Sunday, March 25, 2018
Sharp Idea / Hot Seat / Deep Freeze
THOIA returns after a brief computer malfunction that fried out my graphic board, but we are back on track-- and since everyone seemed to like that last Lawbreakers post so much here's a Sharp Idea-- plus a hot and cold one too! Yep, another triple header of dumb ass criminals getting EXACTLY what they deserve. From the jolting July 1953 issue of Lawbreakers Suspense Stories #13.
'Hot Seat': Ned Brent looks amazingly like a certain orange-hued President - check out the 'H-Hey..leggo, you jerk!' panel.
ReplyDeleteGreat tales, all.
Nice little quickies!
ReplyDeleteNormally you stack the deck with these tales to make characters that deserve their fate but Deep Freeze when to 11 on that! Even shooting the dogs!
My only small complaint is Sharp Idea because of the too clever panel layout. It makes it a confusing read. I like interesting panel layout but that one broke the story flow, though I loved the armor cut-out at the end!
Lou Morales didn't slack on the art in that last one, even if the story was a wee slight. That last panel is a real showstopper. I wish the last panel of Sharp Idea had been, too. I see the artist wrestled with a difficult visual problem to solve, what with showing the inside of that iron maiden effectively--and the result here is just fine. But I think this story could have been a classic, endlessly reprinted childhood memory if they'd just solved that problem little bit better.
ReplyDeleteAlso. I'd love to see a sequel from two weeks later, when the smell finally prompts the guards to dig that oaf out of there. It would have been funny to put a one-pager coda right at the end of the comic: A Rotten Idea!
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ReplyDeleteAlthough the iron maiden in the first story is highly improbable in function like has been said, and the final panel could have been done better, it is nonetheless a pretty cool little shorty.
ReplyDeleteThough there is little evidence for fully-encased iron maidens from the medieval period of torture like Mestiere says, they did certainly use open stand-up cages for torture. They called it gibbeting or "coffin torture". And no doubt there were small spikes and sharp edges inside so the victim couldn't rest even against the sides of the nearly form-fitting cage. But it makes sense that if you're some kind of medieval torture fiend magistrate or inquisition leader or witchfinder, you're going to want your victims on full display as they slowly die. Where's the fun and crowd appeal of having them hidden from view?
In spite of going to a very small rural parochial school, my teachers sometime had Miss Terwilliger's dark sense of humor when teaching history (like her "quick relief to the guest" line).
ReplyDelete"Deep Freeze" makes me want to laugh, because rough-looking French-Canadians also seem to be stock villains in cartoons.