Many of you know that THOIA's archival crypt is overflowing with stories about people going through a whole heckuva lotta trouble just to kill someone. Take "Grave Rehearsal" from the August 1953 issue of Strange Fantasy #7 for example-- whew, now this is a truly dedicated, exhausting amount of evil and planning! And in the end, --is it even worth it?! I have another gruesome one from this same issue up next as well, so stay tantalizingly tombed --even in that stiff cement overcoat!
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I know this one, I used a page for it on one of my Halloween blogging nonsense where I rewrote comic pages with humorous dialog.
What I love about this is the character of BS Fitts. Everybody else has a regular horror comic architype and so does Fitts but here it's taken to 11. He dies, but nothing changes. He still acts important, bosses ghosts around, and finally sends in his own death with as many lurid details as he can, and the entire thing ends with him grinning about it all.
Is this even really revenge? Did he kill Madame Satin for revenge or just because it made his final story that much more exciting? I'm going with the later!
BTW you tell Madame Satin needed money because she seems to have only one dress for the multiple days of this story!
This one’s actually a refreshing take on the old trope of “hot woman kills rich old guy for his money”. I was expecting the story to take the usual route, old rich guy marries beautiful gold digger turned black widow. Plot twist though, the woman gets his wealth not through marriage but through a valid donation with her being the beneficiary after his death. I was also half expecting Madame Satin to be a past victim of his mud slinging rag wanting revenge. Nope, she simply tricks her donators into making her their beneficiary and escalating their deaths afterwards. Also the initials “B.S.” tickle me for obvious reasons. Such a fitting name for a man who owns a Mu’s slinging tabloid. 🤣🤣 also “Satin” is just one letter short of “Satan”.
B. S. Fitts is the prototype for J. Jonah Jameson, angry at his underlings, hot headed, not one to let anyone get the better of him.
Madame Satin, a sexy woman dominating men while holding a whip, how did this one get past worthless Wertham?
This one was out of left field, story wise- the roundabout way of bumping off rich benefactors (never heard of poison?) the ghosts seeking revenge, the ghost bothering to send the story to his paper as his last sensational story, it was one wild read indeed!
Also, how did the name "Madame Satin" itself get by? Unless it's a play on "Satan," but you never hear that.
I see a lot of precode comics where artists were clearly struggling to find space to illustrate a story shot through with sequence-obliterating caption and dialog balloons. But not this guy. I feel like the editors threw plenty of hurtles in his path--lots of frames sprout towers of stacked conversation--but the art is still clean, roomy, and preternaturally easy to follow, even across pages where the very panel borders have been near totally obscured. I'm impressed.
Page two is my fave. I love all those panels with the stripey yellow peejays.
Very strange to be (partially) pro-abusive boss. Madame Satin just wanted to live up to her ancestors. MADAME SATIN DID NOTHING WRONG!
The boss kept bossing even the other dead victims!
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