Did you guys honestly think I'd end the month of February with a story about the Devil playing fair for once?! (See previous post, "The Devil and the War Bride.") Umm, think again, darlings! Instead, let's smell the magic and go out in style with a wonderfully epic, 4-page tale by awesome Al Luster about the world's greatest trickster truly doing his part to bring all you lovers together-- even if it kills ya! From the March 1953 issue of Journey into Unknown Worlds #16.
7 comments:
This smells like Stan but a lot of writers on staff were emulating him so it's hard to tell.
The great thing about this? It's a comical -- darkly comical -- ending. From page 2 I thought I knew what the ending was: that her body building husband was going to hug her to death. That happened. Then, it's Night of the Living Dead suddenly and the entire streets are filled with corpses! That's excellent!
There's some really good art here but the printing all but slaughters it. I love the splash and the shadows and action, I love page 2, panel 2, with how evil it plays here, and I love the smiley devil. Great stuff!
Side-note: I don't get the EC addicts. I love EC, I love it dearly ... but this is great. It's so fun, and witty. Steve knows what I'm talking about :)
The way Lisa Torgan is drawn almost clashes with the story. She's drawn to look like a "battleax" (except for Panel 4 of Page 4 to a degree). So you'd think the story would have a lot of irony about her running a cosmetics firm - like having her want to invent the perfect cosmetics for HERSELF - but that never comes up.
When the devil offers you something with no strings attached, you better beware! This one's fun though. Love the devil's design and the entire sequence of the devil creating the formula for Lisa Torgan. I especially love how he simply vanishes leaving behind the formula for her.
I like the style of ol' scratch in this one, he looks like the model for Halloween costumes.
I am so delighted that you keep turning up new Al Luster stories occasionally. This one's a doozy, too. I deeply love the tone and execution of the first page: The three introductory panels and the groovy and energetic mad science of that splash (with requisite gnarly Luster jack-o-lantern teeth in all the yawning gobs, natch!). Every page is chocked full of nifty touches (dig that shadow in panel two, page two), but I am totally smitten with the stars in the devil's eyes on page three. That's inspired lunacy right there.
I'm also very pleased by the inclusion of Lisa's kept man Boris. There were probably a lot of ways to get to the end of this story without the addition such Richard O'Brien-esque touches as a beefcake gigolo ceaselessly pumping iron in the living room of our deranged perfume baroness. But that's what we got. Oh Rocky!
>Steve knows what I'm talking about
Unfortunately, I do...
>Oh Rocky!
Hahaha!
I just love that final panel, I said EPIC and I mean it. Thanks for the comments, and we'll see another one from this cool Atlas issue in our kick off post for March too! Coming sooner than later...
For me, this one was about the artist drawing hands. So many hands with details. From the first page's mob of grasping women until almost the last panel. Thank you Karswell.
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