MattBrady
11-27-2002, 05:43 PM
They were tough, they broke all kinds of laws, they were lawmen, and they wore hats. In December, Moonstone will publish The Hat Squad by Jay Faerber and Eric Yonge. Based in reality, the 48-page issue takes L.A.’s infamous Hat Squad – four policemen who went to great, often illegal lengths to keep the mob out of L.A., and spins them off into comic book form.
As the legend of the Squad goes, mobsters in L.A. would sometimes show up at police headquarters and turn themselves in if they heard that the Hat Squad had been assigned to their case. As a rule, the Squad didn’t stop, and didn’t let things like laws get in the way of them getting their message across: the mob was not welcome in L.A. They were kind of like that group of lawmen in Chicago who well, frankly got the cooler name.
”I guess they were a bit like the Untouchables,” Faerber said. “Only, the Hat Squad sought to prevent the mob from gaining a foothold, whereas the Untouchables were trying to clean up an already-infested city. As far as I can tell, what made them so feared by criminals is that they routinely broke the law themselves, in order to catch or chase away mobsters. Remember that scene in LA Confidential, where James Cromwell recruits Russell Crowe to basically beat a mobster to a pulp in that old hotel? Well that was pure Hat Squad, right there.”
The four men who made up the actual “hat squad” operated in the ‘40s and ‘50s in L.A., and reputedly enjoyed a level of protection from their superiors – two even became judges in their later years.
Okay – history aside for a moment – rather than do a dramatic retelling of history, Faerber’s version of The Hat Squad is a fictionalized Squad set in the mid ‘50s with the same methods as the real one. It’s not the first time the Hat Squad has shown up as an entertainment property.
“I originally heard about the Hat Squad when Stephen J. Cannell created a show about them, called The Hat Squad back in the early 90s,” Faerber said. “His was also a fictionalized version, and it was set in the present day. But that alerted me to the fact that these guys had actually existed. I never gave any thought to doing anything with the concept until Moonstone Publisher Joe Gentile and I started talking about doing a book.
”What makes them appealing is, for one thing, the iconic aspect of them - four guys in fedoras and snappy suits, cleaning up LA no matter whose head they have to knock. They stay truth is stranger than fiction, and this is just one more example of that, because if someone had thought this up, people would say it's ridiculous. So the fact that these guys actually existed is cool. Aside from that, I just saw the Hat Squad as a nice vehicle for some straight crime stories. It's a nice concept, but it's not so high-concept that it gets in the way of the story.”
In Faerber’s fictionalized account, the Hat Squad has been around for a while, and they have quite the reputation already. “I wanted this first story to be at the height of their popularity – or infamy, I guess, because the fact that they have this legend-like status is part of what appealed to me about the concept in the first place,” Faerber commented.
In the December-shipping story, the Hat Squad is approached by a movie starlet who suspects her boyfriend is mixed up with the mob. Thinking her concern is too low-profile, the Hat Squad dismiss her, something which immediately comes to haunt them.
“The woman turns up murdered the following day,” Faerber said. “So, the Hat Squad take the case mainly out of a sense of shame -- this reflects poorly on them, and they want to put the case down. So the story's about them solving this woman's murder, and it involves both the mob and the movie industry.”
Faerber acknowledged that writing The Hat Squad forced him to work other muscles than when he’s writing the costumes of Marvel, DC, and Image, and keep things on a realistic level, both in the character’s action and behavior. “One of the things I try and do in Hat Squad, and other ‘straight’ crime stuff is give it a real sense of place,” Faerber said. “For Hat Squad, I drove around LA and took a lot of pictures with my digital camera, so I could pass them onto Eric for reference of the various locations. Another stylistic approach I bring to this stuff is staying away from thought balloons and captions. I do use text for establishing shots, but that's it. I'm shooting for a real cinematic feel for the whole package. And, while I try and inject realistic characterization into all my work, I think it's easier on a straight crime piece, where characters aren't talking about super-powers or aliens or coming back from the dead or whatever. So making them sound ‘real’ is a little easier.”
