Here's a weird little Egyptian oddity recommended to me by "anonymous", featuring a particularly vicious panel of gory crocodile violence. I'm not sure I would have recognized this as Dick Briefer art, if not for the mysterious, sunken-eyed man who shows up at the bottom of page two (he looks distinctly Briefer-esque and right out of Dick's Frankenstein comic series!) Anyway, it's a fun little filler tale from the August 1952 issue of Airboy #102. Everyone have a nice xmas?
I wonder what ethnicity Luba and his uncle are supposed to be. Arab? Not like any Arab anyone's ever seen, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteIn any case I don't understand this cadavers stranger's mission. If there is anyone who's to blame it is surely Mr Tourist Who Offers Gold And Then Exits The Story? Luba's change of heart is also out of absolutely nowhere. Its like they threw together any crocodile ideas they could come up with and see what stuck.
No idea if it's the printing of the comic, it's age, etc, but ... I'm enchanted by the almost pastel coloring of everything. It's really bright and cheerful with panels of big yellow and purplish-red backgrounds, and then surrounded by lots of blood and gore!
ReplyDeleteYou're right about the Briefer guy -- though, what is he? An angel? He doesn't like evil but then seems to lead people to it and get disappointed when they take the bait!
BTW, really good crocodile some extra bonus points there! Briefer really did his due diligence on this one! I also like how the explorer at the beginning just walks away from the horror story! That's a new one!
Maybe the stranger is one of the Egyptian gods come to tempt men in this day and age, possibly Set.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he is an ancient Egyptian Pharoh of high priest who worshipped the crocodile, a mystery in a riddle wrapped in an enigma.
Fr some reason this has a Charlton horror comic feel to it.
I feel like the crocodile fight has that Briefer adventure tone. That could easily be Frankenstein('s monster) tussling with a massive gator in a dismal swamp or somewhere. Plus everybody's hourglass cheekbones, which my go-to tell-tale Dick Briefer signpost. But if I wasn't on the lookout for it, I might not have in a million years thought this was Briefer either--it's so detail light for one thing. I guess it was early days.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Mr. Barnes on the coloring. The art nouveau pastels, however they came about, are really charming. It kind of makes this story feel ahead of its time, like some crystal elf story from the days of Epic Illustrated. Well, maybe that's going to far, because what it really looks like is a funny animal comic from the forties, or Dick Briefer's own funny Frankenstein books.
Anyway, I love it.