As a kid I bought comics with gorillas on the covers. I still perk up when I see a story featuring those powerful creatures.
These two stories fit the bill. Both of them are tales about turning men into gorillas. Naturally, “the best laid plans...” you know...they often don’t go as we expect.
“Killer’s Arms!” is from Charlton’s Strange Suspense Stories #22 (1954), drawn by Leon Winik and Ray Osrin. “The Beast,” credited to Manny Stallman, is from Atlas’ Strange Tales #1 (1951).
Ook! Ook!
Thứ Sáu, 8 tháng 1, 2010
Number 663
I went to my own sex change!
What are the odds that I'd be presenting not one, but three pre-Code comic book stories about sex reassignment? Yup, we had two stories in October, and you can find them in Pappy's #606.
In the October posting there's a story by Dick Giordano and another by Wally Wood. Here's yet another Dick Giordano story using a sex change as a springboard for a plot. This time instead of the earlier science fiction take on the subject, it's a crime story. Either way it's goofy. It stretches credulity until...snap! Oops, credulity got stretched too far!
From Strange Suspense Stories #16, 1954:
Thứ Tư, 19 tháng 8, 2009
Number 578
Joe Shuster's ghost
After writing a review of Craig Yoe's Secret Identity, The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-creator, Joe Shuster I did a little research. Since Shuster did the illustrations for the Nights of Horror booklets that caused such a stir in 1954, I looked at some other work he did that year. Or should I say, didn't do. I have a couple of strips signed by Joe Shuster for Charlton Comics. I scanned these stories from 1954, "Secrets Of the Box" from Strange Stories of Suspense #22 and "Quest of the Beyond" from This Magazine Is Haunted #20. They're inked by Ray Osrin, but although the top signature says Joe Shuster, it appears to me that Shuster hired a ghost to do the pencils. None of the artwork in these strips looks anything like the Joe Shuster artwork for Nights of Horror, or for other work I associate with him, early Superman or even 1948's Funnyman. It doesn't make much sense for him to do unsigned artwork for Nights of Horror and make it look like the Superman creator Joe Shuster, and then sign artwork for Charlton that obviously wasn't by him. But that's what looks like happened.
I also posted an unsigned strip in Pappy's #331 called "Mental Wizard" from Charlton's The Thing #16, which is obviously by the same artist. Check out the bearded character, who looks like Smirnov in "The Secret In the Box."
Maybe Craig Yoe can figure it all out. As he showed in Secret Identity, he's good at this sort of detective work!
Stay for one more comment after you read the second story.
Do you think that last panel is goofy? That's not a human heart, but a Valentine heart. Since it's supposed to be a human heart my thought is that being 1954, with loud criticism of horror comics at an ear-splitting level, somebody in charge at Charlton said, "Better soft pedal that last panel. Put in something that is supposed to be a human heart but not so gory." I don't know that's what happened, but like Shuster's ghost, I can't figure out it out otherwise.