Likewise, Hat Squad artist Eric Yonge dove into researching the era, fashions and style sense to firmly ground the story in the real. “The ‘50s were a decade of great design,” Yonge said. “Everything clicked together very well, from fashion to cars to architecture. The fashion department at the local university gave me a lot of books on 1950's clothing. I remember eating at a Cracker Barrel and freaking out when I saw a huge book on 50's cars. My family wondered what my deal was, because I'm not into cars at all.
“Also, my favorite things to draw are real people and their facial expressions. This book had a ton of really nice character bits that were fun to draw. My whole approach to drawing this book was to try and service the mood Jay was going for. You have to draw a ‘50s film noir story in a different style than you would an issue of The Avengers. One thing I learned from being an illustrator is that you have to tailor your stylistic approach according to the project, whether it's cartoony or realistic or whatever.
“That said, some of the easiest parts of the book to draw were the fight scenes,” Yonge continued. “I didn't have to think very much, especially since Jay choreographs everything. Jay comes up with some really creative and brutal ideas for fights. Most fight scenes in comics involve superpowers. I think this book will remind people how intense a bare-knuckle brawl between two tough guys can be.”
Speaking of the brutality, Faerber said that he’ll be taking a different tact with the characters in regard to characterization. After all – as they stand, and given today’s society, it’s hard (but not impossible) to elicit sympathy from an audience when your protagonists are rogue cops. Who themselves break the law.
“I'm trying to evolve the characters a bit,” Faerber said. “When we meet them, they're pretty harsh with the criminals, and that's led them to becoming sort of smug. The case I get them involved in actually brings them down a rung or two - it humbles them, because if they'd been doing their job a little bit better, things might not have turned out the way they turn out.
”That said, I do think they're sympathetic to a degree, in that guilty-pleasure sort of way. We all know it's wrong, but I think there's something appealing about cops who aren't afraid to bust some heads when necessary. Again, we shouldn’t enjoy that sort of thing, but I think a lot of us, on some level, do.”
“Honestly, I didn't even find it hard to make the characters sympathetic,” Faerber continued. “Strangely enough, I think if this was a modern-day story that would be more of an issue. But back in the ‘50s, things were more black and white. The cops were good guys and the mobsters were bad guys. Period. So even though the Hat Squad played fast and loose with the rules, they were still the good guys.”
As for the who the guys are, Faerber provided character sketches of the four:
Sgt. Jake Thurman - the tough-as-nails leader of the Hat Squad. He’s a truly honorable man, and if he gives you his word on something, it’s as good as done. Jake’s got a short fuse and something of a mean streak, which explains why the rest of the Hat Squad gets such results – the other members follow his lead. Jake’s divorced, but still hung up on his ex, who left him for a city councilman – whose nose Jake broke at a policeman’s ball.
Sgt. Clarence "Blackie" Blake - the oldest member of the Hat Squad, and he got his nickname a few years back, as he was one of the investigating officers on the infamous "Black Dahlia" murder, which was never solved. He’s since become obsessed with the case, and often formulates theories in his spare time ... which he has a lot of, since he never married, and has no children.
Sgt. Sean Mulrooney - a mountain of a man. He's 200% Irish, and only speaks when he’s got something important to say. He prefers to let his actions – or his fierce stare – speak for him. Mulrooney’s married to a cocktail waitress, and has a young daughter.
Sgt. Danny Gage - the youngest member of the Hat Squad, made very apparent by his babyface. He has women falling all over him, and yet still can’t find someone to settle down with. His partners take great fun in busting his chops about everything from his love life to his lack of seniority, but Danny takes it in stride, as he really looks up to the guys on his team.
While Faerber said he consciously wrote The Hat Squad to be more like a movie with a beginning, middle and end, (as opposed to his monthly work, which he compared to a television series, where subplots are advanced each month), the concept and setting is ripe for a sequel. “It's something Joe [Gentile, Moonstone publisher] and I talked about before this story was even finished,” Faerber said. “I think we're waiting to see how successful this thing is first, though. But yeah, ideally, I'd like to do one or two self-contained Hat Squad stories a year.”
