The weatherman says we're in for some cooler midwestern temps here starting tomorrow, and though we've spent the last two posts trapped in an incinerating chamber of CHILLS, it's now time to let 'ol Rudy Palais fling one last fistful of sweaty shade our way --and no, not that kind of shade! This is a really weird one from the August 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #11, and good lord, please read the story carefully to avoid embarrassing yourself with comments like "is the last page missing?" or "ending feels too abrupt!" or whatever... the ending is rather brilliant if you ask me. And so is the smokin' hot Lee Elias cover illustration too.
I agree with David and Jean at the end. Varsuvia clearly was some sort of stand in for Hell and that Valborg must have been the Devil. At least I'm pretty certain that's what they were trying to convey at the end. The images of this Hell planet are awesome though. The thing that made me chuckle the most though was that our world hopping alien is Eric Valborg. He has a normal first name! That's hilarious. It's like naming an alien "Steve".
ReplyDelete>It's like naming an alien "Steve".
ReplyDeleteHey! I resemble that remark!
I had read somewhere that maybe this world is another planet's hades, or at best this world is another planet's dramady.
ReplyDeleteWould this count as a sci-fi horror, featuring a hellish planet?
Another frightening find, thanks Karswell.
I kept saying TRUBDON ZURDIT BARENO but nothing happened:(
ReplyDeleteEh, if anybody in this story is supposed to be the devil it's the old hag. She's clearly stuck in hell and she's just as clearly in charge.
ReplyDeleteRarely do I witness a more complimentary union of story and artist. They must have been pinching themselves. That or this was originally a story about a really cold planet, and they changed the dialog once Rudy turned his work in. I can imagine it that way, too.
I love the whimsical teleportation panels, with their star-spangled whirlies and planets.
The writer was really going from something interesting here, just don't think he made it. And if you are doing metaphor, you don't need to spell it out in the last panel.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I'm going to say this planet is actually Krypton after the rocketship left!
I love Eric's little antenna, and his drooling sweating body complete with diaper pants (great in the heat!) Flaming skulls! Vapors! Sweat! Probably not colored blood! Ol' Rudy knows what he likes to draw!
Page 3, panel 5 has got to be the panel you show people to describe Rudy!
This is a really heavy story!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of what world Varsuvia is meant to be, I guess it's a slip, but on Page 4 there's that line "The EARTH will crumble, as opposed to "The GROUND will crumble."
And speaking of slip-ups, it's a little embarrassing, but I didn't get the wordplay name "Varsuvia" until they misspelled it "Vesuvia" on Page 5.
This story has a touch--just a touch--of Clark Ashton Smith about it. I thought the guy at the beginning might turn out to be Eric returning in body if not shape or memory after his sojourn. I thought the woman might have been another inhabitant granted a respite by the old hag (though I don't get how Eric gets off finding her more hag-like than himself, the hypocrite misogynist). That would have made it the reverse to 'Planet of the Dead', though this story in its 50s horror comic-booky way is fine, too.
ReplyDeleteStill, if not missing a page, I do wish they would have finished their sentences.