Hear that grinding noise? Is that the monolithic mills of the Gods slowly turning, or is it just Mr. Karswell uploading the final post of September 2024? Could be one, or both, and with a silly title like "Deadly Doodles of Dandy" you may just find that this Goldfarb and Baer terror team-up isn't quite as cornball as ya'd think! From the very short-lived, second and final issue of Fantastic #9, via Youthful in April of 1952.
Couldn't Hank have thought up some nice things to happen to him and typed that out? Even Stephen King had enough imagination to think of the author doing that in "Word Processor Of The Gods".
ReplyDeleteWho the hell wants to read that story though? not me
ReplyDeleteNext story: The strange case of the 3 people that came back to life!
ReplyDeleteI like how self referential this is, even naming checking the artists. That said, page 4, panel 5 is one of those great horror images you see reposted on the internet. It's a little strange that the demon is on the splash (a great splash!) but not on the page itself. I like that guy, he's pretty darn cute!
Great ending, BTW, I love how the sound fx crosses the panel borders and the crazy stars. It's a little cartoonish but it works!
Talk about the ultimate keyboard warrior!
ReplyDeleteIf I had a typewriter like that, I would use it to crate a story where I win millions from the lottery, all of my enemies turn into goldfish, and where I became the ultimate hitman, making my targets vanish off the face of the earth.
This tale reminds me of Tales from the Darkside "Word Processor of the Gods" and Robert Bloch's "The Ghost Writer".
Also, the comical TWILIGHT ZONE episode "A World Of His Own."
DeleteIn that one, the writer doesn't make great big events happen (good or bad), but he conjures up people.
All these meta stories, with their nods to the real world--well, I never can decide if I feel like they are imaginative or that they lack invention. In this case, knowing the fate of the name-checked mag, the bottom of page two feels a little delusional. The middle of page six is much closer to the mark: This really is some excellent artwork.
ReplyDeleteNothing really beats that floating head panel, but I have to say that every other frame of pages five and six are awesome, too. And I think the typewriter panel on the latter is the best send-up of precode horror authorship I've seen in a while. And don't miss the crafty nod to the hand-lettering coming out of that machine on page seven. It's an especially priceless joke in a book that uses a Leroy Lettering System machine for all the other words.