And don't miss the second part of my View-Masters of Horror dream series over at my other blog today too by CLICKING HERE!! The Talking Reels command you!
Saturday, October 5, 2019
The Body Maker
A request for Warren Kremer fills today's post with a gorgeously goofball tale of mad science gone full-blown bat shit crazy cakes. A superbly sexy splash, plus the lovely good girl art mixed throughout with horrific ugliness raise this a notch or two above most precode terror tales. We featured this one in Haunted Horror #29, but it originally appeared in the September 1952 issue of Black Cat Mystery #39.
And don't miss the second part of my View-Masters of Horror dream series over at my other blog today too by CLICKING HERE!! The Talking Reels command you!
And don't miss the second part of my View-Masters of Horror dream series over at my other blog today too by CLICKING HERE!! The Talking Reels command you!
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ReplyDeleteThe ending on this one is the ultimate in upending expectations -- it has so little to do with everything that came before! And so much unfinished business, he never animates his creation, there's no vengeance (maybe) from the parts ... the husband of the woman who gets her hands cut off never becomes a hero for revenge ... I don't know if it's good or bad it's just sudden!
ReplyDeleteThe art is great in this. A lot of good girl art (I like how he keeps the heels on the legs!). The action is well done (not a static image around,) and the artist had a great feel for the cloak (Page 5, panel 4 is a good example.). The ugly hunchback and his lab are great 40s universal type images. Nice art, a fun story.
I love how when Dr.Payne finally gets caught up in his work,(heh!)and is strangled, the movie sign next to him says "Now Playing The Perfect Woman." What will become of his unfinished work though?
ReplyDeleteOk, Dr. Payn was ugly, and in his rage at being cursed with a hideous face he never considered going to work in a facility for the blind. (I know I know, logic was banished from horror comics, and most horror movies too.)
ReplyDeleteI love the art, bit the plot is iffy and the ending a big letdown. What if he had animated bus creation? Would she have been beautiful? Or not? Would she have rejected him?
ReplyDeleteWow, beautiful, interesting, and chewey art on this one. I dig all the character work as much as everybody else, but what really sent me were all those rich backgrounds. Those panels in the lab never get old.
ReplyDeleteWhat a horrible parable of waste and objectification.
In many stories like this, there is a need for multiple bodies expressly because, taken out of the ground, no one cadaver is fresh enough to contain all the needed parts. Those stories tend to culminate with a murder for that last, necessary, and otherwise unavailable piece. In stories that begin with murder as the method for harvesting parts, I never understood why it was necessary for the mad doctor to have a variety of sources. I'm not persuaded by the idea of isolated perfection in this way--this one woman had the best hands, this other the best legs, etc. After they've been stolen bit-by-bit and sewn altogether, I feel like the swelling, the stitches, and the mismatched proportions would become very evident.
OK. Main word here is crazy as you said. This is beyond and could not be better. Yes, the panels are full of detail. Yes, that panel of him carrying the legs hits you in the gut with that body in the street. Yes, there is a Universal horror vibe on display. I expected the sign to kill him not the hair to hang him. Thank you so much Mr.K. this was perfectly horrible.
ReplyDeleteMust be a great police force that town has. They saved… exactly nobody?
ReplyDelete