Yesterday was not only Christopher Lee's birthday, but also the great Vincent Price's too! And with Peter Cushing's birthday on the 26th, I think it only proper that we keep this celebration rolling and tribute them all with a doomtacular weekend of themed story posts! We'll start it off with Vinny and Pete (who both played many a great mad scientist) with the most insane mad scientist story to ever grace 5 putrid pages of a creepy old comic book! Seriously, this one is absolutely bonkers, and when you reach the bottom of page 3 you'll discover a whole new meaning for "Lord of the Flies." And don't forget to come back this weekend for the Chris Lee portion of our tribute-- I'm sure it'll be something vampire related, I haven't really decided yet-- but for now, let's don our lab coats and head into the April 1954 issue of Mystic #29, (art by Pete Tumlinson.)
'Return Of The Fly': I'm okay with his GIANT head, but the cravat is too far.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Stan wrote this one, but I'm surprised it didn't end with a enormous fly strip :)
ReplyDeleteThe art is a bit muddy in places, but I love the hairy fly creature. It's too bad he spent most of the time off panel; having a human-fly with a glass globe head is a great image! He's awesome on the splash.
Poor Vincent, that's a great prop costume but if he gets any closer he's going to get an eye poked out by all those spines!
Muddy?
ReplyDeleteYeah, muddy, kind of a combination of heavier inks and busy panels and the printing of the time. Minor complaint, it sometimes washing out panels and makes it hard to pick out focal points.
ReplyDeleteFly-man needed a couple close up panels along in the sequence where he was getting up off the table, but he's kind of crunched with all the scientist/assistant/equipment, and sometimes it's hard to tell he's got a glass brain jar.
All IMHO, obviously, just like to over-analyze!
Yeah I’m not sure I agree... I mean, some of the panels are busy and packed with a lot of detail, but everything reads pretty clean to mean.
ReplyDeleteI love this one. I really dig how the plot turns on the idea that this scientist has no control--he doesn't lose it, or allow it fail in some way, he just doesn't ever have it. The story just rolls its eyes at the very notion that mastery is a privilege of creation.
ReplyDeleteMy sentiments exactly.
I also love how the mature and articulate voice of reason is the hunchback. I guess I've grown so biased against the very idea of the deformed lab assistant being a plausible, sane, three-dimensional character (thanks horror!) that it took me two whole pages to realize that, as the POV, the hunchback was me. Not only is this story anti-authoritarian, it's also least ableist precode story I've seen.
All that and a Frances Bavier cameo right int he splash? TGIF!