Well, once again we made it to Walpurgisnacht-- but can we survive this naughty nacht without getting ourselves burned?! It's gonna be one heckuva Halfway to Halloween fight as Captain Battle swoops in to put a brutal end to some Hellish heathens and their horny wicked ways, from the Feb. '42 issue of Silver Streak Comics #18. But first up, Bob Powell sends us careening down-- down-- down into the flaming caverns of Satan's sizzlin' domain, in an all-time classic Harvey Hit from Hell, via the April 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #7. THOIA will return after a few days of Mr. Karswell May Day Birthday Recuperayytion, --please stay tombed!
I love that Captain Battle is in the phonebook. Very handy.
ReplyDeletePage 5, panel 3 gives a real Mike Ploog look, I only noticed that now. This was years earlier but I wonder if he took inspiration from this comic?
ReplyDeletePit of the Damned is actually interesting, story wise because you could imagine that Alex actually wins in the end -- sure, he's build a kingdom of the damned and is trapped with it, but he's also king of it. Better to rule in hell? It might be a happy ending!
I love how Powell still manages to sneak in some good girl art, but ... torture good girl art. Not the kind of good girl art we normally look for!
Cap Battle is, as always, just a barrel of monkeys. The plot moves along at lightning speed; coincidences solve all problems; people can seemingly teleport, and everybody gets punched or kicked and one idiot with a halloween costume almost takes down the entire US army.
It's just great silly fun.
The coloring is ... bizarre? Though? Maybe it's me but the colors seem incredibly dark, the whole thing has a very dark tone and there's lot of blacks even for a comic that features so much fire!
A few posts ago I had said that I much prefer stories that don't show the "horror" but leave it to the reader's imagination, and the "horrifying" waxworks are an excellent example of why. They aren't attractive, but the audience's reaction is comical.
ReplyDeletePoor hobo - he didn't ask for any of this.
Speaking of superheroes, it looks like "The Spirit" is one of the carnival customers on Page 3 of "Pit of the Damned"!
ReplyDeleteOr is that just the shadow of the man's hat looking like a mask?
Like probably everyone, I was rooting for the innocent bystander hobo to end up all right, and he does. Although he looks pretty bad-off.
Sorry for the late comment, but Happy Birthday to you, Karswell.
ReplyDeleteThanky JMR!! :)
DeleteYeah, it's always a bit telling to see illustrators choosing to amplify the sex appeal of the wretched damned. It's kind of self defeating, at least in storytelling terms. Do creators expect readers to understand that hell is really bad while at the same time secretly fantasizing about the erotic potential of writhing naked in a pit of fire with tormented super models? Nah. Pretty sure the "hell is bad" messaging can fly the coop for all the publishers care.
ReplyDeleteThis story is a real freakout. Another one of those breathless, headlong narratives that feels like it was simply invoked, without much forethought, from panel to panel. I love the carnival skeleton on page one, and the giant witch on page two. And the rogue's gallery of Powell's faces throughout. Page six is a bit of a odd beast, though. The horror of a line of spiked heads at the top and a leering tongue skull searing away at the bottom is punctuated by fun house tricks: A huge door? A really long hallway? This must be where that witch lives.
Fun house decor was apparently popular, though. Check out Hale struggling to reach that light switch in the second story (page five panel five). Must be a clever spy tactic to make counter insurgents feel like they are only about twenty inches tall. It's in the secret agent handbook right before the chapter on Halloween costumes. I love Captain Battle dumping the bad guys in the briar patch, though. I also love the images of Natas standing around in the fire. I've always really dug the way golden age superhero comics draw fire. Like yellow and orange foliage.
Happy Birthday! Should be about midnight in Missouri, so I guess this is belated if you want to be technical about when the day begins and ends. I've known plenty a great birthday to last well into the witching hours, though.