There's no artist credit at GCD for the Devil's Gorge story, but I'm leaning towards maybe Everett Raymond Kinstler... anyone else have a thought about it?
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Liquid X / Accident in Devil's Gorge
May Madness means it's time for a couple of mad scientist tales, and first up it's a Leonard Starr sizzler about a city destroying substance, from the January 1944 issue of Lucky Comics #1, followed by a queer little quickie from the back of Avon's cool Robotmen of the Lost Planet #1 one-shot issue from 1952. And I've rounded it all out with a mad little scientific minx by the ever sensational, Shubina, too!
There's no artist credit at GCD for the Devil's Gorge story, but I'm leaning towards maybe Everett Raymond Kinstler... anyone else have a thought about it?
There's no artist credit at GCD for the Devil's Gorge story, but I'm leaning towards maybe Everett Raymond Kinstler... anyone else have a thought about it?
I want to focus on the last story -- GCD doesn't have an artist listed (as you noted) but I swear I've seen this person before. It's incredible. Page 1, panel 2 is almost fine art, and page 3, panel 5 is just clever with all the "dots" and the shaded out body parts.
ReplyDeleteIt's also great in it's economic story telling; everything is setup very fast, the characters (while cliche, but you need that to be fast) are quickly understandable and the ending is very satisfying.
The mouse in the Shubina picture is also entertaining!
I am totally charmed by the mad scientist / frustrated production designer in Liquid X. I mean, creating a doomsday device is one thing, being a high-level embedded saboteur for the gestapo is something else, but then going the extra mile to create a realistic model of London--which I assume must be perfect in every detail of urban make-up: Glass, Steel, concrete, wood, and stone in the correct British proportions--just to test it out! That's really something. Hope he let the Gorgo crew have a crack at it before he melted it down.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this foray into the pre-precode Golden Age. The fusty old art is fun, Brit Col. Sanders makes a rather less mustache-twirling villain than yer usual Nasti, and that splash is really great. Though I kind of wish they'd embraced the idea that it was a model, and had the huge form of the cackling scientist--"it's works! It finally works!"--filling-up the yellow London sky.
The cover of Robotmen of the Lost Planet is trippy and a little bit disturbing and I love it. I can't help wondering what the warm rubbery skin on those Mr. Potato Heads would actually feel like.
For some reason apart from its length, "The Devil's Gorge" reminds me of those one-page prose stories that showed up in countless horror comics, like the Charlton and Gold Key ones, and those contributions from readers in the Warren magazines.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Shubina, but she looks like a SF version of Chili in the Marvel comics.
Grant, click Shubina's name in the intro above to see more of her work... I'm sure you've seen something of hers by now, she's been an internet sensation for quite a few years now.
ReplyDeleteSo no one else wants to take a stab at the possible artist of the second tale?
Thank you. (I thought at first it was the character's name.)
ReplyDelete