Issue Data
- Indicia / Colophon Publisher:St. John Publishing Company
- Printer:Printed in the U.S.A.
Series Data
- Color: color cover; black and white interior
- Dimensions: digest size
- Binding: squarebound
- Publishing Format: one-shot
- Publication Type: book
Indexer Notes
This digest-format early graphic novel is packaged like a paperback book rather than a comic book. There are no advertisements; the back cover describes the characters in the book; the inside covers are blank; the first interior page is a title page and the second a copyright statement page as in a typical book.
Historian Martin O'Hearn calls it the the "First (or Second) Modern Graphic Novel", but it depends on the definitions of "modern" and "graphic novel" one is using. (It is unknown whether this or Mansion of Evil (Gold Medal Books, 1950 Series) was released first)
Historian Hal Johnson calls it the "First American Graphic Novel", and his reasoning (and the earlier candidates he rejected) can be seen here:https://haljohnsonbooks.substack.com/p/what-is-the-first-american-graphic
It Rhymes with Lust
comic story / 126 pages
| Script: | Arnold Drake (under joint nameDrake Waller) Leslie Waller (under joint nameDrake Waller) |
| Pencils: | Matt Baker (credited) |
| Inks: | Ray Osrin (credited) |
| Letters: | ? |
- Genre:crime
- Synopsis:
- Hal Weber, one-time crusading journalist, is summoned to Copper City by his old flame Rust after the death of her husband, mining magnate and political heavyweight Arthur "Buck" Masson. As editor of The Express, a newspaper with an anti-Masson stance secretly owned by Rust, Hal is drawn back to her even as he falls for her stepdaughter Audrey. The situation in Copper City soon literally becomes explosive, with Hal having to choose between Rust and Audrey, the bottle and his conscience, safety and the truth.
inGwandanaland Comics (Gwandanaland Comics, 2016 series) #1388 - It Rhymes With Lust- inThe Comics Journal (Fantagraphics, 1977 series) #277 (July 2006) [landscape format]
- inIt Rhymes with Lust (Dark Horse, 2007 series) (March 2007)
- inThe Noir of Matt Baker (Boardman Books, 2016 series) #1 - It Rhymes With Lust Revisited (2016)
Reprints (4)
[no title indexed]
character profile / 1 page
- First Line of Dialogue or Text:Copper City!... Corrupt crossroads of power and treachery, where voluptuous Rust Masson ruled the roost.
Indexer Notes
Back cover; small portraits and brief descriptions of 5 main characters.
- ["She was greedy, heartless and calculating. She knew what she wanted and was ready to sacrifice anything to get it."]
- [no title indexed]
- [title page]
- [copyright statement page]
- It Rhymes with Lust
- [no title indexed]
- ["Copper City!... Corrupt crossroads of power and treachery, where voluptuous Rust Masson ruled the roost."]
- Katy Hayhurst
- Dan Kurdilla
- Clint Maxwell
- Keith Alan Morgan
- Mike Nielsen
- Steven Samuels
- Ramon Schenk
- Dan Stevenson
- Jim Van Dore