As the legend of the Squad goes, mobsters in L.A. would sometimes show up at police headquarters and turn themselves in if they heard that the Hat Squad had been assigned to their case. As a rule, the Squad didn’t stop, and didn’t let things like laws get in the way of them getting their message across: the mob was not welcome in L.A. They were kind of like that group of lawmen in Chicago who well, frankly got the cooler name.
”I guess they were a bit like the Untouchables,” Faerber said. “Only, the Hat Squad sought to prevent the mob from gaining a foothold, whereas the Untouchables were trying to clean up an already-infested city. As far as I can tell, what made them so feared by criminals is that they routinely broke the law themselves, in order to catch or chase away mobsters. Remember that scene in LA Confidential, where James Cromwell recruits Russell Crowe to basically beat a mobster to a pulp in that old hotel? Well that was pure Hat Squad, right there.”
The four men who made up the actual “hat squad” operated in the ‘40s and ‘50s in L.A., and reputedly enjoyed a level of protection from their superiors – two even became judges in their later years.
Okay – history aside for a moment – rather than do a dramatic retelling of history, Faerber’s version of The Hat Squad is a fictionalized Squad set in the mid ‘50s with the same methods as the real one. It’s not the first time the Hat Squad has shown up as an entertainment property.
“I originally heard about the Hat Squad when Stephen J. Cannell created a show about them, called The Hat Squad back in the early 90s,” Faerber said. “His was also a fictionalized version, and it was set in the present day. But that alerted me to the fact that these guys had actually existed. I never gave any thought to doing anything with the concept until Moonstone Publisher Joe Gentile and I started talking about doing a book.
”What makes them appealing is, for one thing, the iconic aspect of them - four guys in fedoras and snappy suits, cleaning up LA no matter whose head they have to knock. They stay truth is stranger than fiction, and this is just one more example of that, because if someone had thought this up, people would say it's ridiculous. So the fact that these guys actually existed is cool. Aside from that, I just saw the Hat Squad as a nice vehicle for some straight crime stories. It's a nice concept, but it's not so high-concept that it gets in the way of the story.”
In Faerber’s fictionalized account, the Hat Squad has been around for a while, and they have quite the reputation already. “I wanted this first story to be at the height of their popularity – or infamy, I guess, because the fact that they have this legend-like status is part of what appealed to me about the concept in the first place,” Faerber commented.
In the December-shipping story, the Hat Squad is approached by a movie starlet who suspects her boyfriend is mixed up with the mob. Thinking her concern is too low-profile, the Hat Squad dismiss her, something which immediately comes to haunt them.
“The woman turns up murdered the following day,” Faerber said. “So, the Hat Squad take the case mainly out of a sense of shame -- this reflects poorly on them, and they want to put the case down. So the story's about them solving this woman's murder, and it involves both the mob and the movie industry.”
Faerber acknowledged that writing The Hat Squad forced him to work other muscles than when he’s writing the costumes of Marvel, DC, and Image, and keep things on a realistic level, both in the character’s action and behavior. “One of the things I try and do in Hat Squad, and other ‘straight’ crime stuff is give it a real sense of place,” Faerber said. “For Hat Squad, I drove around LA and took a lot of pictures with my digital camera, so I could pass them onto Eric for reference of the various locations. Another stylistic approach I bring to this stuff is staying away from thought balloons and captions. I do use text for establishing shots, but that's it. I'm shooting for a real cinematic feel for the whole package. And, while I try and inject realistic characterization into all my work, I think it's easier on a straight crime piece, where characters aren't talking about super-powers or aliens or coming back from the dead or whatever. So making them sound ‘real’ is a little easier.”
