Plus a nice Lon Chaney Jr. swipe on the cover of this issue too!
(It's almost as if he's saying "YAANGH!")
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Fiend in Fur
Time to head to the timberland burial grounds for a weird 'n wild werewolf / ghost tale, this time from the Jan-Feb '51-52 issue of Forbidden Worlds #4. George Wilhelms is one of my favorite ACG artists, furfectly setting the mood with his atmospheric art... and though this one of course contains the typically hopeless goofball romantics we've come to know from the ACG writers (the final panel is downright horny), they still manage to squeeze in as many chills 'n thrills and rollickin' sound effects to make the journey worth it--- YAANGH! WAM! SPLANG! CRASH! OHH! GARRRGH! AAOOOO! YAANGH!
Plus a nice Lon Chaney Jr. swipe on the cover of this issue too!
Plus a nice Lon Chaney Jr. swipe on the cover of this issue too!
This would be better if he ripped his face off after the last panel. Surprise!
ReplyDelete"wolf phantoms... rising from the skeletons!"
ReplyDelete^ So fucking cool
Wow--p. 6 has some of the most amazing logic leaps and exposition I've seen outside a Eurotrash movie! Frank's quick-witted discovery of the awesome occult powers of an ordinary compass needle, Phyllis' hitherto unhinted at knowledge of werewolf lore...my head is spinning as fast as that spirit-summoning sliver of metal!
ReplyDeleteI admit I was expecting the Indian Shaman spirit to be the agency of the palefaces' deliverance, but nope, he just gets up and floats off to the sunset without so much as a "Seeya, Whitey!" What the tale had in store was so much better, though. Wolf skeleton/spirits FTW!
Also, I love how Frank turns into Bruce Campbell in the last couple of pages. In fact, Bruce would be the perfect--the only--casting choice for the film adaptation.
Excellent!
THESE ACG STORYS ARE ALOT OF FUN, THIS ONE HAS IT ALL AND OMG YOU DID NOT SAY FURFECYLY??? HAAA!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's surprising how many times I read pre-code stories and there's some inventive things and atmosphere building and potential in them -- but then the writer almost always throws in monkey wrenches and wrecks it. Usually by employing the most ludicrous anti-logic and pseudo-deductions by the characters that make you feel like throwing up your hands and (because there's no comic book to throw on the net). Some cool elements here. It feels like it needs a remake.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting it.
I'm with Trevor M on this one. There were a lot of things I liked about the story (the ghost werewolf, his story of origin, said ghost werewolf getting torn apart by ghost wolves), but the annoying, awfully contrived romance and the whole bit with the spinning compass needle prevented it from being a true classic.
ReplyDeleteyaaangh!!!!
ReplyDeleteAnybody who can't get behind a story where the hero whacks a werewolf over the head with a stick -- and it works! -- will not be invited to any of my parties!
ReplyDeleteIndeed, call me silly but I actually love the cornball illogics and forced love angles... ACG swung these points like a sledge hammer every issue. The more ludicrous elements remind us that anything can happpen in comics, unlike most modern comics that strive for endlessly dull "realism." Now don't get me wrong either, I too roll my eyes in frustration at some of the more cliched moments, but to me it's more about the sensibilites of the era, the balance, and delivery. The headlights...
ReplyDeleteWell all I needed to see was that awesome haymaker--WAM!--when the glowing werewolf / wendigo thing coldcocked the guide man on the last panel of page four. That's when I knew this was gonna be a damn classy story. All this fanciful new werewolf operandi is pretty good food for thought, as is that "fiend in fur" innuendo in the last panel making the chick blush. "Don't worry baby--wolf bones never hurt anybody."
ReplyDelete