I hope everyone brought their water wings, because things are gonna get seriously wet 'n wild today! And FYI, this double creature feature concept post all started when Mr. Cavin mentioned that back in November of last year his hometown comic book illustrator / hero legend, Murphy Anderson, was being honored with a plaque installed at the Greensboro Cultural Arts Center in North Carolina. You can read more about it HERE! And to celebrate 'ol Murph (RIP), THOIA is also honored to present one of his more dynamite DC monster doozies (story and cover art) from the June 1952 issue of Strange Adventures #21. (NOTE: We'll be taking an additional look at Murphy Anderson over at AEET later this month as well, so don' miss it!) But first up, we're staying in the Silver Age for another scaly screamer from the deep, via Charlton and the June 1962 issue of Mysteries of Unexplored Worlds #30. Highlighted by a lagoonie-esque cover Creech monster by Nicholas and Alascia, though Bill Molno's interpretation for the story itself is quite different. And if that ain't enough "wet ' wild" for ya today, head over to AEET HERE for the absolute cutest sea monster ya ever did see...
7 comments:
I'm slightly surprised the first story didn't end with Felix accidentally getting killed by people hunting the real creature.
These are both pretty funny. First story, Panel One, the reactions are so overdone that they're hilarious. Theatrically fainting woman, beret popping off man's head, the cameraman going "Wotta stunt", the other idiot immediately assuming something walking out of the sea is a Martian, each is funnier than the other.
Story 2 is of course *meant* to be funny so I'm just mention the hilarious speech bubble, top left page 2: "Many species of human and plant life..."
And this is a scientist talking! A scientist, yo.
> The Other Monster
This one got me a little lost -- what is the shuffle about their being a second suit (or which doesn't exist?) Is this to make you feel the initial monster attack (on the camera guy) is fake only to find out later it's real? It's really clunky and hard to follow, at least for me.
Other than that, it's a fine Charlton monster comic.
Man, that font that Charlton used. It's hard to read! The spacing is wild in places.
> The Monster that Fished for Men
Gorgeous art on this one! I love the fabric like texture and scales on the monster. The underwater scenes, the crater and the surrounding landscape, all excellent.
I also love this short and sweet little story. Yeah, it's basically a gag ending but I love how dejected the poor fishman looked!
Anderson got to draw some cool animals, too!
I think the idea of the first story is that Mr Young Scientist borrowed the suit to stage his own fake monster attacks with the knowledge and cooperation of the props man.
More than one youngster has thrown away a bright future by scaring women on the beach. Please, parents, talk to your children. What seems like an innocent--even "cool"--pastime could mark them for life.
But seriously, I loved that first story. What a great Charles Atlas set-up! I think the natural comic book ending should have been: When Felix makes his next beach appearance, all the scarecrows from panel one have been transformed into strapping, musclebound beach bullies waiting to sock him in the nose. But even that's not the ending I really want. I'd like one or two more panels where we discover that Felix Catte has been impregnated with the salty, leathery eggs of a real Atlantean sea monster. That's the twist, kids--did you really think it was Henry Blair the whole time?
Mr. Barnes brings up an interesting point about the lettering here. It's obviously mechanical in nature--like that produced the Leroy Lettering Machine--and poorly done to boot (as Brian observes). But I don't think it was SOP for Charleston to use machine lettering in their comics, was it? Their own how-to guide to making comics sure doesn't mention it. Plus, while some of this does indeed look like the usual Leroy template, some of the letter forms are really weird (like that backward-slanting W). There were many non-standard Leroy lettering templates, and there were competing companies as well. Who knows where this one came from?
Thanks for the shout-out to Murphy Anderson and his recent recognition in my home town! I used to ride around in Blue Bird taxicabs all the time back in the eighties. At the time I had no idea there was a comics connection.
This was a great story to pick. I love how Murphy's creepy pink geothermal lake mer-monsters have bunchy, loose skin that makes 'em all look like they're wearing Halloween costumes. Or Christmas sweaters? I like all the pebbly pointillism texturing everything, too.
My pleasure, I’m glad you mentioned it and as noted in the intro, I’ll have more Murphy Anderson examples coming up over an AEET later this month too.
Thanks again for all the comments. Hope everyone’s enjoying this weird new post format that I decided to try out for January...
"I'm forced to admit that I was sensational!" Would that we all had that self-confidence.
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