Fans of John Carpenter's unique 80's sci-fi action film, They Live, may find some interestingly familiar plot details about today's post, courtesy of the November 1967 issue of Dell's The Outer Limits #16. And I guess maybe I've already said too much, so without further spoiler ado, let's just let the story do the talking-- as well as the art, because like our previous Outer Limits post, the illustrations here are also by Jack Sparling. Now, who brought the bubble gum?
4 comments:
The creatures are great, in a very b-movie 50s way. Really fits the outer limits theme!
I'm not sure I like the ending on this one. I don't need a resolution, or an explanation, or really some other kind of ending, but this leaves so much hanging. The story tries to lead us to this is "practice" but nothing proves that, for all we know, they could be changing minds to fix some upcoming disaster. Basically, the story didn't tie in enough to prove the creature's goals without assumptions, so there's no menace in the ending of the story.
One other weird thing: for most of the story, the creatures are in disguise as regular people, but at one point, he tries to grab one but "it's like mist" and evidently that's not a person because everybody would see his hands going through them.
If Carpenter lifted from this (and he could have easily read it and lifted it without knowing it) he did a much better job!
It's pretty well documented that John Carpenter based his movie on the Ray Nelson story and comic adaptation. Carpenter bought the rights to Nelson's story, which was published four years before this issue of the Outer Limits.
I had to scratch my head over the same thing Mr. Barnes mentions. I mean, for most of the story, the creatures are presented just as Carpenter presents them in his movie: Present in the crowd, just disguised in some way the special glasses negate. But then in that one panel--and again at the top of page ten--it turns out they are incorporeal ghosts only detectable through the glasses. It feels a little fast and loose to me.
I loved that only the combo of meteor glass and terrible eyesight made the phenomena work though. Well, and apparently bright light? Or being indoors? Good paranoia plot point there. But it stymies another plot point from page five where we seems to discover that Ben at the lab has been staying up late cranking-out E.T. Spex all week. Are they going to be useful? There's a lot of information we get here and there over this story that gets left dangling loose by the end. But that makes for a story rich in interesting misdirection.
I have no problem with the vague end here. I think it's pretty spooky. Honestly, I always though the movie sort of went astray in the last act. In my fantasy ending, Roddy Piper gets been caught by the creatures after his failed coup, has his glasses taken and crushed underfoot, and is then shoved into a car to be released in the middle of town. He'll live out the rest of his life knowing They are out there, but having no idea who They are.
I too am a fan of the furry things in this tale, and also agree with Mr C about the film ending.
Okay then, we might take a look at some more Outer Limits comics later this year, so hang in there if you enjoyed these --and thanks to Hypersmash for the info about the They Live story origins!
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