Rick Geary is an acclaimed cartoonist, illustrator and author who has written and illustrated some four dozen books and comics. He has won both an Inkpot and Eisner award, as well as two awards from the National Cartoonist Society. Geary was a longtime contributor to National Lampoon, and his work has appeared in the San Diego Reader, Los Angeles Times and the New York Times Book Review, as well as MAD magazine, Spy, Rolling Stone, Heavy Metal and even The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Geary has worked for the Marvel, DC Comics, and Dark Horse Comics, and in the early 1990s, he inked three titles in the popular Classics Illustrated series. Geary may be best known for A Treasury of Victorian Murder, a historical series published between 1987 and 2007. Among fans of Louise Brooks, Geary is much admired for his entertaining stand-alone, Louise Brooks, Detective (NBM / ComicsLit, 2015). More about Geary can be found on his Wikipedia page and on his website at www.rickgeary.com.
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Louise Brooks Detective book cover |
Louise Brooks Detective title page |
Louise Brooks Detective introduction |
Louise Brooks Detective interior page |
Like Louise Brooks, Geary grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where he contributed to the city’s weekly papers. In Louise Brooks: Detective, Geary brings an insider perspective to this fictional take on the actress and the time she spent in Wichita in the early 1940s. His 80-page graphic novel spins a story about Brooks’ return home where she becomes intrigued by a murder involving a new friend’s shady beau, as well as a mysterious, reclusive author. Not before she puts herself in danger does she discover the solution to the crime even the police fail to grasp! Despite it being fiction, Geary exhibits a true appreciation for Brooks, who has described as “one of the great images of the 20th century, one of the great faces.” Publisher’s Weekly called Louise Brooks: Detective “A fun, twisty mystery for both film buffs and crime fiction lovers.” While Library Journal called it, “quite enjoyable and believable”. (Click HERE to purchase a copy on amazon.)
In a 2015 interview with CBR (Comics Book Review), Geary stated “I had considered for some time doing a murder mystery set in Kansas in the 1930s. I envisioned it as a kind of tribute to that part of the state where I grew up: the city of Wichita, and the tiny town of Burden, where my mother was born. I don’t know where it came from, but the idea hit me to make Louise Brooks the heroine and detective. This was not as outrageous as it might as first seem, since Louise came from this corner of the state too (both her parents were born in Burden) and she retreated to Wichita for about two years after her show business career collapsed in the late 30s. So this book is an instance of several different strands coming together…. I had for some time been aware of her as an image, but it was not till the early ’80s that I learned that she was a relative of mine. She and my mother were second cousins, and both hailed from the same area of southeastern Kansas. After that, I read up on her life and sought out her films.”
I first became aware of Geary and his connection to Brooks through Barry Paris and his 1989 biography of the actress. Geary’s name appears in the book’s acknowledgments… and that’s a section I always read. However, when I put on an event with Paris in 2000 for the reissue of his Brooks biography, I was wowed when Paris not only signed books but also rubber stamped them using a stamp designed by Geary! (see image right) I asked Paris what he had, and he told me about the cartoonist — who was not only a childhood friend but also a relation of Brooks! [I searched for and found a copy of the Geary rubber stamp — and make use of it not only when I sign books but also to embellish letters and packages sent through the mail.]
Since then, I’ve been in touch with Geary — on and off — for a number of years. I have read a couple of his books, and back in 2009, I reviewed his cinematic graphic novel, Famous Players, the Mysterious Death of William Desmond Taylor (NBM Publishing) for examiner.com. Just after Louise Brooks: Detective was released in 2015, Geary agreed to an interview which was published on the Huffington Post. Here is an excerpt from the piece I wrote at the time.
Thomas Gladysz: Your ongoing multi-volume true crime series, “A Treasury of Murder”, is a great achievement in comic art. You done a number that center on historic mysteries, and few of which focus on old Hollywood. How did you come to write one about Louise Brooks?
Rick Geary: After about 25 years of producing true murder books, my publisher Terry Nantier of NBM Publishing, suggested I do a work of fiction. I had long had an idea in my head for a murder mystery set in Kansas in the 1930s, so from there I made the leap of casting Louise Brooks as the detective. It seemed just outrageous enough to work.
Thomas Gladysz: In Louise Brooks: Detective, you take a little documented time in the actress’ life — after she quits Hollywood and returned home — and imagine her getting involved in a murder. Was there room then in Brooks’ real life story to “make something up”?
