Monster Howls (PART ONE)

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Tư, 29 tháng 2, 2012

THOIA honors the great John Severin who passed away earlier this month at the age of 90. An incredibly gifted, influencial artist who needs no introduction, (but if you need more info click HERE), and at THOIA, we like to let the art do the talking with some highlights from the awesome 1966 Monster Howls one-shot issue (Humor-Vision / Major Magazines.) These pages speak volumes about his distinct talent, sense of humor, and monster mastery! John Severin (Dec. 26, 1921 – Feb. 12, 2012)















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Người đăng: vanmai yeu em


Number 1114


Bad blondes


Women didn't fare too well in pulp crime fiction or crime comic books of a bygone era; they were either on the covers being threatened in hideous ways by evil men, or inside being victims or victimizers (read: "bitches"). Women engaged in "normal" female activities were usually relegated to character rather than starring roles. Okay, I know that's a pretty broad statement. (Hyuk hyuk. Get it? Broad?) Maybe it's true or just my perception, having read a lot of crime comics and pulp crime fiction over the past half century.

The two blondes who both appeared in 1948's Pay-Off #1 meet the bitch specifications: they are manipulative and murderous. Murderous because they arrange for a killing, but manipulative in that they get someone else to do their dirty work. "The Guilty Conscience," drawn by Louis Schroeder, is even more blatant. Della, the gangster's girlfriend, uses the promise of sex (shown as a kiss and a flash of leg, plus her thought, "I've never seen a chump yet who wouldn't double-cross his own mother for a a pretty leg."*) She gets the youthful criminal wannabe, Jud Gibson, to ice-pick Nick Lavino to death.

In "Diamond Lil of Otsego," art by Bob Jenney, Lil gets her friend May to do the murder of the poor old caretaker for his life insurance. In this case the blonde gets another woman to do a murder, but May is a brunette.














*True.
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Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Thứ Hai, 27 tháng 2, 2012


Number 1113


Beany & Cecil & Bob & Jack


Bob Clampett was the creator of the popular Time For Beany puppet show, a very early children's program on television. When it came time to do a comic book version, Clampett asked for Jack Bradbury.*

It's been a long time since I featured any artwork by Jack Bradbury, who is one of my favorites of the moonlighting animators drawing comic books in the '40s, working on comic books like Giggle Comics and Ha Ha Comics, and his own creation, Spunky, Junior Cowboy.

Bradbury, who was born in 1914, died in 2004.

"Horse-fly Hubbub" is from Bob Clampett's Beany in Horse-Fly Hubbub, Four Color #414 (1952):

















*Source for this information is the web site The Comic Art of Jack Bradbury, a site maintained by Bradbury's son. There are over 1700 pages of comic art scans there, including Beany and Cecil. Another Beany and Cecil story is available from Mykal Banta's The Big Blog of Kids' Comics here.

After this posting appeared I got a nice e-mail from reader John Hindsill, who shared his reminiscence of the Time For Beany puppet show, the basis for the comic book version:
Pappy,

Boy does this take me back...waaay back to 1949 or thereabouts when I was 9 years old. If you did not grow up in Los Angeles, (or even if you did) allow me to flesh out Beany's history as I recall it.

Time for Beany began as a daily live television show during the late afternoon/ dinner time period. It is alleged that its most famous, most erudite fan was Albert Einstein when he was at CalTech in Pasadena. This is not as far-fetched as it might sound, as many of the jokes, puns and use & allusions to current music (Ragg-Mopp, comes readily to mind) often was above the ken of the under-10 set.

The characters were hand-puppets voiced by Stan Freburg, of song and TV show parody, and commercial production fame (Ann Miller dancing on a soup can), and Daws Butler. Freberg is still alive, and, one hopes, in good health.

Fridays were shows either with an in studio audience, of the illusion of same, during the tirst year or two. At any rate, Cecil would hand out presents from the Leakin' Lena to kids in the audience. I don't recall that I ever actually saw any kids, though.

By the time my sister was old enough to watch such things TfB either was off the air or had become a cartoon show. The animated version lacked the charm, the spunk and the imagination (my considered opinion) of the puppet version.

I'm guessing that a fuller and/or a more accurate history can be found on web, but I thought you might enjoy the reminiscence of somebody who really was there.

John
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Showcase #83: Here Comes Bernie

Người đăng: vanmai yeu em on Chủ Nhật, 26 tháng 2, 2012

The second issue of the Nightmaster Showcase trial featured the art of Bernie Wrightson, who had just started his comic book career a month or so earlier.  Wrightson's style was obviously heavily influenced by Frank Frazetta, which made him particularly suited for the genre. Frazetta's magnificent illustrations had covered the recent Conan series of books published by Lancer/Ace.

 The story takes up where the previous one left off.  Having learned the passwords from the Ice Witch, Nightmaster and his somewhat deranged guide, Boz, are trying to save Jan from the evil warlocks.  They run into a challenge from a Conan clone:
Note the unusual use of inks there; the straight lines on Nightmaster's face as compared to the cross-hatching on the barbarian's.  This is not original with Wrightson by any means, but it was a style associated with more mature and sophisticated artists, like Al Williamson.

Nightmaster manages to defeat the barbarian by throwing away his sword and using a little judo.  Because he refuses to take his opponent's life, the barbarian agrees to help him.  It turns out he has two additional companions for the party:
 They are sirens, whose voices have been stilled by the evil wizards and locked away in a chest.  So their goals coincide as well. Wrightson was known for drawing exceptionally beautiful women.  Probably his most famous issue had this mesmerizing cover:


They make it to the warlock stronghold, where they stop at an inn.  I guess the CCA was asleep at the switch again on the use of alcohol, as they order ale and:
There's the somewhat obligatory battle with some guards who show up:
Entering the warlock castle, they find the chest holding the voices of the two sirens.  Then they reach the roof, where a moonship is preparing to lift off:
I like the concept of a ship that sails through the air, powered by the light of the moon.  They manage to get over the gunwales before the craft escapes, and Nightmaster discovers that Jan is aboard:
They battle some enchanted warriors, who cannot be defeated, and thus they are forced back to the rails of the ship:
Very nice bit of sequential art there.  The story ends with the moonship sailing away, much to Nightmaster's frustration:
The combination of two of comics' brightest young talents certainly improved things over the previous issue.  This one is not quite perfect, but there are more than a few glimmers of potential that could have resulted in something special had the series been given the time to percolate and develop an audience.  Unfortunately, DC was under rising pressure due to the inflation of the late 1960s (in fact, this was the last 12-cent issue for Showcase) and so had no inclination to wait to see if this series would sell long-term.  Given the success that Marvel had with Conan the Barbarian only a year later, it seems quite likely that Nightmaster could have turned into a winner.

A bit of trivia here: Do you know the last series that Showcase launched into its own book?  It was Windy and Willy, which debuted one issue before Nightmaster.  Can you guess why?  Well, my guess is because DC recycled the old Many Loves of Dobie Gillis series for that comic (with only a few changes to update hairstyles and fashions), and thus it was cheaper to produce than a comic that required new stories and art.
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