"All hear my warning, never turn your back on--
THE RIPPER!"
Monday, January 6, 2020
The Ripper's Return
One more from the Sept '52 issue of Tales of Horror #2 (see previous post for another), and it's a short, but oddly entertaining mix of Jack the Ripper and muddled, mad science. And despite the usual kooky perspective issues, the Hollingsworth art is actually pretty solid here for once too.
"All hear my warning, never turn your back on--
THE RIPPER!"
"All hear my warning, never turn your back on--
THE RIPPER!"
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9 comments:
I think the moral is to always think twice about your plans, Dr. Karvel's certainly didn't!
I like the Dr.'s appearance, very mad-science-y. Karswell is right with the perspective, it's wacky-doodle in places, but for something that happens inside a mental institution it's actually a bit apt!
I like this one! Quick, silly, and fun read. I wish the colorist would have taken a bit more time, I can live with the solid colors but stuff like page 4, panel 2 is just sloppy (and it's not a mis-aligned plate, it's just quick work.)
Thank you Mr.K., I enjoyed the nice detailed artwork on this one. Even with the mistakes, the coloring was funky fun. Yes, a very insane tale of insanity. Dr. Kar is the archetype of a mad scientist. Mad in every way. First thing to do, free the created Jack, what could possibly go wrong?
Okay, I have to hand it to the author: "tiny brain atoms" may be the most felicitous phrase I've read in the past week. I don't know why it makes me snortle, but it does, it does.
Between the doctor and the patients it is hard to tell who was really mad.
The story was a bit of a cheat, Jack didn't rip into the doctor, he only strangled him. A handy scalpel conveniently placed on a nearby operating table would have allowed Jack to pick up where he left off, starting with the not so good doctor Karvel.
I liked the narrator even if he was a copy of The Mysterious Stranger.
I really love that splash page! All that red makes Dr. Karvel look like the Devil! I must admit though, on the 6th panel of the second page, it was really hard for me to finally realize that the doctor was holding a gun. It looks more like a gun afterwards, but all of the shadowing and far out panels until the next page make it hard to make out the gun.
Also, why am I not surprised that Dr. Karvel asks Dr. Brown if he wants to be Hitler?
Should have gone with a safer choice, Doc, like Marie Antoinette or Abraham Lincoln.
Man, this is some great kookology! Today's mad science, Sentient Atom Transplants! And I'm with Glowworm, that splash is pretty amazing. Somebody somewhere needs to write us up a story in which Satan is a mad doctor. And I'm also with Mr. Barnes, the colorist over at Tales of Horror* was really strange. He churned out plenty of the weirdly two-tone folks Brian cited (there are two on the last page alone). I think of them as lava lamp people. Also, check out the green and orange figures at the top of page two. Green and orange cant touch without making process brown, thus the yellow streak of lighting separating those Christmassy highlights.
* I love the cover of this comic. It's always nice to see a Myron Fass illustration that predates the Erie Pubs era. But it's the cover design itself that sends me: I like the way that little bat silhouette is there to inform us that TALES OF HORROR is a mag actually filled with tales of terror. The whole effect reminds me of those "butter / Parkay" commercials from the seventies.
"Brain atoms"? What are "brain atoms"? And Jack the Ripper's real name was.....Jack the Ripper? Cor Blimey, squire.
This is a clever variation of those stories where the scientists revive executed convicts, and almost always ones who were guilty, and of something violent (THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN; GALLERY OF HORRORS etc.). As JBM says, "What could possibly go wrong?"
I don't know much about how it started, but it used to be a big cliche that any male with a second personality thought he was Napoleon, so it's nice to see that cliche pop up in this story.
A decade or so later the writer would have made RNA the transplanted substance rather that "brain atoms"!
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