It's Walpurgisnacht, and time for the final 13th post of April 2024! This date also means we are halfway to Halloween Eve, so be sure to click the image at the end of this post for more festive, bitchin' witchery over at AEET HERE! And since we missed Hero Horror Monday yesterday, let's set it all ablaze one more time with our final defender of evil-- the great Ibis the Invincible! It's a scorcher of a tale from the June 1943 issue of Whiz Comics #43, and one loosely based on the literary classic, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benet. Hope everyone enjoyed the themes featured here this month, I have a few ideas for May, so stay tombed for tons more, --now, light the midnight fires this evening!
7 comments:
Interesting riff on The Devil and Daniel Webster.
I love this design for the devil, a fairly normal looking gentleman wearing a red tuxedo and two tufts of black hair sticking out for horns--until the real ones show up when he wants to show off his powers! I feel sorry for the main actor Ed was the understudy for. Just an innocent guy thrown into the Devil's plot to grant Ed success. I do love the Devil telling Ed that he answered his own question after wondering who he is. Ibis is pretty fun as he actually does have magical powers, not just a stage magician. I like the last panel of page 8 of the Devil talking to all his baddies--my favorite being a very happy looking cowboy! Wasn't sure how this one would end, but I like the twist of Ibis scaring off the evil jury.
"The strangest adventure of his life" ... OK I've read a number of Ibis stories and frankly, while this is probably in the top 10, I'm sure he's had a lot of stranger adventures!
I also like the devil design here -- he's more accountant than devil, which, honestly, makes sense. He's dealing in contracts and law! Great expression on page 5 when he's surprised by the "Druid's Foot" ... which comes in and is never explained and leaves just as fast!
One thing I really like about this story is unlike a lot of other Ibis stories where he's just conjuring up whatever he needs and the story usually revolves around either getting knocked out or losing the wand, here the wand is basically powerless against his enemy, he instead needs to actually use it in a clever way around the outside of the devil instead of just overpowering him. That feels like a lot more modern superhero story than a lot of Ibis stories.
I enjoyed superhero month!
So strange to see Brutus depicted as a badguy. That wasn't even hip anymore by the sixteenth century.
I really liked everything about page eight, up to and including all the details Glowworm mentioned. I dig the way this artist handles the hellfire, like the art on a pack of Mexican candy or maybe bottle rockets.
The plot is pretty instructive: You can win your court cases by terrorizing the jury, kids! Yeesh. Why didn't the Salem witches think of that one?
...and that's what they call a segue, everybody! Top o' the Walpurgis morning to ya!
This is not one of the smarter devils we often see in horror comics, he said Eric would have success "as long as you live" but never said how long Eric would keep on living.
Had this devil been clever, he would have waited a few days or weeks to cause an auto or train accident to befall Eric.
It wasn't too hard to defeat this dullard devil.
Great hot stuff as always, Thanks Karswell!
IBIS?
And all this time I was thinking of a smart comment about how you could back in the day name your character ISIS.
I wish I'd remembered to come her yesterday evening. I like to observe Walpurgis Night / May Eve too.
Speaking of that, it's funny how pop culture and almost everything else goes from A to Z about the Druids. It seems like they're either incredible monsters or incredible wise men. Here it's the second thing.
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