Time now for a lurid, Lou Cameron, cat-girl classic, clawing its way at you from the January 1954 issue of Web of Mystery #22. Full of juicy good-girl art, and jungle jitters galore, I'm actually kind of surprised that I've never posted this one here at THOIA before. And meanwhile, I'm equally as baffled as to why it didn't make it into Cameron's Unsleeping Dead hardcover collection, via The Chilling Archives. We also have another beautiful "blonde in peril" cover design by mad man Jim McLaughlin, --plus, tacked on at the very end to round things out nicely, a shivery "Tale of Unexplained Mystery" by Sy Grudko concerning a macabre magic mirror...
7 comments:
I guess it's safe to say that this one is full of "Freudian" meanings for people.
After all, he raises her as partly a pet and partly a daughter, then goes on to want to marry her.
As an Indian, I always find these tales *hilarious*. I know Bengal well, and I'm fairly certain that any woman from Bengal, were tigress or not, isn't going to be a blonde white in a bikini. Apart from which, "Calcutta to Bengal"? Calcutta is<>
One detail I do love about the transformation of the tigers into human form is their stripey orange-black hair. This story does have some literal and figurative grooming vibes in it though. (you know, because Tigra is a an actual tiger.) I mean, Ken did get Tigra when she was a little girl and when she first transformed, she was indeed a little girl. Yet is Tigra technically at the age of consent when takes on the form of an adult woman? In tiger years, she's 4. I guess in tiger years that equals "legal"?
Eh, let's focus on other things, Tigra as a little girl winding up the mouse toy is adorable and I LOVE that last panel on page 3 of little Tigra biting Ken's shoe. It's so cute! Also, that panel of Ken casually walking Tigra while telling her that someday she'll realize the advantages of being a human--all in the front of bewildered bystander is unintentionally hilarious. Also, that ending is a doozy! "Oops. I forgot there would be other non-weretigers out there." The second tale gives me Snow White vibes because there's a magic mirror, the Prince's wife looks like Snow White and she winds up dead due to it. Also, there's a witch queen of sorts involved. Don't steal from the dead to give items to your significant others as gifts, kids.
Well…. DEFINITELY pre-code, with a Cat People vibe… literally a grooming story…
Grooming angle, acknowledged, moving on!
The art if ace in this. The tiger hair (styled, as always) is a great image (is the bikini made of tiger fur, too? Should I even ask this?) But what I really want to point out that Cameron -- in a time where comics were full of badly drawn animals -- hands in a beautiful tiger. Every movement of the tiger, page 4 is an especially great page, looks exactly like films of tigers. Cameron really did his research on this. It's incredible.
Page 6, panel 4 ... the milk and the angle at which it flies versus the attack, that's a nearly perfect panel.
Yes, lots of good girl art here but the tiger art is a huge highlight. I mean, in 54, you were still getting spiders with 6 legs, etc.
One thing on the quicky: It's another story where a terrible curse falls upon somebody that had absolutely nothing to do with the crime (i.e., the prince's wife.) The gypsy queen was a bit of a jerk!
Sure, everybody's already covered the elephant in the room. But besides that, it's interesting how this story expects us to feel sympathy for this heinous poacher. I mean, his whole deal was to illegally steal tiger cubs and sell them to the highest bidder; i.e., for parts. Handbags and ingredients for traditional medicine, most likely. Tigers were already endangered everywhere by the turn of the century, and protected legally here and there around the globe by the time of publication.
I like the way the tiger lass, who we've already been told will use her transformation powers for survival, decides for herself when to become human looking. But it strikes me that would have been her best idea from the beginning, zeroing out any chance of her being sold for parts or display, and transforming her captor into a father figure, forced to nurture and raise a child instead of a cub. Surely that would have had some psychological impact on him, right? But not her. She could have then offed the jerk at any time to facilitate her return to the jungle--or not; her choice. I think the story would better served without any romance angle.
Can you even imagine a story like this being produced if that cub had been male? Culturally, we have some weirdo drive to assume cats are women (and vice versa). But I certainly don't think a poacher is going to sex a wild tiger cub in the bush. I don't think he'd have cared one way or another, anyway. Unless marriage was always a goal.
I find the art as excellent as everybody else. I love that the stripey motif even extends to the inner cave walls on the first page.
I love the doctor in that one-pager. "Your wife died a horrible death! Went on for hours of terrible suffering as she howled for mercy. Can't believe she doesn't have stretch marks on her face from all the screaming." This is not the way we usually talk to the bereaved.
"It's interesting how this story expects us to fell sympathy for this heinous poacher."
That makes Tigra's line, "You almost succeeded in civilizing me," kind of tricky.
I don't know enough about it, but I'm glad that Mr. Cavin mentions that there was already plenty of conservation when this story was written, including tigers. So the year of the story doesn't exactly let Ken off the hook.
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