Now listen up! I've inadvertently created a "wet 'n wild" theme with the last few posts, --so howz'about one more from the August 1953 issue of Mystery Tales #14 -- it's guaranteed to send you over the edge! Paul Reinman once again delivers the wicked wedded goods, and Mr. Karswell may have even tampered with a swimsuit panel or two... or three... or four. A one piece is fine, but a bikini is divine!
Now Karswell is admitting to the tampering, its a whole new era at The Horrors of it All!
ReplyDeleteThis one is a ton of fun. I love how diabolical but at the same time idiotic the lovers plots are and how absolutely frustrated they must be. Reinman turns in some great expressions, especially how exacerbated chauffeur is.
Of course, we know where this is headed -- dueling murder plots and Lorna couldn't have thought of yet but another gag cartoon of a murder plot that actually worked, with a bit of ironic help from the plot that murdered her.
Another horror story that works perfectly as a crime story, in 4 compact pages. No wasted panels here.
One thing about comics is just how many rivers have gigantic falls attached to them!
"Albert Rudley's wife, Lorna, flicked on the light."
ReplyDeleteThe font immediately made me think of the alleged Comics Code proscription of the word FLICK. Though Lorna is so staggeringly idiotic that I wouldn't put it past her to fuck on a light either.
Then Albert claims he didn't make two million dollars by being stupid. Uh, bro, how did you manage to not suspect anything after a *piano* fell on you?
Well, the chauffeur is out of a job now. He probably shouldn't consider a knife-thower's act on the music-hall stage or that of a killer for hire.
So how did you manipulate the swimsuit? Lorna looks the type to wear a one piece with frills at the waist.
A wonderful vacation near Canada! Northern Idaho, I guess? Seems nice.
ReplyDeleteIt's a little odd that the man's own driver doesn't know when he's coming back home from work. What did he do, take a cab? If so, why isn't he a little suspicious that the chauffeur is at home waiting to knife him? Something fishy is going on.
Love Reinman's fresh art as usual. Page two is a stunner. I just love the four Looney Tunes murder attempt panels in the bottom row. Brian's point above, that the ultimate plot also comes straight from the Warner Brothers vault, is on point. This is clearly a loving work of homage to Tex Avery or somebody, only dressed up in crime comics vernacular. Atlas always was plenty sassy.
This is a tale of three clueless clods-
ReplyDeleteThe clod of a chauffer for using a knife instead of a gun
The clod of a wife who never learned the art of subtlety (i.e. untraceable poison)
The clod of a husband who didn't think to tell his wife that if he died the entire estate would go to an orphanage or old age home, making his death unprofitable.
This tale did remind me of 'Comedy of Terrors', how the main characters all tried to bump off one another, with only for the lead villain, the immortal Vincent Price, to die in the end while the rest escaped the Grim Reaper.
You have artistic skill, Karswell, in converting her one piece swimsuit into a two piece, though a more risqué version of this art edit would have featured the wife losing her bikini top after diving in (THOIA after dark, only available on Patreon)
I'm sentimental about this one, due to it appearing in one of those countless Marvel reprint comics.
ReplyDeleteActually, it appears in Fear # 14 after a "Man-Thing" story, since those stories often got reprinted as filler items.