From the March 1955 issue of Mystic #36 (the very last precode issue from this series before they added the hideous comic code stamp of approval *gag!) And leave it to Jay Scott Pike to illustrate one of the most gorgeous bad girls of them all... she actually kind of reminds me of a Silver Age era Buscema gal! Anyway, be careful what you wish for, already!!
There's a number of ways you can interpret this, but I tend to think it's a honey trap for a higher force. Helen, poor but a good person at heart, was rewarded. Mary, cold hearted, got her just desserts.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I love how absolutely over the top Helen is. She was poor, now she waltzes around covered in jewels and furs and a crown! OK, Helen, I get it, but maybe dial it back a bit?
Coloring is a bit inconsistent but the art is great, especially the good girl aspects with the wasp-like waist, and the artist actually does a good job of showing the emotional state of both Helen and Mary on the first page. Mary looks like she's trouble, Helen looks like she's a happy person.
Page 3, panel 4, that's a great use of monochromatic coloring. It's a striking panel where the story turns.
One issue away from giant ass monster comics!
> One issue away from giant ass monster comics!
ReplyDeleteUhhh, not even close…
OK a couple years I was being hyperbolic :) That said, I wouldn't mind some pre-code monster comics. They got a little same-y as time went on but lots of great art and inventive new monsters when they could no longer stand on the ol' vampires and werewolves.
DeleteHelen really enjoyed rubbing her new wealth in Mary's face, didn't she? Come to think of it, Helen's the ultimate villainess here.
ReplyDeleteHelen is a mixed bag, though. She's like a "something for nothing" character who's just begging for the story to punish her, but she really did save the man's like (unless she hoaxed it the way Mary did!), and of course, she offers to at least share things with Mary.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course the blind man is like a supernatural version of those wealthy characters who go around as beggars to see who'll be nice to them. Although I guess there are plenty of genre characters like that.
My question is, did he DELIBERATELY turn Mary into Marie Antoinette, or was it more random, like in those countless stories where the wish isn't specific enough? If it's the first thing, it really outweighs Mary's "crime."
> like in those countless stories where the wish isn't specific enough
DeleteSometimes being too specific though has its downside. Like saying you wanna be “the toast of town” which gets interpreted as turning you into a toasted marshmallow.
I like this tale, story and art wise. The beheading is implied, not shown, so I guess that this story bridges the in-your-face pre-code horror to the implied done off camera post code horror. With this ending it could have been printed in The Twilight Zone comic, it has that twist ending that Twilight Zone is renowned for.
ReplyDeleteI myself think Helen should have used some of her wealth to take care of Adahan. She could have bought him a house and set him up financially so he wouldn't have to sell pencils for a living, unless Adahan, like genies and the like, have to roam the earth offering wishes to others or lose their powers.
A bit of advice for followers of THOIA- if you are guaranteed to have a wish granted, wish for a magic ring that grants a hundred wishes. There might be an instance when you need to cancel a wish or two, or three.
Am I mistaken, or does Mary have a sort of stereotyped ' 90s look, especially the hairstyle?
ReplyDeleteIn fact, she reminds me of a particular ' 90s (and later) actress, but I can't think who it is.
Of course, almost any time you hear that something belongs to a particular decade, you eventually find out it goes back a lot farther.
This is great Good Girl / Bad Girl art especially page 3 panel four closeup of Mary’s face. Does Jay Scott Pike have any other work posted in THOIA?
ReplyDelete> Does Jay Scott Pike have any other work posted in THOIA?
ReplyDeleteDid you try clicking the Jay Scott Pike label tag under ARTISTS on the left sidebar?
As others have mentioned before me, panel 4 of page 3 is great. Just a sinister, scheming face of Mary shadowed in green. The story itself plays out like a particular type of fairy tale (and why not? So many fairy tales prior to being “sanitized” for children were pretty much horror stories with usually happy endings tacked on for the good characters. Just look at the Grimm’s version of Cinderella) In this case, it’s the good person gets what they deserve through genuinely helping someone but when their selfish neighbor or stepsister tries to get the same fortune, it never goes right. Basically Perrault’s Diamonds and Toads, aka the Fairies or the kind and unkind girls tale type. Anyway, the twist ending is a hell of a lot of fun. The art on the last page where Mary gets her wish granted and reaps the consequences from it is great. Too bad, those darn comic codes came into play one issue later to spoil all the gory fun. Although, I could be wrong, but this story seems to fit in just fine with all the rules to come soon after.
ReplyDeleteOne of things I evaluate when I am thinking about character art in things like this is whether the women look different from one another. Men are often more caricatured, and therefore more easily differentiated. But women, in the endless pursuit of presenting them as stylized fantasy objects, tend to all look alike, mainly distinguishable by haircut and color. This may be premeditated, or it may mark the rigid border of an illustrator's ability. Sometimes you can't really tell. But anyway, I was already pleased with this art at the splash, when the two main women had different faces. And not for nothing, it also passed the Bechdel test in the first exchange of dialog. It's refreshing that this story has not one scintilla of romantic content.
ReplyDeleteI love the three ruddy panels in the middle of page two. And the first panel on page three. And also the green panel everyone else is already talking about, of course.
I think that Mary has a pretty good case against that genie if she wants to lawyer up with Daniel Webster and explore the unfulfilled aspects of her wish in court. Marie Antoinette was in no way the "toast of the royal world"--certainly not on her last day. And genie is gonna have to go a long way to find a queen that was burned at a stake, too (though Lady Jane Grey was sentenced to burning or beheading, they eventually settled on the latter). Good luck Mary!
I think we're being a bit too hard on Helen. After all, we're only seeing this through Mary's perspective, which is hardly pure. Maybe Helen offered to do more for the beggar, and he declined? Maybe Helen plans to help others? She tried to help Mary, but Mary just wanted "the income tax people" to come after her.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I like how Mary was awful and got what she deserved. Unique story.