Friday, July 20, 2018
The Devil Deals in Death! / A Thirst for Blood!
As promised months ago, a Ghost Rider (original golden age version) double feature-- one from the August 1952 issue of Ghost Rider #8, but first a hot hit from Hell courtesy of the May-June 1953 issue of Ghost Rider #12. All artwork by the great Dick Ayers.
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6 comments:
By pure chance I checked out your blog and you're still undead! Here I thought somebody burned you at the stake.
That first story is a real head scratcher. What the hell is going on with this Jim Tatum bad guy? The villain seems to have the power to raise the dead, hand out thousands of dollars, and do a great imitation of a cyclops devil (!) Yet somehow, Jim Tatum's only payment is to murder people to collect -- what? For what purpose? Did I completely miss something in the story?
I enjoyed the second one as it had a mad delirium to the Carmilla-style tale.
Thanks for posting!
P.S. Hey, Karswell, send me your address and I'll mail you a copy of my now infamous graphic novel TALES FROM THE BLACK CIRCLE. trevormarkwart (at) gmail dot com I owe you for sending me some great stuff over the years in promotion of your blog! I used to have your address, but no more. If I can, I will also send you a deluxe (maybe embossed hardcover) edition due out this Halloween -- but it's a licensed version in German via Germany's most infamous black metal star. No promises on that one, but who knows -- but it's going to be supercool.
It's interesting the change a year made, the first tale is very Scooby-doo-ish and very late 40s type comic, and the other tale is obviously an EC inspired horror tale (of course, they could be inventory stories or this could just be the way the comic aways was.)
Great art in The Devil Deals in Death. Fun corpses (how our villain got his ranch hands to be that convincing of corpses -- so that their actual skin comes off -- isn't explained) and a cool devil, and some great good girl art. The story is a hard read, though, and our hero only figures it out by a pretty dumb mistake from the bad guy and an exposition dump at the end. It doesn't hang together very well, would have been much better to just go the supernatural route.
The second story is a lot of fun in a Wizard of Oz type of way. Why does the witch leave buckets of water around her castle? And why does out vampire make a trap that contains wooden stakes that could fly out? Come on, people! "Unearthly Beauty" only gets you so far!
Amusingly enough, while the origins of the Ghost Rider are actually supernatural, most of his adventures are Scooby Doo esque with phony monsters running amok. Only the side stories that don't involve him usually invoke the true supernatural such as the vampiress story.
Why is the "Devil" depicted as a cyclops though? It's also a rather elaborate ruse that the villain goes through just to gain more wealth for himself in the long run.
The second tale is fun--love the transformation sequence from old hag to wicked beauty. Although Ysabella's backstory is a bit confusing. Was the old man who convicted her to hang her husband or someone completely separate who knew she was a vampire?
Yeah, a vampire leaving a stake nearby that could easily kill her isn't really that bright. That's like a werewolf leaving silver on the premise of his home.
You know, I don't think there is anything supernatural about the origins of Golden Age Ghost Rider. One of the things I really loved about the first story here is that there is a wonderful panel, the third on page six, in which two completely normal dudes are desperately trying to convince the damsel, as well as each other, that they are paranormal in some way. Meanwhile, they're just fighting, the Devil with a farm tool and the Ghost Rider armed to the teeth with sixguns. It cracks me up.
The other thing I love about that story is on down that same page, when the Rider convinces Lucy that the Devil's really just a fake. It makes her feel foolish. My gosh, she thinks, I wasn't really dealing with Satan at all--I've been so stupid. And yet, now her soul isn't in jeopardy and, I assume, she can just keep the cash she was given. I want to think she's just disappointed that she didn't actually get to meet the real Devil because that's kinda sweet. Now everybody at school's going to know she's been bragging about nothing.
Great comments, and thanks again to those of you that stuck with me here while I took some time off to get some other stuff out of the way / fixed / rested / and refreshed! Hope to get things back on track here, so stay tombed for lots more... we're definitely not dead-- yet! ;)
The fourth panel of page 6 in the first story: dat ass, though XD
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