For our weekly Friday Frights this time around, let's all first reflect on what a Mega-Meh Springtime this has been so far. One day it's Spring, the next day it's back to Winter again. Nice. Bad. Hot. Cold. Warm. Frigid. Shimmering rays. Freezing rain. Yay! Ugh! ad nauseam... So to further fuel this downright deplorable discussion, I have two tales for you today that span the gory globe from the highest frozen mountain peaks, to the deepest, darkest corners of the sweltering jungles of Africa. One tale icy cool, the other boiling mad, and both are seriously just a wee bit crazy! Also, both are from the great 1950's Fight Against Crime horror / suspense series from Story Comics-- #12 and #13 to be exact-- just click the highlighted issue # for more info! Plus, two fine examples of mid-century advertising imitating "art."
5 comments:
"The Victors happy marriage was marred ONLY by Carol's Jealousy of the towering mountains" I hope that was being sarcastic, and also blaming the woman for the husband disappearing for days on end as jealousy? You'd almost think he wasn't wearing his Mr. Leggs slacks!
I like these two tales in juxtaposition with each other; both center around bad marriages, but in the first one the woman is the victim, and in the second, the man is the victim. Where the woman is the victim, only a supernatural event "saves" her, but in the other one, the man just outright murders everybody. I doubt there's anything being said here, but in light of more modern times it's actually kind of interesting!
Mountain: Page 2, panel 4 is fun, last panel on page 3 (with the light and shadows) and the grinning skeleton on the last page. Last of good art on that one!
I love the drunk Hudson with bag, axe, and gun in the second story!
Alright, I have some cups to lift and snuggle!
Good job finding the parallels between the comics and the ads.
That tiger rug ad is one of the creepiest I've seen. Why did they ruin a perfectly good endangered animal rug like that?
Look up the Lucky Tiger hair tonic ad with mounted heads if you want to see something similar.
You know, the first story here really gets at an interesting idea. The moment Jack decides to kill his wife, his relationship with her improves. I mean, he is spending the whole time scheming, sure; but for a while the arguing stops and both parties begin to get what they always wanted out of the relationship. She gets to go out and spend some time with her awful husband, and he gets a woman more like the mountaineer he wants to throw his wife over for. There's no need to assume things would not continue to improve from there--by the time the climax happens they are both still improving wonderfully. In this way, the story is one in which the characters get just what they want, a perfectly happy ending but for the fact that it comes right in the middle where it's least useful. At that point in the plot, Jack simply cannot forego making the mistake he's spent so long planning already, and Mountain Murder returns on a dime to the horror story it started out as.
Great comments, thanks guys...
Man, how times have changed.
If Leggs were to run this ad today...it would probably go viral... for all the wrong reasons.
Really interesting stories. Cartoons and comics are not just for kids. I wonder how many men these stories resonated with...
Thanks for the posts.
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