Number 1527: Spirit of the gun

Recently I presented a bloody tale from Desperado #1 narrated by a gun. Here I have another tale, this time from Will Eisner’s Spirit Section of March 4, 1951, also narrated by a gun. Is this a good gimmick or not, having stories narrated by inanimate objects? (To answer my own question, the esteemed Ray Bradbury used it when he had a rocket ship narrate “I, Rocket” in Amazing Stories, May 1944. Perhaps I should just shut up.)

Another thing about this Spirit story that caught my eye was the panel sequence I have used as a teaser above, and a similar sequence from Mad #12 (1954), when Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder did their satire, “Starchie.”

I wonder if the Spirit had any inspiration on the Mad sequence, either consciously or unconsciously.

Number 1124


The Crypt of Three Dimensions, with bonus from Boys’ Life: “How To Make and Use Your Own 3-D Glasses!”


This eye-popping 3-D posting is the last from our week of monster postings. If you just joined us, scroll down to the former posts for more monster fun.

"The Strange Couple," written and drawn by Al Feldstein for the third issue of The Vault Of Horror (#15) in 1950, was turned into a 3-D story for EC Comics' second attempt at cashing in on the 3-D craze of the '50s, Three Dimensional Tales from the Crypt (cover title: Three Dimensional Tales from the Crypt of Terror). It was redrawn by—of all people—Mad comics' Will Elder, who did a very moody and effective job on the story.

Drawing 3-D comics was a lot of work for the artists. Various articles over the years have explained how many different overlays the artist had to use, so it was time consuming and the artist had to be compensated for extra work. About the only 3-D comic that made money was the first, Mighty Mouse from St. John, and all the rest came out just about when the novelty had faded. Readers were paying 25¢ for the same page content as a 10¢ comic, with a couple of pairs of 3-D glasses, and the eyestrain that went with trying to read the blurry images.

Here's the original story by Feldstein. I scanned it from Russ Cochran's 1993 reprint of The Vault of Horror #3:







Here's the 3-D version by Elder:








The 3-D fad was effectively over by the time this magazine appeared, but Boys' Life magazine for December 1954 had an article with illustrations on how to make your own 3-D glasses. If you don't have glasses and want to read the above story, now you can do it yourself.


In the late '70s I bought a handmade pair of 3-D glasses from an ad in The Buyer's Guide for Comics Fandom. The person who made them did a good job. I'm still using them over 30 years later. The cardboard has started to yellow, but the colored cellophane is still bright. (Keep them out of sunlight.) You can buy colored cellophane in crafts stores. Good luck!

Number 590


Luck


Here's another great EC story presented with both scans of the original art* and from the printed comic book.

You hardly get any better than Harvey Kurtzman's war comics, especially drawn by John Severin. Add in Will Elder on the inks and you've got a perfect artistic trio.

"Luck" is from Two-Fisted Tales #27, 1953. According to the blurb over the title, Kurtzman heard the story from some hospitalized soldiers recently back from Korea. It's an urban legend set in a war zone, not necessarily true, but a good story with a strong sense of irony.

*Thanks, with a tip of Pappy's old steel Army helmet, to Heritage Auctions website for the scans.

Number 558


Respect your Elder


Will Elder was more than one half of the Kurtzman/Elder partnership. Elder was also pretty great on his own, without Kurtzman, as this 1954 story from EC's Panic #2 shows.

This is another of those times where I say the artist could not have been paid enough for all the work he put into a story. Every panel is packed with "chicken fat," the extras that Elder specialized in. He was much admired, and Lord knows several artists working on Mad imitations tried to capture the essence of what made him great, but no one succeeded.

I'm dedicating this posting to my friend, Eddie Hunter, who named his blog Chicken Fat in honor of Elder, and slips in the occasional posting about Mad, Kurtzman, Elder, Jack Davis, etc., alongside his funny essays, genealogy or articles about his hometown, Marietta, Georgia. Eddie is an Elder/Mad comics fan through and through.

I found the original art pages at Heritage Auctions. The comic book scans are from Panic #2. The Clark Gable/Mogambo bit at the end is part of a running gag throughout this issue. The ugly face on page 6 is by Basil Wolverton, maybe the only time Elder shared the page with anyone but John Severin, whose pencil art he inked on many stories before their solo careers took off.