Speakin' of snakes, let's take a slithery stroll down the circus scare-way, errrr, fairway, for some frighteningly fangy, sideshow fun, --all wonderfully wrapped in a skimpy, scaled bikini no less! Yes ladies and gentlemen, Madam Zhora definitely knows how to charm a snake or two, as well as put an end to any 'ol plumbin' problem you may be experiencin'! From the March 1978 issue of Monster Hunters #12.
This has almost everything, including a good attitude towards snakes.
ReplyDeleteSince I honestly thought this was a pre-Code comic at first, I was surprised that Zhora has a real Vampirella kind of look (depending on the Vampirella artist).
It's as if somebody challenged Zhora to find something sexier than her bikini to wear and snake costume it was!
ReplyDeleteI love this one. 10 pages, all based on some writer probably needing to call a plumber and going "wait a minute ... snake, snake ..."
It announces the plumbing, but in such a way that it's not very obvious, and at the same time gives us to illusionary endings (Joey's dream and then Zhora strangling him with the pipe snake.) It has that predictable horror art where the wife is a beauty and the husband is a slob, this one is kind of a prototype comic horror story and at the same time is post code!
Like Grant said, it's hard to not think this look wasn't lifted from Vampirella.
It's tempting to think that only a HORRROR COMIC husband could have complaints about a wife like that.
ReplyDeleteAnd in my case, that includes her being snake lover.
This isn't the first time Charlton served up a little cheesecake in their horror line.
ReplyDeleteI guess the gang at Charlton figured "the comics code doesn't pay us much attention, lets sneak in a bit of good girl art to keep or reader's attention."
Love em' or hate em' you have to give Charlton credit for staying in the comics business as long as they did.
Okay, yeah, sexy fetish wear, sure, and great carnival ambiance. But what I really want to know more about is this giant funhouse that takes up the whole fairground and has games, and plumbing, and concessions--all inside! Man, that's the circus of my dreams.
ReplyDeleteReally got into the art on this one--especially the faces and those throwaway circus mood panels (like the middle of page four). I feel like the prosaic color job does the drawing no favors.
Is it interesting that a few years after this was published, the scriptwriters of BLADE RUNNER named their own exotic snake dancer Zhora? Do you think there could be a connection? They have couple of things in common. For one thing, in many Slavic countries, and in most cases, Zhora is a masculine name.
Nice quick art.
ReplyDeleteRidiculous story but well told for what it was.
The 'snake.' It's a plumber's story!
And one of those horror stories where the oafish husband doesn't seem to realize he has a cartoonishly hot wife.