Sunday, May 24, 2020
The Freaks of Fear!
Everyone seemed to enjoy the old west weirdness of Gunspook in our last post, so let's head back out on the high range of strange for another creepy precode cowboy tale-- and my oh my, it has indeed been awhile since we've seen the gallopin' Ghost Rider around these petrifyin' parts! From the July - August 1952 issue of Bobby Benson's B-Bar-B Riders #15, and arrestin' art by dead-eye Dick Ayers, of course-- he sure does draw a sizzlin' cute little snake gal, dont'cha think?
We just have to acknowledge the attitude and move on, it was 1952 (which makes freaks, decades earlier, even more forward facing.)
ReplyDeleteAyers does a great job here, with a lot of fun panels showing the "super powers" of the freaks, with a lot of emphasis on the snake gal's proportions (page 4, panel 1 gets a lot of loving details!) I love some of the more demonic freaks and it's always fun to see Ghost Rider's bag of tricks.
I love Ayer's cape work, that's a lot harder than it looks.
Sideshow attractions from a 1952 comic book to inspiration for Ace/Marvel super villains, or at least the seed of an idea for said villains.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post Karswell.
Freaks would definitely make a good Chilling Archives theme book, along the lines of devils and snakes. I liked the demonic hoard here, too--especially that infernal tableau in the splash (and the cover)--though I wish Dick had employed even more surreality. Take the panel at the top of page four: It's so great; and it's also really flipping strange. I'd love to see even more off-the-wall strangeness along those lines. Charles Burns type stuff. I do like the way Ayers keeps Ghost Rider just as weird as everyone else, though--it's pretty neat when he materializes hat-first behind the sheriff or gallops along dangerously swaddled in his overlong shroud.
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