Oh, for the luvva Mike! Just because 'ol Mother Nature decides to dump an avalanche of snow and ice on the midwest today, does it really mean that 'ol Mr. Karswell has to drop the chill (and some funny thrills) on you fine fellow readers as well?! You bet your frozen dollars, I do! But don't bundle up too warmly, because the two lovely leads in today's Super Saturday Matinee Double Feature are sure to warm things up rather nicely-- even if, and especially when, they are so inappropriately dressed in their frightful, frigid surroundings-- thankfully! Yes sir, Golden Age comic fan fave, Nina Albright proves to be the all-star illustrator of a nice pair wrapped in a titillatingly tight orange sweater, --uh, that is, if you can peel your poppin' eyeballs away from the simultaneously, magnificent Molly O'Moore leg show! From the July 1944 issue of Terrific Comics #4, and followed by another beautiful babe, Toni Gayle, as she bearly makes it out alive (get it?) in an icy tundra of terror, via the September - October 1949 issue of 4Most Vol.8#5. More superb illustrations and the coolest ever cover art by legendary, L. B. Cole, --and if that name doesn't ring a bell, then you my friend need to head over to THOIA and learn some facts, ASAP!
Two stories that take place in cold environments, and the 2nd in the Arctic, yet nothing stops the artists from good girl art. Bare legs in the Arctic? I mean some of the horror stories you post stretch belief but this one goes too far!
ReplyDeleteI like the bizarre will they / won't they of Molly and 'Scoop', but was kind of sad there wasn't a guy in a skull mask!
I wonder what the antecedent to these stories were? Brenda Starr? Don't know the timeline of the women reporter hero stories. Both stories end with a dude giving a sock to the jaw of the villain, which I suspect if you tallied them up, would probably be over 50% of these stories!
I leaning toward the art in the second story, I think. There's something about all the good girl tricks (full body shots, legs sticking out into surrounding frames, etc.) that subordinates storytelling to the ulterior motive of cheesecake. That's fine--I know it's the goal, and every page of story one looks nice. So I don't mean to sound like I'm dissing Albright. But the somewhat staid art in story two feels a lot like a newspaper strip that's been reformatted to fit a comics page, and that's always come off as classy to me. It's not trying to wow me with skin, just sticking to its crazy story. I really dig all the fright auroras coming off that bear on page four. And doesn't Toni just look seasonal as heck in her little mall elf costume?
ReplyDeleteI love the way Nina Albright's figures all charge straight ahead in perfect slinky lockstep, like they are practicing for some three-legged race, bickering the whole while. More psychologically conjoined twins? May be.