Friday, September 18, 2015
The Monsters Strike!
Cave men apparently existed in the days of the dragonsaurs in this monstrously fun tale from the July 1952 issue of Adventures into the Unknown! #33, art credited to Charlie Sultan who did a ton of top notch artwork for ACG... post rounded out with a good 'n ghostly "true" one-page filler too! Boo!
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5 comments:
Great art, incredibly funny story.
Suspension of disbelief: Cavemen and dragonsaurs living in the same age isn't as nutty as that caveman.
Mr. XXX wakes up from melted ice (!), and since he can't talk, grabs a drawing pad and a crayon and begins sketching his story because "those prehistoric people were marvelous artists".
There were lots of notebooks and pencils in the stone age, you know. And great comic books. Too bad such artifacts were not preserved, so all we have is those clumsy grotto paintings...
Love ACG horrors, though usually they provide specious happy endings to their tales.
It's always nice (and I don't mean that sarcastically) to see the SF movie tradition of the scientist who gets to give the orders. When Bill makes that first phone call, he doesn't suggest, he just tells everyone what they're to do.
Mestiere is very right about that other tradition. You even see it in the musical ON THE TOWN, where the three sailors accidentally topple that dinosaur skeleton in the museum, and become wanted men.
When one of the cops hears the report about them knocking down the dinosaur, he's set on capturing them, because "I love that Dinah Shore!"
I like the dinosaur in this one, it's very much taken from the sci-fi movies of the era, a lot more lizard-like then they should be. Note that, in a good bit by the artist, the skeleton matches the dinosaur. I can't believe the writer didn't take the time to say the skeleton was found in the same area, though it seems the story might be heading in that direction.
As to the short ghost story (no real beginning or ending, but I like the kind of "true facts" ghost stories like that), they mention that Antoinette was "pleasure-loving." Are they sure she's holding out her hands to search around, or just wants a hug? Who's going to be the first to try to give her a hug?
Wow, the art here is pretty incredible. I like the lively energy of nearly every pane, especially the throwaway exposition stuff--this guy managed to keep it interesting, even in between the predictably interesting parts. My fave is probably the last panel on page one--beautifully tarty use of that crowbar shadow really tweaks the dialog into something almost flirty. Now that's verve, yeah! But it also serves to inject a little needful heartbeat into these characters and their relationship. It's the little things.
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