Nobody has to ask me twice when we get another request for more Basil Wolverton. And yeah, you've probably seen this before, most likely in one of the many published 70's/80's Wolverton reprint specials, or maybe even when we featured it as "The Robot Woman" in Haunted Horror #22. There are some artistic differences though, and if you've never made the comparison, then now is your chance, --just CLICK HERE for it as it originally appeared in the Dec. '52 issue of Weird Mysteries #2! Today's "Beauty and the Beast" variation though is from the May 1953 issue of Mister Mystery #11.
7 comments:
Genuis! Thanks Karz!
I wonder if the final panel were real people running away at the bottom?
This feels a bit like desecration. I wonder how whatever un-named artist that did this cut-n-paste job felt? Did he think that it was ruining great art? Did he grumble about whatever editor asked for this?
The robot expert to fashion designer is a pretty weird change!
I will say it's a pretty good job, that said. Cutting out the heads to make the fashion dress line up, the splash which has a figure that was either traced or redone to fit the style, and even re-using the scared guy from the original as part of the collection of running people.
Some care was really put into the cut-n-paste job. Still a desecration!
I think I'm the only one here who has huge trouble recognizing an artist from one story to the next. But there are many exceptions, and Basil Wolverton is easily one of them.
There's something really meta about this. I mean, the original is already some kinda weird creature, cobbled together by a genius. And here we have the body that creature cut apart and resewn to fit... what? Basically the same story? But now with more prosaic jobs and goals? It's interesting to imagine there some generation loss whenever old Frankensteins are reshuffled into newer ones. I have to say this is ahead of its time--a song of merely sampling, erected from other people's bricks, some four or five decades before that became the norm.
I guess Jurassic Park can say it for me:
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Another visit from macabre 'ol Mister Mystery up next next so stay tombed... and as always, thanks for the comments!
This genuinely makes me sad. After all those years of persecution, he treats his robot the same way they treated him, even though it's entirely his fault she got melted, and he probably could fix her? What a jerk.
I had both versions up on side by side windows, and I can honestly say both were great fun. Thanks to Mr Karswell for a unique opportunity to "re-sample" the past.
And while I would normally not be a fan of re-editing - especially for "politically correct" reasons in our current day - I found this one to be done with quite a bit of care towards the content.
Be curious to know if the artist had any say at all, my guess is back then you drew it and the publisher got to do what they wanted for as long as they wanted.
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