We had some phony fun devils via the old west earlier this month HERE, now it's time to get down with the really hot REAL demonic dealio! From the June 1950 issue of Marvel Tales #96, and featuring some masterful art by Mike Sekowsky that almost seems to predict a satanic Silver Age illustrative sensibility decades before it ever happened!
Since the human creation of the devil we've had stories in across the centuries of people cheating the devil but never has the devil made it so easy! I can see why he gets fooled all the time, he should be practicing his fiddle he's quite the dope!
ReplyDeleteThere's always a weird element to these stories -- sure, Satan can't capture his soul but he can just telepathically command him to kill and that's good enough? That seems like a colossal loop-hole, so sin doesn't count agency?
This story brings up a lot of questions!
I always love the "magician" Satan in these pre-codes. I love the cloak, the appearing in smoke, the grand gestures, the screaming, the super hero underpants. It's great. He's more an Ultraman bad guy then the root of evil, and in comics, I'm all here for that!
Well, that's a new one. The horror magazine in question prints stories that make people afraid of the devil. I do love the emissary's sense of humor when asked how he got inside the locked office. Panel one of page four with all the distorted faces is great. I also love how this one ends with the Devil's plan foiled. Maybe, he should have sent his emissary back before sending Mr.Pendergast back to his office? Also, I need to find an opportunity to use "Begone, denizen of the artificial sphere of mortals!" in my vocabulary.
ReplyDeletePendergast looks like Ned Flanders!
ReplyDeleteIs this why Ned is so goody two shoes, he is afraid of sinning and suffering a fate worse than Death in the afterlife?
Ol' Scratch just doesn't look right without a moustache, a missing touch overlooked by the artist, I guess.
I had taken it for granted that, as is usual in these fables, the first living thing he saw would be a fly or rat or something like that. In any case, so his magazine was basically a Chick Tract?
ReplyDeleteAlso, last panel, Page 3: holy purple prose, Batman!
I was wondering the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of a horror magazine teaching people to live a godly life sounds like some film like Dwayne Esper's MANIAC, the kind that poses as a public service!
Also, I'm always fond of horror stories about horror writers themselves, especially the ones who have to meet deadlines. Has anyone ever compiled a list of those?
Nerodart says...
ReplyDeleteLike I said pre and post cose atlas has its own feel Congrats Ive been wanting to read the storyy for years
Grant: check out this IDW / Yoe book that I helped out with from 2013
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Comics-About-Cartoonists-Stories-Profession/dp/1613773463/ref=mp_s_a_1_50?qid=1698240638&refinements=p_27%3ACraig+Yoe&s=books&sr=1-50
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteStrange little story. Creepy cool art.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely turning away from evil after having read this horror comic! I'm now scared to death of going to Hades and meeting the Blazing Sultan of Sin. I like to think that in the early fifties, all comics editors felt like they were rescuing humanity in this way. Whew, thanks guys!
ReplyDeleteMike Sekowsky is always a treat and page four is wonderful from top to bottom. So is the character work, especially the emissary from Hades on the first few pages. I really dig the second panel of the last page--concentric teleportation circles! Pendergast is heading back to the office belt buckle first! I really wish we could've gotten a bit of a better look at hell during Jeremiah's tour, but that happened an a page crammed full of pedantic demonsplaining, which, truth be told, is pretty much the way I always imagined hell.