Today is a pin-up by one of my favorite artists, Jordi Bernet, illustrating what is perhaps his signature character, the 1930's gunman known as "Torpedo." The provenance for particular piece informs that it appeared in Playboy in 1991, but I can neither confirm not deny. What I can say is, it's an especially cool rendition of Luca Torelli, the aforementioned Torpedo...
So who, or what, is that? Thanks to our friends at Wikipedia, here's the quick lowdown: "Torpedo, or Torpedo 1936, is a Spanish comics series written by Enrique Sánchez Abulí and drawn by Jordi Bernet, which depicts the adventures of the antagonistic character Luca Torelli, a heartless hitman, and his sidekick Rascal, in context of the violent organized crime culture of New York City during the Great Depression era."
That pretty much nails it. Torelli and Rascal have various violent and sexual adventures in 1930's NY, sometimes with unexpected twists and turns. Torelli doesn't always "win," whatever that means, making the stories more than just cops and robbers in depression times.
Original artist Alex Toth bailed on the series after drawing the first two stories, a situation that does not sound all that unusual given Toth's legendarily mercurial personality. But he set the tone for the Bernet-illustrated series to come, and Bernet really went to town. Gritty, violent, sensual, goofy and often funny, it's a really good strip. The IDW publishing house has released five volumes of English-translated Torpedo books, all of which appear to still be in print.
Now, did Torpedo have a peaceful Christmas? Given the general tenor of the stories, eightball says "no"...
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