Likewise, Hat Squad artist Eric Yonge dove into researching the era, fashions and style sense to firmly ground the story in the real. “The ‘50s were a decade of great design,” Yonge said. “Everything clicked together very well, from fashion to cars to architecture. The fashion department at the local university gave me a lot of books on 1950's clothing. I remember eating at a Cracker Barrel and freaking out when I saw a huge book on 50's cars. My family wondered what my deal was, because I'm not into cars at all.
“Also, my favorite things to draw are real people and their facial expressions. This book had a ton of really nice character bits that were fun to draw. My whole approach to drawing this book was to try and service the mood Jay was going for. You have to draw a ‘50s film noir story in a different style than you would an issue of The Avengers. One thing I learned from being an illustrator is that you have to tailor your stylistic approach according to the project, whether it's cartoony or realistic or whatever.
“That said, some of the easiest parts of the book to draw were the fight scenes,” Yonge continued. “I didn't have to think very much, especially since Jay choreographs everything. Jay comes up with some really creative and brutal ideas for fights. Most fight scenes in comics involve superpowers. I think this book will remind people how intense a bare-knuckle brawl between two tough guys can be.”
Speaking of the brutality, Faerber said that he’ll be taking a different tact with the characters in regard to characterization. After all – as they stand, and given today’s society, it’s hard (but not impossible) to elicit sympathy from an audience when your protagonists are rogue cops. Who themselves break the law.
“I'm trying to evolve the characters a bit,” Faerber said. “When we meet them, they're pretty harsh with the criminals, and that's led them to becoming sort of smug. The case I get them involved in actually brings them down a rung or two - it humbles them, because if they'd been doing their job a little bit better, things might not have turned out the way they turn out.
”That said, I do think they're sympathetic to a degree, in that guilty-pleasure sort of way. We all know it's wrong, but I think there's something appealing about cops who aren't afraid to bust some heads when necessary. Again, we shouldn’t enjoy that sort of thing, but I think a lot of us, on some level, do.”
“Honestly, I didn't even find it hard to make the characters sympathetic,” Faerber continued. “Strangely enough, I think if this was a modern-day story that would be more of an issue. But back in the ‘50s, things were more black and white. The cops were good guys and the mobsters were bad guys. Period. So even though the Hat Squad played fast and loose with the rules, they were still the good guys.”
As for the who the guys are, Faerber provided character sketches of the four:
Sgt. Jake Thurman - the tough-as-nails leader of the Hat Squad. He’s a truly honorable man, and if he gives you his word on something, it’s as good as done. Jake’s got a short fuse and something of a mean streak, which explains why the rest of the Hat Squad gets such results – the other members follow his lead. Jake’s divorced, but still hung up on his ex, who left him for a city councilman – whose nose Jake broke at a policeman’s ball.
Sgt. Clarence "Blackie" Blake - the oldest member of the Hat Squad, and he got his nickname a few years back, as he was one of the investigating officers on the infamous "Black Dahlia" murder, which was never solved. He’s since become obsessed with the case, and often formulates theories in his spare time ... which he has a lot of, since he never married, and has no children.
Sgt. Sean Mulrooney - a mountain of a man. He's 200% Irish, and only speaks when he’s got something important to say. He prefers to let his actions – or his fierce stare – speak for him. Mulrooney’s married to a cocktail waitress, and has a young daughter.
Sgt. Danny Gage - the youngest member of the Hat Squad, made very apparent by his babyface. He has women falling all over him, and yet still can’t find someone to settle down with. His partners take great fun in busting his chops about everything from his love life to his lack of seniority, but Danny takes it in stride, as he really looks up to the guys on his team.
While Faerber said he consciously wrote The Hat Squad to be more like a movie with a beginning, middle and end, (as opposed to his monthly work, which he compared to a television series, where subplots are advanced each month), the concept and setting is ripe for a sequel. “It's something Joe [Gentile, Moonstone publisher] and I talked about before this story was even finished,” Faerber said. “I think we're waiting to see how successful this thing is first, though. But yeah, ideally, I'd like to do one or two self-contained Hat Squad stories a year.”