Monday, March 21, 2016

The Bat and the Brain

Science goes absolutely flappin' bat balls bonkers in this weird but totally fun "vampire" tale from ACG's Nov - Dec '52 issue of Skeleton Hand #2GCD lists Gus Ricca as responsible for illustrating one of the coolest skeleton specters I've ever seen in a precode comic. So hold on to your brain cells, my friends, this one might hurt a little...

















***INSTANT REPLAY***


9 comments:

Brian Barnes said...

The art is at time inventive and spectacular and at other times pretty static, but I think it suffered a bit from the talky script.

Regardless, that is one awesome ... er ... vampire ghost? I don't know. Something! I do like, though, with the woman he loves in trouble, our scientist pal decides to get all clever with the knife. He spins it into our poor spectral friend!

Also, for once, an artist did some extra work. The bat, especially when coming out of the box (I'm not going to even get into why the scientist made it realistic) is very nice and accurate. Bravo!

The splash is great, with all the stroking.

I wonder if I can get away with telling the wife that I'm "working on an experiment" in my "secluded cabin" and "don't bother me for a month."

J_D_La_Rue_67 said...

And I thought I saw everything already...

Lovely art, lovely story.
The idea of a tiny robot controlled by thought waves is simply wonderful, and well ahead of its time.
The "vampire" is a most unusual one to say the least, and some things are just left unexplained (which is fine with me).
To me, this is a story thet captures you with its magic.
What can I say? I'm impressed.

Glowworm said...

I should have known you'd pick out this one sooner or later because it's absolutely bizarre. A brain controlled bat and a skeleton vampire skeleton are rather awesome ideas-yet the dialogue is rather heavy trying to scientifically explain why the heck our brainy hero would make a bat robot in the first place. It's also a bit confusing when the vampire skeleton tries to explain what his own motives are. However, I love how our hero just happens to keep large silver daggers lying around in his laboratory to defeat the vampire in a flash.

Rick said...

I liked this moody tale with impressive art. thanks.

JMR777 said...

So a brain controlled mechanical bat was the ancestor of today's drones/UAVs. Who says comic books aren't educational?

I wonder why Batman never thought of using a Bat-drone, he labelled everything else that way (Batarang, Batcopter, Batmobile, Batcuffs, etc.)

Mestiere said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Grant said...

This is one more story that SORT OF contradicts the whole "women were always helpless in earlier scary stories" idea. Maybe Barbara doesn't actually DO anything constructive, but she's right every step of the way about what's going on, and Don (as she says) refuses to see it. She even "diagnoses" his alarming physical look whenever the bat is flying.

Mr. Cavin said...

Man, great Bat Brain monster! And great splash panel, too. I dig the idea that the invention of some kind of telekinetic control (of robots or animals or whatever) might finally uncover the prospect of malignant paranormal competitors. I like the idea that they are all around us already, just waiting to usurp our joy controllers and RC drones and the like. The prospects are enormously dire for modern times. It's a horror idea whose time has finally really come. Very clever!

Mr. Karswell said...

Love the interesting ideas to improve on this story (or make it a little easier to understand), either way a fun post with some fun comments. Thanks you guys!

Got a cool werewolf story up next so hold on to your full moons cuz it's a hairy one! ;)