Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Hunter Who Became the Hunted!
You already know how it's going to end when delving into precode horror tales about hunters-- but half the fun is of course getting there-- and yes, this one is pretty fun. GCD says this is Lou Cameron art, what's everyone think? From the August 1952 issue of Fawcett's Strange Suspense Stories #2.
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8 comments:
Some beautiful, dynamic art in this one, and actual realistic and accurate animals.
But then there's page 8, panel 6, with it's bizarre art error of the rubber gun. No wonder he couldn't kill the tiger, his gun's a toy!
Talking about seeing the ending from a mile away, that's the one thing a lot of publishers never got. Endings are a way to stop the story; it's the journey that's important. A good ending can't save a bad story. And this one is a fun story, and horror stories are the one place a cartoonishly evil character like our hunter works well.
Glad to be of assistance here.
I met with Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. in Paris last autumn - and we brooded for half an hour over this exact story.
After looking at some other stories to compare, we decided:
This really IS Lou Cameron. From his early, bad solo phase. One of his first solo tries at horror.
I think the art here is vibrant and wonderful. If it is Cameron, it's one of my faves. Although I never can tell how much my opinion is being informed by the shape of the pages and scans themselves--I think that glorious splash is probably a little more glorious for the faded black pass--there seems to be plenty to love here otherwise, too. The cats are all lovely. The layered green jungle backgrounds are lush and deep. The shadows are dynamic. And the talking head panels are great! I was digging on those awesome floating heads already when I got to the top of page nine and saw the tiger got one too! Amazing!
Love the disembodied head panels!
Rarely have I seen such a situation in which a character got exactly what he deserved, albeit way too quickly. I was hoping that King would be slowly eaten by his prey, millimeter by millimeter, especially after the cowardly little sadist did what he did at the bottom of page two.
I was also hoping that Bari would punch the punk's lights out and leave him for that Monoclonius-looking rhino. Well, at least the rhino didn't have to eat a 30-06 like the tigers did.
Gadzooks, Bari and the rest of the hired help must have needed the work awfully badly. At least the other boys at The Club won't have to see the squat little monster befouling their company with his presence any more. I just hate it that Blondie died, too.
Hmmm, maybe it's Lou... I'm still not totally convinced, though there are moments where I can see what you mean-- but re analyzing this other story of his from the same year for Mysterious Advs doesn't really seal the deal either:
http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2010/03/phantom-of-lonesome-swamp.html
Thanks for the comments, another tale from this issue of Strange Suspense Stories up next!
It's absolutely Cameron.
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