Rick Geary: By fortuitous coincidence, my idea of setting the story in Kansas fit in with Louise’s return there in 1940, after her Hollywood career had dissolved away. She was definitely at loose ends and, it would seem, ripe for any new kind of adventure.
Thomas Gladysz: I’ve heard that you’re related to Louise Brooks? Is it true?
Rick Geary: Yes, Louise was my mother’s second cousin, and they both hailed from the same area of southeastern Kansas. My mom’s maiden name was Brooks and it’s also my middle name.
Thomas Gladysz: We’ve also heard that you are friends with Barry Paris, who wrote the biography of actress published in 1989.
Rick Geary: Yes, Barry and I go back a long way. We’re both from Wichita, and we’ve worked on various projects together since our high school days.
Thomas Gladysz: When and how did you first become aware of Brooks as an actress and silent film star?
Rick Geary: I had been dimly aware of her as an image and icon, but knew very little about her until the early 1980s. That’s when I first found out that we were related. I read her memoir Lulu in Hollywood and began to seek out her movies and find as much information on her as I could.
Thomas Gladysz: There is an impressive amount of detail, both in the text and in the images, which suggests you did your research. What did you do to prepare?
Rick Geary: I envisioned the book as a kind of tribute to Wichita and the little town of Burden, where both my mother’s and Louise’s branches of the Brooks family converged. This involved many trips there and many photos taken. Luckily the buildings and other locations in both towns are still there.
Thomas Gladysz: For example, you mention the philosopher Schopenhauer – a favorite of Brooks, her affair with Charlie Chaplin, that she scrubbed floors at home as a kind of repentance after quitting Hollywood, and, as well, the name of the building in which she opened a dance studio in Wichita. Your attention to detail is remarkable.
Rick Geary: I put to use many of the biographical details I had learned over the years, from Barry’s biography and other sources, to fill in the details of this period in her life. I’ve always loved it that she was such a voracious reader.
Thomas Gladysz: There is the matter of Brooks’ hair. She is famous for her bobbed hair — yet you chose to draw it a bit longer. Why so?
Rick Geary: I based her look on photos I had seen of her during this period in her life. The bangs were still there, but her hair had grown to shoulder-length.
Thomas Gladysz: The crime at the center of the story seems quite real — like it could have happened. It’s complex, and believable. Was it based on an actual event?
Rick Geary: No, the crime is pretty much all made up.
Thomas Gladysz: What about the writer Thurgood Ellis, a key character in the story. Was he real?
Rick Geary: Thurgood Ellis wasn’t real, but I based him on the kind of writer, a la J.D. Salinger, who develops a dedicated following with groundbreaking work and then vanishes from the cultural landscape.
Thomas Gladysz: There have been a handful of comic strips and graphic novels based on Brooks, going back all the way to the late 1920’s. I am thinking of Dixie Dugan, which ran for decades in American newspapers, as well as Valentina — the long-running Italian erotic comix by Guido Crepax that appeared in Heavy Metal magazine. There are other European works based on Brooks by Floc’h, Hugo Pratt, Marion Mousse and others. Kim Deitch has also drawn her. Brooks even appears in Dr. Who comic, and inspired a character in the Sandman series. Why do you think so many artists have drawn Brooks?
Rick Geary: I remember the Dixie Dugan strip, which ran in the Wichita paper for years. There’s something about the eternal image of Louise Brooks that captures the imagination of artists worldwide.
Thomas Gladysz: Were you aware of these earlier efforts? How does your work fit into theirs?
Rick Geary: I’ve been vaguely aware of those European versions of Louise, but I was never a regular follower. I’m not sure if my work fits in with theirs at all.
Thomas Gladysz: Louise Brooks makes a great detective. And the final page suggests she might even write a mystery novel. Any chance she will return in your work?
Rick Geary: My hope is that she will return in a second volume someday.
# # #
Years ago, back when the Louise Brooks Society had a Facebook page, Rick Geary posted portrait of Louise Brooks which I have seen no where else. That image kind of disappeared when the trademark troll had the page taken down. I am posting it here. (see above right) And here below is another cool connection, a time lapse video of Geary drawing a portrait of his famous relation.
| Time Lapse of Rick Geary Drawing a Portrait of Louise Brooks |
# # #
This web page branches off “Homage to Lulu“, a Louise Brooks Society HUB page which lists & details other tributes to Louise Brooks — in movies, music, books and literature, comics, fashion, pop culture and the visual arts. Know of additional information or other tributes? The LBS would love to hear from you via its CONTACT page.