Like candy, cards, and cheap motels, flowers are a big part of Valentines for some. So with that, here's an insane Rudy Palais tale of torment from the Oct '51 issue of Black Cat #31.
Thank you Mr.K., this was terrific. We laughed together at the "maybe if I got something to eat". I thought the art was great and the story a kooky/macabre mix. I especially enjoyed page two panel one and page six's panel three. They worked for me.
Oh, what the heck is the moral of this thing? He wasn't really evil, and he seemed to actual love his wife, and yet the hag keeps saying he's evil, and it seems his good act drove him to evil, and everything is sweating and bleeding and my head is spinning and bodies are obviously made of paper and gasoline and I'm really, really lost! :)
So much great art in this. The splash has a great line, from the body, to the hand, up to the man holding the roses. Palais is really in fine form here, every massively almost comical drip of blood just oozes from the panels.
Page 3, panel 6 is another great line of site panel.
Colorist does a fine job, especially on the last page.
Somebody really needs to tell the enchantress from Disney's Beauty and the Beast that she's drunk and needs to go home! Also, if the roses that you've bought from some random old woman off the street are covered in human blood, don't go back to her and ask questions--get the frickin' police!
As Brian Barnes said, he wasn't really evil, but if one were to look up the old TV show 'The Evil Touch', the show ended with the catchphrase "There is a touch of evil in all of us." Maybe George had more than a touch of evil in him waiting for a chance to come out, Yin Yang and all.
We don't know for sure that George loved his wife 100%, or if he married her for her money, he had a million dollar life insurance policy on her, or he was planning on getting rid of her and marry his secretary. The story leaves out key details, or the writer was too lazy to add a reason George became Jack the Ripper all of a sudden.
A Valentines Day Massacre of a tale Kasrswell, one more for THOIA archives.
George was a sucker. Yeah, yeah, he fell for the power of suggestion because he was a little bit of a pushover. And yeah he killed his wife. But it was certainly in accidental preemptive defense. Because it's pretty obvious that it was Helen that was the evil one all along: The flowers didn't start bleeding until she got her hands on them.
Man, I just love Rudy Palais' innervated freakout art. I dig all of those high tension compositions and totally tripping forced perspectives. I love it when everyday crap sitting around the house gets the royal Rudy treatment--what turns out to look huge and what tiny? What is very close to the viewer and what is unaccountably far away? There's no rhyme or reason, it's totally random. It's just there to make you feel weird. And has there ever been a more Palais story in all of precode? This one was actually about unnatural dripping!
Also: The cover of this ish is so magnificently on-the-nose that I want to wear it as a Halloween costume.
What a shanty town this guy lives in! Rickety fences, rotting houses, shutters askew, doors falling in. What atmosphere. Anything Rudy Palais drew is a sheer treat. Thanks, Kars!
9 comments:
Thank you Mr.K., this was terrific. We laughed together at the "maybe if I got something to eat". I thought the art was great and the story a kooky/macabre mix. I especially enjoyed page two panel one and page six's panel three. They worked for me.
Oh, what the heck is the moral of this thing? He wasn't really evil, and he seemed to actual love his wife, and yet the hag keeps saying he's evil, and it seems his good act drove him to evil, and everything is sweating and bleeding and my head is spinning and bodies are obviously made of paper and gasoline and I'm really, really lost! :)
So much great art in this. The splash has a great line, from the body, to the hand, up to the man holding the roses. Palais is really in fine form here, every massively almost comical drip of blood just oozes from the panels.
Page 3, panel 6 is another great line of site panel.
Colorist does a fine job, especially on the last page.
Another winner!
Somebody really needs to tell the enchantress from Disney's Beauty and the Beast that she's drunk and needs to go home!
Also, if the roses that you've bought from some random old woman off the street are covered in human blood, don't go back to her and ask questions--get the frickin' police!
Blood that won't even clot? Sounds like stage blood, also known as red ink.
"Morals? We don't need no steenken' moral" Yes Brian, Joan said the same "He didn't deserve that".
As Brian Barnes said, he wasn't really evil, but if one were to look up the old TV show 'The Evil Touch', the show ended with the catchphrase "There is a touch of evil in all of us." Maybe George had more than a touch of evil in him waiting for a chance to come out, Yin Yang and all.
We don't know for sure that George loved his wife 100%, or if he married her for her money, he had a million dollar life insurance policy on her, or he was planning on getting rid of her and marry his secretary. The story leaves out key details, or the writer was too lazy to add a reason George became Jack the Ripper all of a sudden.
A Valentines Day Massacre of a tale Kasrswell, one more for THOIA archives.
George was a sucker. Yeah, yeah, he fell for the power of suggestion because he was a little bit of a pushover. And yeah he killed his wife. But it was certainly in accidental preemptive defense. Because it's pretty obvious that it was Helen that was the evil one all along: The flowers didn't start bleeding until she got her hands on them.
Man, I just love Rudy Palais' innervated freakout art. I dig all of those high tension compositions and totally tripping forced perspectives. I love it when everyday crap sitting around the house gets the royal Rudy treatment--what turns out to look huge and what tiny? What is very close to the viewer and what is unaccountably far away? There's no rhyme or reason, it's totally random. It's just there to make you feel weird. And has there ever been a more Palais story in all of precode? This one was actually about unnatural dripping!
Also: The cover of this ish is so magnificently on-the-nose that I want to wear it as a Halloween costume.
What an awful old woman. George was crackers, but everything seemed fine until she went spouting her garbage.
What a shanty town this guy lives in! Rickety fences, rotting houses, shutters askew, doors falling in. What atmosphere. Anything Rudy Palais drew is a sheer treat. Thanks, Kars!
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