Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Satan is Waitin' / The Pit of Horror
My new DEVIL TALES collection from IDW / Yoe Books was originally slated for release later this month, but according to most pre-order sites (like Amazon HERE), it now appears to be erupting from the bowels of the Earth sometime in February. No biggy, in the meantime let's just finally get 2016 rollin' around here and take a look at two devilish Bill Everett classics, both pulled from the mustier, earlier nether regions of the THOIA Archive. "Satan is Waitin'" is from the hellarious March 1952 issue of Wild #2, and "The Pit of Horror!" originally appeared in the September 1952 issue of Adventures into Weird Worlds #10. NOTE: Neither of these stories are featured in DEVIL TALES --as with EC, we must unfortunately steer clear of precode Atlas tales too --but the point for the next month or so will be to get all of you into a seriously sinful mood... all we ask is that you sign your name below with a comment or two! Lots more d/evil on the way, and Happy New Fears, everyone!
One funny thing about "Satan Is Waitin'" is that one of his exclamations is "HOO-HAH!!" Even if you don't know the movie well, that can immediately make you think of Al Pacino in "Scent of a Woman." And of course around the same time he also PLAYED the Devil in "The Devil's Advocate."
ReplyDeleteI can't help liking the little bits of wordplay in "The Pit of Horror," like "This place will look like Hades before I'm through!" MAYBE they would work even better with the obvious word - "This place will look like hell!" - but either way, it works.
Just beautiful work from Everett. The second one is great, but the mad-rip off Wild tale is the best one, it's that great line between realistic and cartoon-ish that Wood or Davis could do so well. Everett was a great go-to artist for Atlas, along with Maneely was.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Stan wrote that, but it has the hallmarks of Satan's communist-hating in it!
BTW, Everett does a great hot nerdy girl on the first page, long before that type was in. Bill was ahead of his time!
Pit of Horror is a bit predictable but it's fun to read. Notice that Everett's Satan is pretty much the same general character in both stories, just done in a more cartoon-y style in the first one.
Marvel really needs to get some of these into masterworks.
Mr. Frost should go directly to HR and outline the unfair working conditions Satan has forced on him.
ReplyDeleteNice to check out the contrast between these pretty similar Everett stories. How would you like to draw two stories in the same year, to be published in close proximity to one another, with such identical themes and locations? I mean, the first story here could really fit neatly inside the last page of the second one, right? It's neat to see how Everett managed to differentiate between the two, keep them both fresh and new.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'd lay good money that whoever coined the term "bugger Satan with a Buick" totally got that idea from Satan is Waitin'. It's too obvious to be a coincidence.
I would've loved to have included these two stories in my book as Everett is my all time favorite precode artist-- unfortunately Marvel isn't having it!
ReplyDeleteMore damned Devil tales on the way, stay tombed!!!
Loved these tales.very enjoyable and very funny indeed.Great artwork.
ReplyDeleteI *love* the use of pink to bring Satan's machismo down a notch. LOVELY choice of color! In the second story, on the first panel of page 2: there's a top hat colored in where there isn't one drawn? How did that happen?
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