Girls! Do you have what it takes to reform the greatest sinner of all time? If you think you do-- think again! Of all the cockamamie love stories I've ever posted here at THOIA, this is surely one of the cockamamiest! From the Sept '54 issue of Horrific #13, art by Max Elkin and cover by Don Heck.
The demon who invaded Hollywood, did he intend to become an agent or CEO of a studio?
ReplyDeleteZarra looks similar to the artist John Gnagy, the Bob Ross of the fifties.
It looks like Zarra has been working out, I guess they have a version of Muscle Beach down below.
Page six, upper right, it looks like the artist is channeling Rudy Palais.
I had never seen this tale before, the art is pretty good in this one. It is a shame that the comics code ended this comic book series, it deserves a reboot.
This plot is kind of all over the place. If he was really a interdimensional space guy, that would be better than yet but another devil story. But then it goes and contradicts itself and he's just the devil? I think? I mean, I doubt you go to another planet for being a jerk like he notes in the last page.
ReplyDeleteThose two crazy kids certainly learned a lesson. To bad for the Roman guy, who was completely and utterly innocent but I guess space guy devil man doesn't care!
Can I say that, aside from Roman guy, a lot of times the devil seems to be on the side of good. What did he accomplish here? It seemed he turned a greedy and hateful person good! That's counter productive!
That's a great cover, BTW! It simplified but striking, the dual colored face and dripping blood background. That would really stick out on the stand.
"I don't care if he's Satan himself, I can fix him! After all, red is just a really dark shade of pink!"
ReplyDeleteAll joking aside, the title feels a bit misleading, Zarra seems to be less of a demon and more of an alien dictator. I mean, he is dressed kind of like a Roman emperor and we're only one year away from when the comic censors would take away monsters, demons and black magic and replace them all with Sci-Fi and aliens. I mean, what Zarra was doing to the door, the phone, the Roman soldier extra and Dave could have also all been explained away as Sci-Fi technology and super powers rather than demonic abilities. Gotta say, though, I love Mona's suggestive outfit--specially where all those stars are placed and that closeup shot of Zarra's eyes is fantastic.
Wow, all these covers by Don Heck are just amazing. And, not for nothing, incredibly well colored. I love the uncommonly complicated use of color on this guy's face, for example. Looking around, I see that the rare cover on a Comics Media book by some other artist doesn't come off nearly so interesting and sophisticated. While Don's covers for other companies tend to match his work here. So was Heck coloring these himself? I hope so.
ReplyDeleteThe story is a hoot. Suggested twist: At the end there, Mona offs David herself--"Who needs your millions now, handsome?" grinds heel into neck--and then takes off with a visibly impressed Zarra, straight to his far off planet. But the joke's on him because she's really the devil! Ahhh ha ha ha ha ha ha!
I mean sheesh. Satan's gotta be tired of monkeying around with us. By this late date, the program basically runs on autopilot anyway. Just seems like good business to expand into new markets.
I have mixed feelings about the ending. Without actually expecting it of course, I wanted Mona to come out all right, so that's good. But I kind of hated to see her change THAT MUCH. And no, not just because of a line like "I'll be the very best of wives." Even without that line, I wouldn't want her to reform COMPLETELY.
ReplyDeleteWait, wasn't the door locked?
ReplyDeleteSince I'm fond of light comedy comics along with horror ones (and I mean extremely light), to me red-haired villainess Mona is like a horror comics answer to red-haired villainess Chili the Model. Which is one more reason I kind of wanted her to survive and also STAY bad.
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