Kickin' off the new year finally with another weird Armand "Professor" Broussard "Werewolf Hunter" entry, since it's been awhile. Illustrated by the gorgeously great, Lily Renee, these were fun little supernatural filler tales from the back pages of this fantastic Fiction House series, and loaded with lots of lovely good girl art. For just 5 pages, they really packed it in! From the December 1945 issue of Rangers Comics #26.
3 comments:
Hey, I'll take Zenobra off your hands!
One thing about Renee is she was really fashion forward and would definitely spend time making great clothes for her villain/heroes. Here Zenobra (I think, it's hard to read the cursive!) has a really pretty dress and on page 1 Renee really goes all in with the nude but dressed look (she knew what sold comics.)
Zenobra being a glamour spell of an old hag? Maybe? That's not super clear, especially from the way she talks about "someone's waiting", and it's quickly forgotten.
I love the ravens, with their thin, spindly looks, and the little gnome. That said, the final confrontation is done through messenger raven so that's not the most exciting thing.
It's not exactly Giallo, but the story follows its own set of strange rules, like a dream like trance in comic book form.
This one would best be described as a low-key horror, with the gore occurring off camera and the menace unseen until the end.
Unlike most pre code horror comics, the professor protagonist doesn't always save the day or save everyone from the forces of evil. In Werewolf Hunter tales sometimes evil wins or claims a victim before being defeated.
I wonder what a reboot of Werewolf Hunter would look like in today's realm of comics.
I always get a little excited when I see it's another Werewolf Hunter story, only to then feel a little deflated when, yet again, he's not hunting down a werewolf. I mean, I guess I should just get it through my thick skull that he actually is the werewolf, and we happen to be catching him during the regular parts of the month. I mean, no way he'd be taking clients on the full moon, yeah?
I love that weird, wavy splash flag, with its pelican ravens and the suggestion of possession through puppet string rays. I also really like the panel at the bottom of page two. The idea of prognostication via snow globe is cool. But most of all I love the panel at the top of page four, where the shadow falls across poor doomed Mrs. Knapp's bed. That's some killer storytelling right there, Lily Renée.
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