It just wouldn't be October without an Edgar Allan Poe post, or in the very least, a Poe inspired tale of terror. So instead of giving you the same old beat of a Tell-Tale Heart, or yet another murder in some rue-ish morgue someplace sorrowful, let's flip open a few fun pages from the January 1943 issue of Pep Comics #35, where The Hangman (he's a super hero, by the way) tackles another bird brain bad guy who's seriously flown the coop! The dark, shadowy hospital setting is nicely realized by the ever bad ass illustrative mastery of Bob Fujitani, --there's just a lot of great action art and eerie faces, not to mention an absolute load of lurid thrills 'n chills! You've likely never seen Poe presented quite like this before here at THOIA, and fans of The Spirit, Dr. Drew, etc are sure to get a kick (and maybe a punch or two) outta this one! And of course, if you require much more legitimate presentations of Poe's works, CLICK HERE for lots rots more in our archive...
3 comments:
The art on this is excellent! It's early 40s, the action can be a bit stiff, but it makes up for it in the excellent shadows, atmosphere, the deep shading that gives everything a rounded appearance, the distinct features of the characters, and the Raven is a really cool costume!
The splash -- wow. There's a sight line between the Hangman and the Raven, ringed by the faces and the victim with a book background. That's incredible work.
I like one thing about the Raven, where he has the human legs but he put his hands in the claws which means the wings are completely useless, which is a real dedication to being a super villain!
The Hangman bosses everybody around but absolutely sucks. He gathers everybody in a room, claims one of them is a killer (none are), threatens them with a hanging, and then gets clobbered from behind by a dude in a giant bird costume who just can not be that stealthy.
Then he loses that same guy almost twice, once in a small room!
Page 5, panel 2, I can't believe those shadows on Thelma's butt is anything but intentional. Paging Dr. Wertham!
Page 4, panel 7: Nobody's fazed by Pierre insisting that he's going to marry Ellen even though she's underage (though admittedly she looks like she's only a year shy, as opposed to, oh, 13 like Jerry Lee Lewis' third wife)? My, how time have changed...
I have seen this setup before in comics, especially super hero comics, of gathering all the suspects in the same room and solving the crime, but this one brings something unique to the table. Maybe it is the hero and his calling card, the noose, maybe it is the costumed killer, the shading, the art, maybe it is all of the elements combined that makes this story work so well.
This was a great crime thriller, thanks for the post.
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