Saturday, August 15, 2020
Only a Beast
Everyone seemed to enjoy the Al Eadeh story in our last post so much, maybe we'll take a look at more of his terrifyingly toothed, Ghastly-esque work for a few more posts. And here's a hug-filled heart warmer from the May 1954 issue of Menace #11 to really whet your worn out little whistles!
Wow, this really is very similar to the last one. I guess many of these stories with golems and robots and assorted reanimated criminal henchmen are just Svengali stories in the long run. Dr. Caligari, with more or less sci-fi mixed into the batter. Frankenstein messes with the formula by starting with the twist ending: Immediately the hand-crafted creature is off the leash and after his maker. Of course, this here beast is not physically manufactured by this very Svengali, but he is psychologically made-over for the necessary role. A Manchurian Candy Sriper.
ReplyDeletePage three and four are excellent! That first panel of three would make yet another great THOIA tee.
I don't mean it as an insult to say this is an ugly little story, more psychological experiment as daydream. It's interesting, but I think I'm glad it's short, although I would have liked more explanation of how he taught the beast telepathy. It's a nice change of pace from supernatural twist out of nowhere to resolve everything.
ReplyDeleteA lot to love in the art on this one, and there's a good bit of Ghastly here, especially in the beast. Page 2, panel 1 and page 3, panel 1 both look like something Ghastly would draw, and that's high praise.
ReplyDeleteOne wonders if Eadeh might have been told to take a run at Ghastly like other artist of the time were told to ape Davis, for instance. None of that is at all a slight, the art is wonderful and learning from the masters is a great thing.
This story has a pretty original setup, I don't know if I've seen another tale with a mesmerizing invalid. I love how Eadeh gives him a very beast like appearance throughout the entire story, finally transforming him right into a four legged beast.
It isn't about a MESMERIZING invalid, but there's a Richard Matheson novel I read just once that this reminds me of, called "Now You See Him." It's about a man in Mr. Jordan's condition, watching a whole set of murder plots and similar ones go on around him, involving his son and daughter-in-law and her boyfriend.
ReplyDelete"Manchurian Candy-Striper" is a phrase that will stay with me.