Friday, October 21, 2011
The Monster
Finale tale from the premiere issue of Monster #1 (1953.) There was only this one and an issue #2 before the series was sadly cancelled, a real pity too because it obviously started off pretty damn good. And for those paying extra attention, this concludes another full-issue presentation here at THOIA (see also: "The Philosopher's Stone", "Traitor's House", and "The Mirror.") Beginning next week, we'll start heavily digging into the witchcraft as we inch closer and closer to Halloween!
Holy crap, what an amazing cover! It somehow looks very retro-contemporary. Wow.
ReplyDeleteFascinating and effective, but inconsistent, as if several hands were at work. The monster / Ralston's beard comes and goes & his relative height changes too.
ReplyDeleteWow, this covered nearly everything, didn't it? Just another Faustian tale of Dr. Caligari's Mr. Hyde-like enslavement of some dude. I'm sure if we dug deeper we'd discover an aging portrait burning-up in the attic.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the crude, untutored art here. I think what looks like several hands to FrankFay just looks like one guy's total awkwardness to me--but I'd readily admit that the explanation above would cover what it is I like about these pages. Dig those schizophrenic bricks on panel three, page four. Or that crazy skewed-up looking street scene beside it. Whoever drew that panel was certainly holding his marker in his fist like a lumbering eighties slasher.
Art to me seems to be on the old school side of things, even for the golden era... possibly this artist was trying to hip up his style with a little touches of modern abstraction flair or something? Who knows, it's still a fun, if not somewhat overly lengthy ride.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments!
*I was going to remark on the "Dr. Jeckell and Mr. Hyde" vibe here; but someone beat me to it! As to the use of the word "puppy" here to describe a male human character; Victorians did it somewhat often; so I am guessing it was a more polite form of "SOB"!
ReplyDeleteDBurch7670 (I had one in the next one too; about the *much older than she looks villianness*!
I liked (but didn't want to mention; because I thought everyone else would) the whole "Dr. Jeckell and Mr Hyde" angle. I wonder though: in the beginning, was the older man refering to the experimental dog or the protagonist or both as a "pup"? It that seems strange; "pup" or "puppy" seemed to be a favorite term of abuse by older men to younger in Victorian times. I wonder was it strictly age related or was it as far as people dared to get to "SOB"?
ReplyDeleteDBurch7670