NEXT!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Tales of the Invisible: Grave of Greed
The second story from the August 1952 issue of Harvey Comics Hits #59, aka "Tales of the Invisible" is a bit light on the horror elements (as well as the Scarlet O'Neil!) but it's still an amazingly well written piece of double crossin', murderin' fun from Russell Stamm, an underrated comic mastermind who worked with Chester Gould on Dick Tracy before going solo and creating this series (see recent posts over at THOIA by clicking HERE!) And don't forget to come back in a few days for Part Two! (FYI: originally titled "The Case of the Boarding House Murder" and from the May 1949 issue of Black Cat #17.)
This is fantastic. Maybe better than the other one. I love the way daily cartoonists take their time and tell a really rich story when they are given the kind of free reins a whole comic book page allows.
ReplyDeleteAgain, this is character-driven and really clever. I honestly don't know what's going to happen next. It's the best new thing I've learned since Dick Briefer.
PS, I love that Detective Magazine ad. Apparently, the experts are unsure whether the starlet was poisoned or bitten by a rabid animal. That's some pill! Sure it takes about a month to work, but it makes the victim furious, feverish, and produces periods of dementia; meanwhile it promotes hydrocephaly and copious amounts of saliva while also tearing ragged holes here and there in the victim's flesh. There's no antidote.
ReplyDeleteI actually think I like this story better than the other one too, this would've made a great film starring Basil Rathbone and Dame Margaret Rutherford. I agree with everything you said and also feel that this tale could have stood on it's own even without the inclusion of Scarlet O'Neil, possibly that's how it started out in Stamm's mind (just a great two player story) but he wanted to work it into his Scarlet strip.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments Mr C, I'll be personally emailing you Part Two since you're the only one who bothered to comment.
Yes, I did the other night, but I wanted to wait until I read it all. So far it is really neato, except that there is just too little of The Ravishing One.
ReplyDeleteI predict that the Old Bag will not give up the Schlepping Crook and they will do each other in after Scarlet is threatened minimally but will of course prevail.
>except that there is just too little of The Ravishing One.
ReplyDeleteHaha, well there's definitely more Scarlet in Part Two, post coming up possibly later today or tomorrow... just gotta get motivated to scan the pages.
So come on all you commentors-- get my motivation meter rising!
Dude, I totally almost waited to even read this till after the second part had been posted (like I did with the other story over at THOIA). But I had the time yesterday, and I don't really mind a cliffhanger all that much, so what the heck I went ahead read it.
ReplyDeleteI was also going to wait until you posted the next part but I couldn't! So far I like the other story better still, but this one is shaping up to be a real killer yuck yuck!
ReplyDelete