Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Terror of the Lion's Revenge!
Here we go with the next traumatic tale in our look at the August 1952 issue of Mysterious Adventures #9. And like our last post, it contains yet another tried 'n true story plot that found its way into many a precode yarn --our last post being the fake your own death for money scheme gone wrong--, while today's terror trope is to put a conniving white guy into a jungle full of riches and superstition and see what happens. Do we know what happens? Oh yes, hahaha. And it's always a cause for celebration when we can add another horrific Hy Fleishman illustrated story to the THOIA Archive too!
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8 comments:
Some notes for guy #22:
1. Don't put down the gun
2. A tribe in the wilds of Africa probably doesn't know how to put on a convincing multiple skeleton illusion
3. You've got the blonde and you've got the formula which should be a nice bonus, how about you call it a day?
I love the lion-headed native on the last page. That's a great image! This could have done without all the text and a lot of unnecessary captions, though.
I agree with Brian Barnes, the formula for the dye process was worth more than diamonds, Leonard could have become a vice president in Bowen Manufacturing Co. and set up a subsidiary in Africa to learn more techniques in dyes, medicinal plants, mining (not diamonds) etc.
Greed led him to his doom and he had no one to blame but himself.
The one I feel sorry for in this story is Diane. She was tricked into leading Leonard to the Sumac tribe then found out what a greedy untrustworthy jerk he rally was.
The story's narrator looks like the Cryptkeeper's creepy brother, No known name for this narrator I guess.
Oh come on now, you've got a pretty girl, you have the formula for the dye that you came to get--leave the dead guys' diamonds alone!
Also that last panel in page 6--that's a really weirdly drawn lion--I know it's supposed to be drawn dying--but that head looks so weird!
That were-lion is my new spirit animal.
This really thick black ink line is so awesome and energetic. At first I assumed that the splash was an enlargement from some later panel, just because that brush work was so big--but no! Fleishman must have been inking with a house paint brush. Back in the day this might have been drawn double-up; some of these strokes were close to three-quarters of an inch wide.
Anyway: I love it. Especially the first and last panels. But also that wordless panel in the middle of page three and even the evocative lion-shooting panel on six. Yeah, it's a little strange, maybe; but to me it looks like Hy was going for something raw, with an arte brute naivete that would communicate the alien and ceremonial fate he was perpetuating. That's not a biological animal coming after Leonard, it's a mechanism of exoticized tribal vengeance as weird and misunderstood as any other bogeyman representing death itself.
There's also a pretty clever dark joke at the end. It's considered a very unenlightened expression for very good reasons, but there's the expression "Free, White and Twenty-One." And at the end, Leonard becomes "Dead White No. 21."
I do so love a happy ending. :')
If the fellow had not had such a hardened spirit. If he had begun to humblt plead Toa Luna for mercy crying about how upset Dianne would be by his foolishness. Then saved him from the vengeful lion. Well perhaps this story may have had a different ending, while retaining the same moral.
However he proved he wasn't merely foolish, but evil at heart by his actions. The ending he received was fitting.
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