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duparker's review against another edition
3.0
I think this would be a much better book to parse out and review over a longer period than an afternoon. It's just a lot of repetition, which makes sense as it was originally comic strips. It's funny how in each storyline the female character always loses her clothes early on. Probably not realistic for real life.
dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
When a pilot is shot down over China, he's brainwashed as the perfect killer. The United States government rescues him but, discovering they can't undo the brainwashing, finish the job and train him as a secret agent for the United States government as Cannon!
I'm a Wally Wood fan from way back and this was on my radar for years before I bought it. Produced for a newspaper for oversees servicemen, Cannon is the ultimate in testosterone comics. It's all fighting, guns, planes, and naked women.
Wally Wood writes, pencils, and inked the strip. I don't see anything to indicate he didn't also letter it. I have a feeling this was a blast for Wood to draw. I'm not exaggerating to say you can't go three pages without seeing a bare breast or ass and most of the pages that don't have nudity will have at least one gun or plane or fight scene on them.
The stories are James Bond type affairs with masterminds, schemes, double dealing, and sex, although the women in Cannon don't have sex pun names other than Madame Toy. Cannon is a combination of James Bond, Nick Fury, and any number of other spy characters, a bad ass that can handle any situation. I can see why servicemen would eat this shit up.
While I wouldn't quite put it in the same league of Atom Bomb, this was clearly a labor of love, be it a nubile naked woman, a jet, or a down and dirty fist fight. Wood uses stark blacks, shapely female forms, and knowledge of military craft and hardware to put together a fun and filthy masterwork.
Cannon - Wally Wood never met a plane, firearm, or naked woman he didn't like. Four out of five bullets.
I'm a Wally Wood fan from way back and this was on my radar for years before I bought it. Produced for a newspaper for oversees servicemen, Cannon is the ultimate in testosterone comics. It's all fighting, guns, planes, and naked women.
Wally Wood writes, pencils, and inked the strip. I don't see anything to indicate he didn't also letter it. I have a feeling this was a blast for Wood to draw. I'm not exaggerating to say you can't go three pages without seeing a bare breast or ass and most of the pages that don't have nudity will have at least one gun or plane or fight scene on them.
The stories are James Bond type affairs with masterminds, schemes, double dealing, and sex, although the women in Cannon don't have sex pun names other than Madame Toy. Cannon is a combination of James Bond, Nick Fury, and any number of other spy characters, a bad ass that can handle any situation. I can see why servicemen would eat this shit up.
While I wouldn't quite put it in the same league of Atom Bomb, this was clearly a labor of love, be it a nubile naked woman, a jet, or a down and dirty fist fight. Wood uses stark blacks, shapely female forms, and knowledge of military craft and hardware to put together a fun and filthy masterwork.
Cannon - Wally Wood never met a plane, firearm, or naked woman he didn't like. Four out of five bullets.
wolfdreamer's review against another edition
2.0
One: I can't tell if this strip was intended as a parody. Two: there is a naked woman on every page. Three: a woman is being slapped, shot, kicked, punched at least every other page. Four: I've seen worse. Five: The story never rises to the level that makes any of the above issues redeemable. It's old school trash, and the only reason it received two stars is because I think that was the point.
philipf's review against another edition
3.0
Great art in this collection of comic strips created for a newspaper distributed to overseas servicemen. How could the art not be great? It’s by Wallace Wood. (I’ve heard he didn’t like to be called Wally.)
Since it wasn’t going to appear in a family newspaper, there is quite a bit of violence & nudity in the strips. That wouldn’t bother me if the excuse for so much of the nudity weren’t rape or the threat of rape. About a third of the way through the book, the sexual violence stops. If it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have finished the book. I have dropped my review by a star for what is there. I know the 60s-70s were a different time, but it’s still awful to encounter such blatant examples of how different.
Since it wasn’t going to appear in a family newspaper, there is quite a bit of violence & nudity in the strips. That wouldn’t bother me if the excuse for so much of the nudity weren’t rape or the threat of rape. About a third of the way through the book, the sexual violence stops. If it hadn’t, I wouldn’t have finished the book. I have dropped my review by a star for what is there. I know the 60s-70s were a different time, but it’s still awful to encounter such blatant examples of how different.
runningbeard's review against another edition
4.0
If you can imagine Cannon as a film co-directed by Sam Peckinpah and Russ Meyer, you'll probably have a good idea what this contains. Wally Wood is a legend, and though this is trashy and sexist, it's still hilariously over-the-top (intentionally so) and incredibly well drawn.
doowopapocalypse's review against another edition
2.0
Pros: Wallace Wood is an exceptional artist. Cons: Everything else. Sexism, Racism, Sexual Violence...
No thanks.
No thanks.
unsquare's review against another edition
3.0
This book is definitely a relic of its time. Wood liked to write sexy action comics for servicemen, so these stories originated in comics sent to soldiers. Wood had a great art style, all bullet-headed agents and voluptuous, leggy women. He had a talent for drawing both action scenes and cheesecake pinups, and he was also especially good and looks of existential horror, which pop up once or twice in this volume.
One of the tropes of this series is that all the women are beautiful and none of them keep on their clothes. A handful of the female characters (heroes and villains both) are seemingly always nude or only occasionally dressed in see-through clothing. When given the opportunity to disrobe, they do, and if they need to escape a villain’s clutches in the altogether, they make the best of it.
This would all be a bunch of absurd, sexploitational fun if not for the threats of rape and casual misogyny that crop up throughout. I liked the art and adventure enough that the occasional sour note didn’t ruin the book for me, but my rating definitely comes with a big asterisk.
One of the tropes of this series is that all the women are beautiful and none of them keep on their clothes. A handful of the female characters (heroes and villains both) are seemingly always nude or only occasionally dressed in see-through clothing. When given the opportunity to disrobe, they do, and if they need to escape a villain’s clutches in the altogether, they make the best of it.
This would all be a bunch of absurd, sexploitational fun if not for the threats of rape and casual misogyny that crop up throughout. I liked the art and adventure enough that the occasional sour note didn’t ruin the book for me, but my rating definitely comes with a big asterisk.
jameseckman's review
3.0
Wallace Wood rampant, sex, violence and stereotypes. Shades of Terry and the Pirates! Nothing's too good for our boys overseas, including a totally adult comic strip.
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