Jack in the Box
Reissued as BOOK OF LOVE to coincide with New Line Cinema movie.
A painfully funny tale about coming of age in the comic-book culture of the 1940s and 1950s. Narrated by Joseph Vernon whose favorite book this was when coming of age himself.
Can a young man, in the era before sex, drugs and roll 'n' roll, find happiness as a human being?
Enter Jack Twiller, also known as the Masked Man, Flaming Arrow, the White Rider, Captain Marvel, and a host of other comic-book identities gathered from the forces that shaped American kids in the 1940s.
His mind twisted from the start, he sets off down life's highway, wearing a Zombie Skull Ring with eyes that glow in the dark. He struggles to learn the truth about Olive Oyl, Nyoka the Jungle Girl, and the Beautiful Undressing Lady, but his parish priest warns him where this can lead.
Repressed, molded by trash, he begins to believe he is Lord Henry Brinthrope of Black Swan Hall, England's richest, most handsome lord. In this fashion, he enters the Fabulous Fifties, clad in peg pants and a pink tie, with pimple cream on his nose.
A typical American boy.