Time for another giant monster story as part of our most inconsistent themed month fest ever-- sorry, sometimes other stuff comes up! From the February 1953 issue of Witches Tales #17, a wonderfully weird, and very colorful story from Rudy Palais.
Did Palais have a sweat fetish? Sweat appears in so many of his comics maybe he had a thrill drawing sweat any chance he got.
Did Palias or the story's writer have access to reefer? How else could anyone come up with such a dreamlike bizzare story like this without a little "special" inspiration.
Would the public accept the idea of an intelligent telepathic dinosaur? It would have been a hard sell back then and probably a hard sell now.
Who knew one comic book story could raise so many questions.
Note that in 53, this would have been published before the giant monster b-movie craze, and it's probably stories like this that had a heavy influence on them.
Other than that, boy is this wacky! It seems the "dinosaur" manages to keeps himself busy with internal narration. Page 3, final panel, both the artist and the colorist forgot the bikini top, but lovenly rendered all the sweat!
The dinosaur could take down another dinosaur, but not a small human, even though it evidently had the power to walk on water!
The ending. What a treat. Yeah, it's "as it turns out", but it's so absolutely out of left field (and unecessary, portals to other worlds opening and closing is a well know sci-fi cliche), that it just leaves you stunned.
I have to admit that I went into this story with some hesitation (not really being a fan of monster comics), but by the time I reached the mind-expanding conclusion with the parallel worlds explanation I was completely sold. I dig Palais on many levels, but his monsters often have "cute" eyes that diminish any terror aspect the author intends. And with his human characters, sometimes the expressions don't match the mood of the dialogue being presented.
But he's one of the greats! I'm just a lowly armchair critic reading 1950s horror comics on a Friday night!
Thanks as always for the killer blog, Karswell.
And thanks to the many great posters who keep the comments section as exciting as the stories!
I actually own the original art for p. 3 of this story so it's nice to see it in its entirety here. The dinosaur is indeed very goofy looking and probably did not inspire any fear even for an 8-year-old reading this in 1953. But I've always appreciated Palais' work. I think his "sweat fetish" is especially endearing. His characters are always sweating profusely!
9 comments:
A few questions came to me as I read this story,
Did Palais have a sweat fetish? Sweat appears in so many of his comics maybe he had a thrill drawing sweat any chance he got.
Did Palias or the story's writer have access to reefer? How else could anyone come up with such a dreamlike bizzare story like this without a little "special" inspiration.
Would the public accept the idea of an intelligent telepathic dinosaur? It would have been a hard sell back then and probably a hard sell now.
Who knew one comic book story could raise so many questions.
Wow.
Note that in 53, this would have been published before the giant monster b-movie craze, and it's probably stories like this that had a heavy influence on them.
Other than that, boy is this wacky! It seems the "dinosaur" manages to keeps himself busy with internal narration. Page 3, final panel, both the artist and the colorist forgot the bikini top, but lovenly rendered all the sweat!
The dinosaur could take down another dinosaur, but not a small human, even though it evidently had the power to walk on water!
The ending. What a treat. Yeah, it's "as it turns out", but it's so absolutely out of left field (and unecessary, portals to other worlds opening and closing is a well know sci-fi cliche), that it just leaves you stunned.
Great, fun read!
I posted A Thank You good Sir Karswell... as well as the entire movie "Gorgo" ... and a story from the horror Comic ...
I have to admit that I went into this story with some hesitation (not really being a fan of monster comics), but by the time I reached the mind-expanding conclusion with the parallel worlds explanation I was completely sold.
I dig Palais on many levels, but his monsters often have "cute" eyes that diminish any terror aspect the author intends. And with his human characters, sometimes the expressions don't match the mood of the dialogue being presented.
But he's one of the greats! I'm just a lowly armchair critic reading 1950s horror comics on a Friday night!
Thanks as always for the killer blog, Karswell.
And thanks to the many great posters who keep the comments section as exciting as the stories!
Keep the comments coming-- I have another story from this issue on deck, see ya in a few...
I actually own the original art for p. 3 of this story so it's nice to see it in its entirety here. The dinosaur is indeed very goofy looking and probably did not inspire any fear even for an 8-year-old reading this in 1953. But I've always appreciated Palais' work. I think his "sweat fetish" is especially endearing. His characters are always sweating profusely!
Go through the archives and check all the previous Palais posts since 2007, we've discussed The Rudy Sweat Factor countless times!
Golgoth is a cute dragon
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