Tuesday, November 3, 2015

In the Coils of the Python Queen

THOIA returns after taking a rather forced holiday breather, plus a plethora of sexy side projects put our ever lovin' blog on the back burner for a week or so, not to mention the myriad of technical difficulties, and well... oh Hell, let's just get on with the story, shall we? How about a slithery Jim McLaughlin chiller from the Nov. '53 issue of The Beyond #23 to drag us back from the dead?









6 comments:

  1. ...and then several innocent circus security guards were sentenced to hash out their post traumatic depression in jail cells on murder two charges. The life of circus security is fraught with many dangers, people.

    I liked the art here. Usually I'm not in love with lazy panels designed with foreground subjects floating in blank negative space; but this guy really seemed to use the look well. I really grooved on all the images in which the snakes were really dark--almost subliminal--while the figures they were interacting with were brightly lit (the bottom row of page three, or the last panel of four, etc.). I know some of that is probably due to the cheap printing (and also the age of the page), but it's a really moody effect regardless.

    Welcome back! Hope you had a great Halloween!

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  2. Nice art, all around. Like Mr. Calvin said, this guy had good use of the negative space. It's a fun little tale of revenge, though way overly word-y. With an artist like that, there's no reason to use so many balloons!

    Page 2, panel 6, I have no idea what's going on. We've had muddy printing but that one takes the cake!

    Welcome back, Karswell! And Happy (late) Halloween!

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  3. Being so attached to reptiles, my one pet peeve is how they "have to" shoot the snake that turns out to be Molurus. I know it's just a story, but there's probably no such thing as a snake that chases people! So (twenty feet long or not) what's with HAVING TO shoot it?

    I'm also curious about the names "Molurus" and "Boidae." They're certainly not Indian-sounding names as far as I know (they sound a lot more Greek). Is there any particular significance to those two names, or are they just meant to sound exotic?

    To some degree, this story seems inspired by the movie CULT OF THE COBRA. Though I don't know which came first.

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  5. Thank you. I thought at least the name Boidae seemed familiar, but (in spite of liking the subject so much) I couldn't place it. Yes, snakes play a huge part in traditions, and of course not always as the "bad guys" (something people are led to think in this part of the world).

    This might be the only comic book suspense story I know of (apart from parodies, maybe) where a MALE character yells "EEEK!!"

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