Of all the ridiculous, kookball stories I've posted here over the last decade of this blog's existence, this one is sure to find a rightful place waaaay up there on top with the kookiest of 'em! Have fun with this one, fiends--
Mr. Karswell's positive that you're gonna eat it up! From the October 1952 issue of
Mysterious Adventures #10.
And thanks again to one of my bestest bloggin' chums,
Mr. Cavin for the wonderful package of books and his excellent illustration of me in the early 80's beating the
Williams arcade classic,
JOUST game late one night at a
Showbiz Pizza Place-- the only arcade game I ever defeated! Yep, true story!
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ReplyDeleteI let others talk about the crazy parts, I want to talk about the characters. Manuel got his "revenge," but was it really deserved?
ReplyDeleteCertainly, he was treated poorly by the company, and certainly, companies can be greedy and treat their workers like dirt. At the same time, he knew that his entire worth was in his speed; after the injury, there wasn't anything he could do about it.
Bert just got the job. He didn't take it, or steal it, from Manuel! He wasn't even particularly mean to Manuel! Did he steal Manuel's girlfriend? He didn't use hypnotism (unless it was off panel!) She decided to leave Manuel for him.
Look, I can feel bad for Manuel, but his revenge is very much misplaced, if not outright undeserved.
That said, I'd pay good money for a cool skull/devil/goat statue!
You're right, Karswell, this one is Kooky with a capital K. I had fun reading it. It achieves that surreal dream world aura I like in these stories. I was only thrown a bit when the text box ended up on the bottom of the panel rather than the top on a few panels where it should have been. And the ending, though I felt disappointed a bit when I first read it, stuck with me as kind of haunting actually. Some say that somewhere up in the treacherous mountains of Kalan, the mad goat man still climbs -- best not try to take any of his precious herbs!
ReplyDeleteYeah, this is one weird story. There's some misplaced revenge, some mismatched cultures and probably one of the silliest curses I've ever seen placed upon a victim. Heck, the only way it could have possible gotten even goofier is if Burt started acting like a goat before his climbs and started eating tin cans!
ReplyDeleteI do love that little skull headed goat statue though! That thing is awesome looking.
Mestiere is both right and wrong. There are native mountain goats all over the Canadian U.S. rockies and they can climb like crazy. However they don't range down to Mexico. The writer of this story no doubt thought they did when they wrote this crazy story.
ReplyDeleteBut if you really want to get into the weeds on a whimsical 1950's horror comic book story, I looked it up and there was the Harrington's mountain goat which did range down through Mexico until it became extinct about 10,000 years ago when the Clovis People arrived. So I would propose that the goat god in the story was at least 10,000 years old and had been passed down from generation to generation in the village. That's my theory.
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ReplyDeleteWell, now I know who to call on when I need some goat expertise!
ReplyDeleteI think...
I will tell you, Karswell, if you put a great brain like Mestiere's together with mine -- or in fact any decent combination of the massive brain trust you have created with this blog, you'll get expertise on all kinds of things esoteric. Mexican goat god statues and curses, brain-bats, weretigers -- you name it! The cable news pundits have got nothing on your readership!
ReplyDeleteHaha, my plan is working perfectly then!
ReplyDeleteTo add to this comic (which can be filed under what were these comic writers drinkin' or smokin') the lil goat god looks like a satyr, only the pan flute is missing.
ReplyDeleteSouth American beliefs, Voodoo (which didn't show up in North America until the 1700's) Roman satyr goat god, bizarre revenge/weregoat curse, this sounds like the plot of an Ed Wood flick!
The fifties horror comics ran the gamut from terrifying to just plain nuts.
"...goats are not from the Americas, they originated in the Middle East."
ReplyDeleteSo now I get why the chupacabras were always lining up at Lebanese takeout joints.