You really have to give the Atlas writers a hand, because occasionally they would come up with a fun idea for a story, and then apparently like it so much they'd do it again a half dozen issues later (with a few changes) in the same comic series. Take for example "The Stooge" from the March 1953 issue of Uncanny Tales #6 vs. Bob Powell's, "The Man from Outer Space" in the Sept '53 issue of Uncanny Tales #12.
Quite a double bill! Six hands would come in, er, handy, I suppose. But then we'd be like these two, expected to be doing something constantly. Pros and cons, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteThe saucer crashing into a barn reminds me of the famous Aurora TX, spaceship crash story.
ReplyDelete(Even most UFO believers don't believe it, but it's very interesting.)
I don't know about 6 arms -- a prehensile tail, now that would be useful -- but I think 4 more arms would be pretty hard to control!
ReplyDeleteSo the second story does it better; in the first story we need to draw a connection that they are in the circus and it's possible for the husband to be a freak; but in the second story the actually events lead up to the extra arms though the script writer goes a little too hard on it, mentioning it multiple times.
I love the alien; I love his look, and his naive nature (which doesn't make a lot of sense but I'll give it for the story) and Powell's art.
I love the first artist, too, there's a lot of clever angles, where they put things in shadows to give more weight is great, the long work panel, and all in 3 pages!
They used this in another Atlas story; there's one where there's a strangler the police can never catch and the reason his fingerprints don't show up is he has 4 arms.
You come up with as many stories as Atlas had to every month and there's going to be a lot of multi-armed people!
Wow, almost doubled the page count in just six months. I guess that's one thing we can thank Whertham for: At that rate, this story might have been a thirty thousand page epic by 1960--with a one-panel punchline right there at the end. Marvel's "the Aristocrats."
ReplyDeleteMartin Rosenthall's art on the Stooge is interesting. Stagey and postured, with flashes of inventive detail (take all those dishes at the bottom of page one, for example). I really quite like the verve of that domestic chores collage in the middle of two, and the top row of page three--as slapdash as it may seem--reminds me a little of Joseph Mugnaini. Or maybe I'm just seeing things because I'm rereading October Country.
Of course the Bob Powell art is just as great as it always is.
There’s a multi-armed Bill Everett classic in the archive from 2008 here: https://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2008/05/madman.html
ReplyDeleteThe first tale made me wonder why the multi armed guy married her in the first place. He may have had Multiple arms but no backbone.
ReplyDeleteIn the second story, a friendly alien instead of a scout for a conqueror race is a nice change of pace for these kinds of sci fi tales.
If nothing else, the wife can put her new arms to good use, provided she travels to India where she will be received as a Deity. Turn a negative into a positive whenever you can.
His "naive nature" reminds you of a few of the OUTER LIMITS episodes, especially "The Bellero Shield." That one also has a married couple and a space creature who's too trusting, and it ends very badly for HIM (and everyone else).
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