Yes, I know the word "tattoo" has 3 T's in it, but that didn't stop the still amazingly talented,
Lou Cameron from illustrating and delivering what it pretty much the best and most gruesome story in the April 1952 issue of
Mysterious Adventures #7. Seriously, this tale is full of awesome WTF. Looking forward to the comments on this one! :) More from this crazy issue up next too!
Speaking of
Crazy, if you're a fan of the same named silver age magazine published by
Marvel, (as well as a fan of the film,
The Exorcist), head on over to my other blog for their hilarious spoof from the August 1974 issue of
Crazy #6! Just
CLICK HERE!
"I am not ashamed that I am part Japanese - after all, these people were dabbling in art and the mystic when my European ancestors were squatting in a cave painting themselves blue and gnawing raw meat!"
ReplyDeleteOuch!
The last panel is for the ages.
Wow!
ReplyDeleteOK, art. Cameron is good but they did everything they could to ruin it. Half the thing had that tight 40s paneling, and some of it looked like it was inked with a Q-tip! That said, give Cameron a ton of credit for not going full of racist with the asians, which could still happen at this point.
The story jumps around all over the place, seems pretty standard, then, suddenly, the arm either comes alive or the snake is moving it. That's wonderful!
Things I love: The waterfall of blood after cutting off his arm; and pretty much all of the last page. The quadrupled shadow, the stump up arm, and the last panel, obviously.
I love this kind of stuff, if you don't have the staff to do quality, go all out for the gore and crazy; this is what Eerie Pubs did so well.
I really like thick brushy mark-making, and the inking here was in no way afraid to be really bold. Meanwhile, the art was not afraid to get really grody, and I appreciate that, too. I'm less enthusiastic about the pan-Orientalist vibe. I'm dead certain nobody working on this comic even noticed any difference between racist caricatures of Japanese and Chinese peoples. Maybe that's good, since these minstrel cartoons bear no resemblance to real folks, anyway. But it feels like piling a little extra on top the usual insult and injury when they've tarred one race with another race's stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteAt least the one character making the OBVIOUS slur gets in trouble for it, and he gets in trouble from the other American -
ReplyDelete"Ain't that a gook n - OOF!"
This story reminds me a little of the movie "Cult of the Cobra."
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGood Grief this story has everything: politically incorrect Asian characters, gory amputation, living tattoos, and best of all, a man skinned alive! (A fate shared by the appropriately named Skinned Tom of classic urban legend.)
ReplyDeleteYeah, this story is clearly the best one in this issue. My favorite part is watching George's severed hand crawl after him only to transform into Nakamura holding a sword. Now that is just awesome!
More from this issue up shortly, thanks for the comments!
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you follow HAUNTED HORROR on FB check out the contest I just posted about to win a FREE copy of the latest Volume 4 collection