Okay, one more hero horror story before you guys start screaming scarlet murder at me (unless anyone actually wants to see more?) And yes sirs, it's a Mr. Scarlet screamer again, along with the usual spookily dressed-up crime kook and his hysterical, tough talkin' hench goons. Did I save the best story for last? I kind of think so, aside from the arresting action, eerie art atmosphere, very funny dialog, and skulls skulls skulls, there's a really clever gravestone gimmick utilized here that would make both The Joker and The Riddler green with envy. The main perp also has a rather unusual alt angle this time around that I haven't seen in an old supe comic like this before as well. From the same great issue as our last post too, CLICK HERE! It also feels like Binder put a little more oomph into the art than he did with The Mummy Ray.
10 comments:
Is Mr. Scarlet enjoying a refreshing Chesterfield cigarette while he is on stakeout in the cemetery?
Looks like he rolls his own!
I like this gimmick -- not necessarily the tombstone one (which we've seen a couple times) but constantly telling Mr. Scarlet (and strangely seems to know his secret identity as he tells Brian Butler first) that he's the skull. It would throw off any detective based superhero -- you'd have a hard time believing it and it keeps the skull near enough to feed you information to a trap.
Yeah, and the art is a step up from the last one. Both are good, but we get a lot more action, a lot more 3d panel breaking, some very cool skull close ups, regular humans bursting through a solid door (?!?!).
As a matter of fact, there's a bunch of unknown super powers in this, like how the skull can be a chubby guy with big fingers in real life, but suddenly thin and witch-handed when wearing a Halloween mask!
Page 9 is a great piece of 40s superhero-ing. Normally a lot of these are very static and with really flat action, here we get wild swings, full body twists, it's the kind of thing you wouldn't see a lot of outside of Kirby at the time.
Did Mr. Scarlet actually spend time at the end carving a tombstone? That's dedication!
Page four top right panel, that is an impressive skull drawing. A Halloween cutout if ever there was one.
That was a clever twist, the villain constantly surrendering himself to throw everyone off the trail, but what would have happened if he was arrested for disturbing the peace or something? The tale would have taken a different path if that had happened.
Great post once again, Karswell, thanks!
> not necessarily the tombstone one (which we've seen a couple times)
Ohhh okay. Please provide examples of this being “seen a couple of times” before in other stories…
I swear, sometimes! *sighhh
Pretty sure a regular cop would have at least held the confessing guy for questioning the second time he turned up. I mean, if nothing else, he did seem to have inside knowledge of where the Laughing Skull would be operating. From a simple procedural standpoint, that guy was a clue that needed to be followed up on. In this case, it may have saved at least one life.
I do like this villain and I do like his shtick. I love the laughing skull in the splash: Eye sockets and eyelids really make that effective and weird. Definitely the work here nails that essential graveyard mood. I still feel like Binder relies too heavily on breaking the panel borders. Page five looks like a wildly reduplicative collage of paper dolls--but I also like that page best. It both helps parse these images, and furthers their pasted together look, that the colorist has pretty much confined his use of red to Mr. Scarlet's costume.
I certainly don't mind reading more early golden age stuff. These things are wild.
"There's a bunch of unknown superpowers in this."
Speaking of that, it's funny that Mr. Scarlett is one of those superheroes who capture the villains instead of killing them, but he hits the Skull with a tombstone and counts on it not to kill him. That's supposed to be the kind of thing that's done to SUPERHUMAN villains.
Also, Mr. Scarlett writes up their tombstones anticipating their executions. For a character who doesn't kill his enemies himself, that's pretty dark!
Maybe I'll be embarrassed when I'm told, but who is the actress or model at the end?
It’s from the 1966 horror beach party film, “The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini.” The actress is Patti Chandler… the skeleton is Mr. Karswell
..."the skeleton is Mr. Karswell" Lucky dog, spooky guys get all the chicks.
Thank you.
I'm a very big beach movie fan, including that film. So yes, I am embarrassed!
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