We're halfway to Halloween again already, and typically on this day (aka Walpurgisnacht) I tend to feature posts themed a little more on the witchier side of things. But since this great Mack Martin: Private Investigator tale from the March 1949 issue of Super-Mystery Comics V8 #4 takes place during a costumed masquerade party, I think it still fits the holiday bill nicely. It's a super fun, super duper mystery of the highest caliber, with an assortment of diabolical suspects all dressed as Death itself! There's plenty of thrills, chills, furious fisticuffs action, and laugh out loud dialog too, along with some superb artwork from ever reliable Rudy Palais --who also created that great cover design (FYI: the added mummy themed cover at the end of the post remains uncredited.) I hope everyone enjoyed this month of posts, and I promise that May will be even more morbid than ever! Stay tombed...
4 comments:
Palais could do some great work when his characters weren't gushing with perspiration.
The Super Mystery cover featuring the three skull faced guys, it made me think of "Tombs of the Blind Dead" for some reason.
Another great chiller thriller of a post, Karswell, thanks.
Page 6 is all sorts of comic goodness! First, always punch skeletons, second, keep the figures moving from panel to panel, even 2 and 3, which seem the same, has a different angle on the view. I also like how the backgrounds get removed so the action can stand starkly against the background or the fun circular panel (something I'm usually not a fan of.)
Of course, the position of the gun is kind of weird during that fight, and I'm not sure why our skeleton overlord didn't finish off our detective, but that's a villain for you.
Also: I know you are a two-fisted he-man but maybe give the daughter a day or so crying in her bed before you turn on the charm?
I also love how trusting the cops are. People are just dying next to this guy in giant piles, usually when he's alone with them, but they never suspect him!
This was fun.
After that cover, I'm glad the story actually includes a scene where Mack punches some guy's skull face off. All the art here is great, but I like the hairy sinewy details of the cover image best (and those color-coded reapers are a big part of that)--even if the leading man's head is three sizes too big.
Wasn't this guy supposed to save somebody's--anybody's!--life or solve a case or something? Well, he didn't. I have no idea what his secretary thinks they earned a fee for doing. But even though Mack Martin isn't particularly good at his job, I still wince a little when I see that scene where the murderer shoots the witness from behind a curtain just as he's spilling the beans. It's always obvious that any real murderer worth his salt would have shot the hero instead (even if that hero hasn't been very effective). Still, I see this scene all the time. This time it's compounded by the murderer then proceeding to beat the hero unconscious before continuing to not shoot him dead. Later, when they invariably meet again, the murderer is newly desperate to kill the hero. But you totally blew your chance back on page five, buddy! I guess I should cut the guy some slack for apparently hoping for the best. Or for learning from his mistakes. Or something.
Two notes: One, I am right handed and yet I wear my watch on my right hand. This is not all that rare. Two, that handgun Roche is using on the last page is clearly a semiautomatic, not a revolver. It looks like a Colt 1911 .45 ACP. That gun holds way more than six bullets. I feel like this works fine for the story, actually. Getting things wrong is Mack Martin's superpower. But I like to think he got shot twice in the brains between panels four and five or the last page, and that's just his ghost macking on the girl at the end there.
Post a Comment