Aka "The Amazing Dr. Holmes: Murdering Lothario of Illinois" tells the true crime story of vicious psycho con artist / serial killer, Dr. Henry Howard Holmes, aka H. H. Holmes who engaged in a lengthy criminal career in Chicago during the late 1800's. First published in the August 1948 issue of Famous Crimes #2, and later as "Homicidal Madman!" when reprinted / retitled for Star Publication's September 1952 issue of Shocking Mystery Tales #50, this is a slightly muddled, though still somewhat decent adaptation of the sensationally disturbing story, and features many of the more brutal Holmes atrocities, unflinching laid out for you the comic book reader --in particular, one very unnerving acid bath sequence! Read more about HHH and his "Murder Castle" of horrors HERE at the Wiki entry, --if you dare!
7 comments:
There's something terribly funny about giving all those Victorian folks dialogue straight out of early 20th-century crime pulps...
I think with what is currently happening right now the concept of "crime never pays" and "justice is forever triumphant" rings a bit hollow.
Holmes' crimes are always a bit bizarre because of the yellow journalism of the day acted like the man was running Arcade's MurderWorld from the comics!
I love comparing the splashes, the skirt was shortened and a tear added, the wild "Amazing" which looks more like it's advertising dish soap, and "Lothario." It's great how they made a pretty lurid comic even more lurid!
Very 40s crime comic art. I like the very A-team-ish shoot out at the end, nobody seems to hit anybody from a few feet away and the only real injury is a shot in the shoulder!
Yeah, the acid bath is a wild panel.
50's horror comics were tame kids stuff compared to real life horrors of decades past.
Not directly relevant to this comic, but are you familiar with Rick Geary's "A Treasury Of Victorian Murder"? It's more historically accurate and less campy, but also a lot less (¿inadvertently?) funny.
Wait. I thought the shorter, torn-er skirt was the earlier forties panel? And that the clothes in the fifties panel were lengthened? That's the way it looks to me, based on the color process. And I feel like that's what Karswell's intro says, too.
Either way, it makes a great "Spot the Difference puzzle."
Man, the bottom of page four is really wild. All that manly arguing! It's like some kind of warped prison judo manual. Place his center of gravity under your arm and push up with your shoulder while grasping his left arm behind his back with your right hand. Now make a quarter turn with you upper body and offer him five hundred bucks to stop fighting you. I can't wait to try out this when I'm in jail!
> Either way, it makes a great "Spot the Difference puzzle."
Yes, and I continue to enforce the need of CLEARLY reading my intros before reading the story, thank you very much, haha
Argh my bad I got them reversed in my head after reading the story, but this actually makes it more interesting because now it's less risqué!
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