Thursday, April 24, 2008

Hand of the Devil

BONUS STORY! Angles O’Day was a screwball dick-for-hire filler character also found in the pages of Ken Shannon. Probably written, and definitely illustrated by the late great Jack Cole, this is, as far as I can tell, the only supernatural-ish adventure that O’Day and his beady-eyed sidekick Shagmore ever encountered as most of the time they took on the usual gangster goon or double crossing client. Fun stuff with tremendous artwork and great writing. More comics should have “filler” like this.

From the February 1953 issue of Ken Shannon #9




9 comments:

Pappy said...

Whoa. Did you say "Shagmore"? Great name for a hero of a porn comic.

The Vicar of VHS said...

Pappy, great minds think alike! Get Shagmore together with Double-D Dawson above and let the cameras roll!

This one's fun, but I can't see sitting still for an hour while the guy paints your portrait. I mean, I know he has a gun, but still.

Anonymous said...

THIS ONE IS ALMOST MORE FUN THAN THE SHANNON TALE! I LOVE THE JACK COLE ART, I WAS LAUGHING OUT LOUD AT ALOT OF IT. BUT THEN I CLICKED THE JACK COLE LINK BACK TO HIS WIKI BIO AND DAMN WHAT A DEPRESSING TALE ABOUT HIS SUICIDE....... SIGH.......

Anonymous said...

That was a fun little mystery yarn. Not really horror but close enough. Shagmore rules!

Ger Apeldoorn said...

One of the last Cole stories I didn't have. These are said to be Cole pencils with Kotzky inks.

Mr. Karswell said...

Ger - do you know if the Angles O'Day character had any other comic book appearances aside from the Ken Shannon issues? These are some of my favorite stories ever and I'd love to see more.

>AND DAMN WHAT A DEPRESSING TALE ABOUT HIS SUICIDE

Yes, it is depressing... and strangely similar to the way Robert E. Howard exited too.

Anonymous said...

I love it. It's not often you see the heroes yawning and telling the villains to knock it off...

Anonymous said...

Great comments about Shagmore and Dee-Dee.

And this is a perfect example of the eternal question: Why do the villains always start monologuing?

"Well, since you've seen I have a green-faced painting of Valdermeer, I guess there's nothing to do but explain my impossible crime in detail and then kill you both, even though nobody would ever have figured it out and I could have gotten away with it by keeping my trap shut."

Mr. Karswell said...

Thanks again for all the great comments today. The overwhelmingly positive response to the crime horror posts this week have definitely proved the nay-sayers wrong--- and THERE WILL BE MORE BLOODY CRIME HORROR TO COME!