I posted a couple of Masked Marvel weird western tales a few months back HERE and everyone seemed to have fun with them, so here's another one that also actually fits pretty well with our last post since everyone equally enjoyed giant intrusive centerpiece page illustrations (this time we get a goddamned devil head's facial orifices becoming the actual story page panels-- and it somehow looks even crazier than it sounds!) So hold on to your foreheads, here he comes to save the violent day! From the August 1951 issue of Gunsmoke #14.
This is probably one of the more insane entries, not just the devil face spread either. For one thing, I didn't realise that was supposed to be a cloven hoof brand. I had taken it for granted that it was a molar tooth. Which would be logical, seeing putting on the devil mask apparently turns your teeth into jagged fangs, and the Wild West probably wasn't much of a place for dentists.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, if you're going to state outright in the first panel that your protagonist won the day, you're violating one of the cardinal rules of story telling.
The lesson to be taken from this: if some masked superzero interrupts your crime, and you successfully take him, her or it down with a bullet, finish the damned job, dammit.
Nice! I was already totally digging the art here from the splash (the two orange figures alone are dynamic and wonderful--then there's the devil's tooth brand!*). But then we get to page four and you can actually use this comic for a Halloween mask! Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThe Masked Marvel totally gives his secret identity away in the second to last panel. Weird.
* (Yeah yeah, it's a hoof I guess. The devil's tiny pygmy deer footprint.)
One thing you have to accept in these early comics is how much our heroes just stumble upon a situation -- here Chet just walks into the house -- after randomly riding around??? -- right after they've been killed. He really is the scooby doo gang wrapped into one!
ReplyDeleteOne of the devils disappears from the story! There's 3 in the first attack, and 2 in the second. Also, if you are going to have a mystery bad guy you can't just introduce only 2 new characters; there's nobody else it can be!
Chet ain't fooling nobody here, BTW.
OK the art on this is great. The splash has a direct line from the guns to the branding iron and is full of movement. That's a fine piece of art. The close up satan on the next page and then the completely distracting but still fun devil face. Some really good action, too, though I'm not sure why Chet didn't just shoot them down from the roof and instead jumped into the middle of them!
These are a ton of fun!
Yeah, I'm with everyone else here, I thought the "devil" was branding everyone with a tooth! Also, The Masked Marvel unintentionally reveals his alias as Chet to the sheriff. Good thing this was a short series or you'd think the sheriff would be back for revenge knowing who's behind that skull shaped mask. I love the panel of him banging the two devils heads together. Guess the third devil forgot to show up to work that day. Also, the centerpiece page illustrations are great because they actually have to do with the story rather than a random monster eating the comic!
ReplyDeleteAnd people thought the underground comics of the 60's-70's were wild!
ReplyDeletePage 4 with the demon layout as the comics border was a neat idea. Too bad no one thought to use such a layout for other comics or horror stories.