Saturday, December 22, 2012
Demons of the Sun
WTF-- we're still here?!! Of all the bullshit apocalypses I've ever lived through this was most certainly the most bullshitty. So! Today's theme is Bullshit Apocalypses, and here's one that seriously reeks to high heaven, from the same insane issue as our last post, the October 1952 issue of Black Cat Mystery #40. And thank the Devil it features demented Palais art to save it from complete extinction!
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Oh! Also just realized that this completes this entire issue here at THOIA... check the archives for Curse Castle, Don't Share My Coffin, and Doomsday!
The camera work and framing is a bit blah (except page 2, which is great), but I like the twisted faces and the rubbery art. Great art can't save a bad script, but this one comes close.
And are you not kidding that it reeks, but that makes it so much more entertaining. What a lame god they worship! Note, in the "stabbing" panel, one of the victims mysteriously disappears so they can reposition the guy with the knife.
I hate to ask, but why does the earth have a ring and 4 moons crammed together in the same orbit? I know it's the 50s, but I think we would realize that there's no ring and 1 moon!
Also, is the time when women weren't allowed on the street? And how about the appearing/disappearing hats in the crowd?
This thing is all sorts of goofy and I love it!
Another doomsday come and gone, and I'm having beginning-of-the-world blues again. I did get a nice pair of shoes this year. Hope the rest of you make out well.
Dug the story. It had the proper proportions, I thought, for the effectively mythic. I like stories where people effect the heavens, seduce the harvest, give birth to gods, thwart all of nature, etc. I'd love to now just what happened at the end, though. I am skeptical about the mechanics of EMTing a sun god with a sucking chest wound. I don't even know how you'd take an x-ray, let alone find asbestos Saran Wrap. Pneumothorax city, man!
There have been an awful lot of predicted ends-of-the-world in my lifetime. At least one group has claimed that the world did end, in 1975, but such that most of us didn't notice; that is to say that the hypostasis is different but the experience is pretty much the same. (It was the end of the world, yet not the end of the world as we know it!) Frankly, I find that one exquisitely pud.
A source on Facebook today also claimed that the world did indeed come to an end-- but the government covered it up.
And here I thought I had the ending figured out. I thought that he who kills Sultan would have to replace Sultan as the new sun god; the king is dead, long live the king and all that. I like my ending better!
I love the fan reaction to this story! This is exactly as it should be! I especially love the etymological breakdowns!
The elements of man's utter lack of mercy for his fellows is the actual backdrop for this tale about the eternal dissatisfaction of Homo sapiens.
It is precisely this dissatisfaction that drives us onward, though, isn't it? The man at the very end reminds us that we will always have our Campbells, and in fact. we need them to keep us challenged and moving ahead and damn the torpedoes as it must be.
What a great issue this is, and I am going to seek out the other tales in it, too. Obviously, Black Cat Mystery was underappreciated in the 50s.
Tusen takk!
Yes, another doomsday prediction here and gone. Next one is scheduled for 5/12/14. Hold your breath. Just found your blog, and I must say it is right up my alley!
Even more bullshitty than Y2K, which had most news networks in a panic?
That certainly is human nature, to never be happy about the weather! I know I'm guilty of this. Too hot, too cold, whine, whine, whine.
Maybe the world actually did end, and we just got placed into one that was absolutely identical. ;-)
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