Considering all of the Atlas posts I've shared over the last month or so, this one might be my favorite. It starts off a bit like a run of the mill Marvel crime caper, with the added bonus of a man suddenly achieving a "super" powered ability through a rather careless accident. Everything chugs along at a brisk, predictable pace, (and the Louis Ravielli art is as fabulous as ever), when all of sudden, halfway through the final page everything steers sharply into a stunningly eerie terror-scape of unstoppable horror from beyond the grave. Yep, just as the story is ending everything goes from really good, to full tilt OMG awesome. Seriously. Please please, someone out there, give us another half dozen pages of story continuation! From the May 1954 issue of Marvel Tales #123, --and what's even weirder is that this appears to be the first Atlas story illustrated by Ravielli that I've posted here at THOIA over all these years. But be sure to check out a bunch of his incredible work for Quality Comics (most notably from the wild Web of Evil series) in our archive right HERE!
7 comments:
While a lot of people will want a part 2 to this story, I can only think what will happen to the world if George's story becomes common knowledge. Think about it -- there's a easily re-creatable way to enormous power, you just have to shock yourself.
Now, obviously, there's some other factor, but think of all the people who will try this (and die) and all the others that will use their power or money to keep trying it with victims until they learn the key to gaining super powers? Governments all around the world will want to build super armies!
The art is awesome. It's thick, it's dark, it's complex and almost always contains backgrounds, everybody has a good and different look, and the hatching fits a horror story perfectly, and the execution has some real weight to it.
And bravo for the artist and colorist who spent a good deal of time actually making multiple different fabric designs!
You note the connection to crime comics, but I see the overlap with superheroes: ten years earlier with nary a change George could have been a Plastic Man villain and ten years later with a little softening he could been fighting the Fantastic Four.
> but I see the overlap with superheroes
I see it too, I even hinted at it in my intro
With the way George was using his powers, this is basically a supervillain origin story. Heck, it may still be. George didn’t want it to end! 🤣🤣 The second panel of page three where George discovers his newfound powers is great. Love the yellow engulfing it all. Yet the panel after it where George basically excuses himself for stealing jewelry got a chuckle out of me. Also for some bizarre reason, the image of all the tombstones in the graveyard suddenly flying around all over is hilarious to me. Yeah, this wasn’t the end of George, just the beginning of his supervillain arc!
The full name on the tombstone is George Barnes, it seems Brian Barnes has more than a passing relationship when it comes to horror comics.
As to this great story there were several paths this tale could take,
1. Had it been handled as comedy, George would have been involved in some shocking incidents, all played for laughs, and end up working for the local power plant or the military as a backup power supply, or appear on TV as the Uri Geller of the fifties.
2. Besides the superhero/supervillain path, George could have ended up as a spokesman for electricity like Reddy Kilowatt.
3. Since George could attract metal without touching it, he could have used his powers to find and attract lost or buried objects of gold and silver. Who needs a metal detector? Not George.
The concept of a man infused with electricity was in a sci-fi horror film Man Made Monster starring Lon Chaney back in 1941.
This was another great tale from the fifties, great story and great art, my thanks as always.
"Had it been handled as comedy...."
The way George is drawn can make you imagine a Wally Cox or Arnold Stang type actor playing him in a movie, or a maybe comical TWILIGHT ZONE.
"He could have used his powers to attract lost objects...."
I know that if the characters thought this way there wouldn't be a story, but it's wild how many comic villains with these powers or inventions go in for small time robberies (and a murder in George's case) when they could make billions using them in other ways. But again, then there would be no story, at least of this kind.
Ravielli's carved-into-wood styling definitely fills up the frame with gnarly textures and grain--this is a sandpaper world and everything in it looks rough to the touch. It all feels so much like the art in a Sears and Roebuck catalog from the turn of the century that I expect to see labels: A-B-C-D; The same suit carefully crafted in four different fabrics. It makes so much sense in a story about a guy who works in a dry goods shoppe. I mentioned in the past that there is a collage element to Louis' work, as if the components of the illustrations overlap instead of adding up to a frame. The figures are all very sophisticated, and so very rendered, but I keep dwelling on the architecture of interior spaces here and there--and somehow the rooms just do not add up, exactly. That makes for a pretty eerie vibe.
I love all the panels in which the aftermath of electricity is presented as wisps of greasy smoke, like the siren smell of cooked dinner in some Looney Tune. The final image of page four is just wonderful with its billowing clouds and final wee bolt of lingering discharge tucked into the bottom there. Go home little lightning, your work here is done.
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