++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sunday, July 28, 2019
Satan the Great / Cremation
So was our last tale not hot enough for ya? Okay then, time to REALLY turn up the hell-bound heat with a Pete Morisi satanic sizzler from the January 1953 issue of Strange Terrors #6, --plus a bona fired, one page, bonus scorcher from the December 1944 issue of Captain Flight #5, art by Joe Cleary.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
++++++++++++++++++++++++
Such a great cover to Strange Terrors. I like the Captain Flight cover too , but what are they doing to that poor girl? Nicely paced good story. The art grew on me. I like the detail. The BOOK and POOL on the two buildings made me think it's a simple town. Such wonderful devil summoning equipment. What is the title of the book in his hand? I think that that demon started the "ugly devil" cliché. Kind of turned into a Greek tragedy. Circe turning Odysseus's men to pigs and hubris leading to a downfall. This time falling all the way to hell. That one-pager wow! What? Thank you Mr. K. Like Calgon you take me away.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to see Pete Morisi was the artist in this one since his later work looks stiff, as if he were doing still life instead of comic art.
ReplyDeleteJohn Caldwell should have just had two more skid row residents sign the contracts after the first one did. Then using his new found power he could have summoned the demon, delivered the contracts and been done with it. Poor planning and arrogance are the downfall of all horror baddies.
Try to be greater than Satan himself and in the end it's the devil to pay. John Caldwell should have read that last contract more carefully,after all, the devil's in the details!
ReplyDeleteAlso, whenever Satan's demon pops up,all of the smoke reminds me more of popcorn for some reason.
That second story, Martha looks a bit like Natasha Fatale from Rocky and Bullwinkle.
This brings up two things I've always wondered about in the rules of horror stories. It features people tricked into contracts. How can that be legal, in a supernatural sense? And second, having to trick Cadwell into giving up his soul. Didn't Satan already have it? Cadwell had already done a vast evil twice!
ReplyDeleteI like the art in this, even the demon summoned in the middle of his bubble bath.
Cremation? Wow. The art wasn't a fan of drawing faces that weren't side views! I love how primitive it looks, it reminds me of Fletcher Hanks.
I can't help liking the devil's surfer hairstyle.
ReplyDeleteOr is it a Trump hairstyle? (I'll look on the positive side and say the first one.)
I always like those stories where the character is drawn to just the right shop to find the occult book that's so important to the story. Including that detail of the shop owner not recognizing the book (oddly enough, the comical TWILIGHT ZONE episode "The Bard" also uses that detail).
Along with a Natasha Fatale look, Martha has a sort of King of the Hill / Beavis and Butthead artwork look on the sixth panel.
I liked the impressionist details in the first story. The way the artist feathered both the shadows and the rays of light, the foamy organization of that satanic smoke, and especially the way the city skyline is abstracted at the top of page three. I love that panel with the hands at the top of the last page, too. Even the Pigpen demon had really awesome, gnarly looking evil hands.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this was a dig at somebody in particular? The protagonist's face is far more personalized than the usual comic book character, and so much is made of his resemblance to the devil. I'd bet a twenty that he's actually a dead ringer for somebody's old boss or something.
I think this story plays around with the rules in at least one way - you'd think that by signing the contracts, those other two men would also be able to get something out of it (even if they don't KNOW what they're signing). Instead, they evidently go straight to hell.
ReplyDelete