Thursday, July 23, 2015
The Devil's Necklace!
We're sticking with the November 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #14 for a few more posts cuz it's full of icky insanity and frightening fun, and this one from visual freak-out master, Rudy Palais is no exception! Oh, speaking of The Devil, I'll have some very unholy news for all of you in the coming weeks-- hang on to your horny pitchforks!
This one actually lost me. The concept is obvious -- Gigi is also in league with the devil. Which is good for the devil; both people were selling their souls for the SAME goal, which meant two souls for the price of one. But what happened? Satan just shows up to go "ha ha, you fool!" and then he sweats to death? Death by embarrassment for being name "Erlu"??
ReplyDeleteThe art -- awesome. I don't know if Palais was attempting to draw beautiful women (certainly had them in their underwear enough) but everything -- including them -- is ugly, rancid, dripping, and goopy. I love the very super-villain like Satan and his baggy drawers and furry arms. Erlu really looks like the kind of shabby, downtrodden weak man that he is, constantly dripping with sweat.
The middle panel in the last page is a cool layout; the door to the left is slanted as is the window, drawing it into the background as Gigi is in the foreground.
Colorist forgot Satan's shirt in the last panel.
This one has another strong moral -- sell your soul, make sure to list everything you want, including "Gigi falls madly in love with me" etc.
....Rudy may indeed, have a bit of a tough time drawing beautiful babes, but obviously, any story featuring El Diablo, gets my attention! ....The INSTANT connection he knows he already inexplicably HAS with the Devil, might have been fleshed out a little more, n' I also see where Brian said, the ending kinda lost him....Erlu's fate was sealed, & he was toast, as soon as Gigi referred to him as a "Little" man...hahaaa..Rudy DOES have the artistic touch, for details, as well as presenting shocking scenes, at nightmarish, almost photographic angles........but yeah, I don't know how the Devil actually killed 'im, either.....maybe he DID sweat to death!! I STILL liked it...!!! ��
ReplyDeleteIt has some of the same plot as PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. In fact, the last scene is like that scene from PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE, where the girl is far from grateful at the way the character helped her career.
ReplyDeleteThat's one reason the ending surprised me - I expected her to still be the "damsel in distress" of the story (even though she's a little mean to Peter before she even KNOWS what he did). So that ending surprised me for a few reasons.
"Take this pearl necklace with my compliments!"
ReplyDeleteAh, if I had a nickel for every time I used that ol' standby. It's for old time's sake, baby! Take one for the team! I think I liked the Devil's Kirby-esque belted one-piece from his first appearance better than the two-piece from the end, but anything with a stand-up Dracula collar is haute couture to this reporter. And it sure looks nice with that necklace, that's a fact.