Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Lucifer's Lush
An insane back-up horror tale found, oddly enough, at the end of the December 1946 - January 1947 issue of Black Cat #3. Yes, once you've finished allowing lovely Linda Turner, (alias The Black Cat) to whoop your sorry ass, you could then take an additional beating from some good 'ol black magic...
Now there's a crazy one, it whips right along at a frantic pace, discards a couple things (or does it? Did his crazy experiment make him immortal or really the devil?) and then he's just ... suddenly not!
ReplyDeleteI love the art. Sure, it's amateur but it really sells John's madness. First two panels on page 3 are awesome. I love how rubbery and stringy everything is.
This was just a lot of fun. First seconds as an immortal he strangles a cop!
The one thing I don't like is it's hard not to think that the splash devil (who lost his skin, than grew it back again when signing) is a vaguely racist Asian (in 46 this wouldn't be outside the norm.) Slit eyes, big teeth, it's pretty telling.
What a wonderfully odd, was wacky tale.
ReplyDeleteI love how John goes from zero to psycho in about two seconds. Well, I'm immortal. Time to literally leap out of my apartment and stop murdering people!"
Also the ending "Bullets can't stop him! Except when they do!"
Thanks for the post.
There is a strapping, headlong quality to this one, and--perhaps appropriately for Harvey--a breezy exaggeration that really reminds me of Archie, at least to a point. I really like the way the visual and dialog elements of the story are mostly unhooked from one another in the first act. I mean, the artist clearly could have depicted nearly anything in the first two pages. John might have been cleaning out the disposALL or practicing the unicycle or helping a mean dog deliver puppies. I also like Sue. I don't know where she's been, but you don't see a lot of precode lasses wearing overalls out on the town.
ReplyDeleteBut what I love best of all is the William Carlos Williams-esque poetry of the panel captions:
In the devilish days that followed horror
Haunts the city--
And in the city... one woman wept! Wept...
As bright lights blaze in a
Previously deserted house,
Out of shadows with serpentine stealth!
Cautiously then... twisted
Brain preaching care...
Suddenly! Grief in a room of silent death!
Heart stoppingly---!
I'm curious whether I missed something here, or this one's just that bat-guano insane. (Which isn't a complaint!)
ReplyDeleteThe over the top gestures and flung around limbs were as hilarious as the overwrought narration boxes. One thing I never understood is the sudden hunger all these comic book immortals immediately develop for money, and how the only way they think they can get it is robbery and murder. You'd think selling the secret of immortality would be far more lucrative.
ReplyDelete@Todd: it's preverted.
ReplyDeleteAll joking aside, with the title "Lucifer's Lush" I was almost expecting an alcoholism P.S.A.
ReplyDeleteAnd some genre stories are, even if I can only name one offhand. It isn't a very famous one, but there's the TWILIGHT ZONE episode "Stopover On A Quiet Town." The couple in it aren't alcoholics, but their drinking leads to their troubles indirectly, and Rod Serling even makes that his little message at the end.