergency! was produced by Charlton Comics. I would have thought that having both series produced by Jack Webb's Mark VII productions, all of the subsequent comics would also be by the same publisher. However, Webb was known to be a stickler for quality and he must not have been happy with the results of the Adam-12 book. Maybe that's why it's not until 1976 before an Emergency! comic would hit newsstands. Jack Webb was looking for an adequate replacement from Gold Key/Whitman to make comic book versions of his other property.

In my opinion, the Adam-12 book was actually the superior offering of the two franchise adaptations. The artwork was much more cleaner and the likenesses of actors Martin Milner and Kent McCord were pretty good. Well, except for that one panel in which McCord's character Reed appears to be taking a tumble off a city roof. In that frame, Kent McCord looks more like Fred Gwynne of Car 54...Where of You? fame. Alas, the image on the cover of this issue is not the one I am referring to.

There are 2 stories in this issue. The first story was the much better of the pair. It involves the officers being assigned to protect a foreign dignitary from an assassin until federal agents can replace them. I've only seen like 2 episodes of the show. But the formula seemed on par. The only real flaw with that first tale was that the reason why international officials in the Los Angeles area were being targeted wasn't explained. I know that a terrorist group is involved. I just don't know what their motive was. Is it global warming? Imperialism? Wage Inequity? I couldn't tell you.

Case #2 involves an occupant who refuses to leave his tenement home, a shady landlord, a gas station robbery, some really loud classical music, and a mysterious female news reporter. You might not think these characters and events are even related. But they are.

I patted myself on the back as I solved a couple of the mysteries swirling around in this crime story. Though there was a red herring or two that kept me on my toes. Still, I wasn't quite as satisfied with the back-up feature as the overall plot was a little clunky.

I'm guessing Gold Key/Whitman didn't give a fig about their first class postal status as there isn't a prose story included in this issue. 

Until a week or so ago, I didn't even know that such a comic book adaptation existed. But you can be sure that when I found this copy, I used my signature exclamation of 'Mine!' while placing it in my pull pile. I'd love to praise the artists and writers of this issue. But I can't as there's no such credits given. That's actually not all that rare even though by the mid-70s comic book workers were beginning to gain respectability again after the whole 1950s comics scare debacle.

I thought Adam-12 #2 was better than Emergency! #1 not because I liked the cop show better. Like I said earlier: I've only watched a couple of Adam-12 episodes. What made me more of a fan of this comic was due to the use of both illustrated and photographic images from the TV show on the cover, plots that were more similar to the formula of the series and cleaner artwork. 

Maybe my extensive knowledge about Emergency! made me more judgmental of it's technical merits and professional jargon. For all I know, Malloy and Reed don't really act or sound like they do on the show as they are portrayed in this book. So maybe ignorance is bliss in the case of Adam-12 the comic book. Regardless of that, I think this was a entertaining read that will fit nicely in my collection of TV and Movie comic book adaptations. 

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.