Back pedaling a bit to the August 1952 issue of
Spellbound #6 again for the exceptionally well written,
Krigstein illustrated lead-off cover story, one that may make you giggle just as hard as you'll no doubt gasp your little heads off over that final panel.
*BANG!*
This story is hilarious. The art is fantastic and I love the concept of Lady Luck protecting gangsters of all people! Also Nutsy clearly wasn't so dumb after all. I think he actually could see Lady Luck after Lucky described her to him. Lucky was stupid enough to sell her to Nutsy--and only for a thousand bucks.
ReplyDeleteThis feels a bit like Robert Bloch's "Luck is No Lady".
ReplyDeleteYou know it finally hit me -- Krigstein is like a fine art Frank Robins with a little bit of Gene Colan thrown in. I wonder if those two had influences from him?
ReplyDeleteHis style is so distinctive, page 2 panel 5 has that Krigstein face with the upturned nose.
When I was young and loved all the super hero art of the 70s, I would have been pretty dismissive of this style, but it's full of really fluid action and still retains that sketches kind of "fine" art style (this work is a bit more comic-y than other work, and Krigstein skimped on the background in a couple places.). It's not the kind of high art he did in other places (notably EC) but it's still high class.
The story is a hoot, I think the penultimate panel is actually the good gotcha panel (you could attribute this to real luck but bullets don't curve) and the last one is just "we told you so."
Coincidentally, I just finished seeing MOBSTERS with Christian Slater as Charles "Lucky" Luciano, whose name and career obviously inspired Larno's, so I keep seeing his appearance instead.
ReplyDeleteFor that matter, "Nutsy" reminds me of Chris Penn's character Tommy Reina in that film, who isn't dumb, but he is a kind of "big lug" character like Nutsy.
Back around the same time, early 50s, Robert Bloch wrote a story called "Luck Is No Lady" in which the protagonist, a hobo, tried to revive his fortunes by gambling. In the casino he cane cane a a woman in red who guided him to victory after victory, so much so that he found himself able to afford a luxury hotel room and deluxe Scotch. The woman stayed with him all the time, not eating, drinking, sleeping, or speaking. Then he went out for a night on the town, found a hooker, brought her back to the room and threw out the woman in red. As you can imagine, that was the end of his luck. The woman vanished and so did the prostitute, with all the protagonist's money.
ReplyDeleteI think this comic got its inspiration from that story.
Was it deliberate to post this so soon after the talking dog story? Cool either way.
ReplyDeleteTo me Krigstein often feels rushed. But it's a fluid, energetic kind of work with a valuable dynamism. I love that deep panel at the top of three, where the cop is tripping and Lucky's hopping over the fence in the background. The whole page is great. So maybe a better word for the art is "pitched". Bernie's illustration style is like angry handwriting.
ReplyDeleteI like that splash. Did the cops just throw Lucky off the roof?
Really enjoyed the art on this one. The story seemed familiar to me but the drawing and execution more than made up for any recognizable plotting.
ReplyDeleteLoved the close ups in this. Not Krigstein at his best, when he was allowed total free reign by an editor, but total class nonetheless. Whiel the tale was very similar to Bloch's Luck is No Lady, it also had the feel of a Damon Runyan story to me too.
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