One "last gasp" look at underground comics for Friday Frights this month, and just like our last venture into that dimly lit domain of doom, this story comes from the same groundbreaking Skull Comics series, the November 1971 issue of Skull #3 to be exact. A gory, gut-munchin' cover by Spain Rodriguez, followed by Richard Corben's skintillating, 11-page classic about a beauty, a beast, and lots of bouncin' bare boobies! It's cute, it's creepy, (it's also wonderfully silly), and just like the great Greg Iron's pin-up that graces the back cover of this issue-- it's all most definitely for ADULTS ONLY!
Awww! How life affirming!
ReplyDeleteI always liked B&W Corben, I think it worked better than some of the color stuff. All the hatching and fills and whatnot really pop. I love the lightning panel, it shows how well Corben's style could translate to comedy.
Page 7 shows that Corben spent a lot of time on learning to shadow breasts! Joking aside, that's a cool set of panels, and a clever use of lighting from the lightning (I first thought car headlights but the car seems to far away.)
The next page with the same lighting on the house is also a cool sequence.
I don't know why EC didn't think of a penis-shaped-nose host. How did they let that gem of an idea get away? :)
Corben's the few artists I can think of who was able to get away with this combination of hand-drawn and mechanical shading and keep if from clashing. There's really no way it should look this good. Some of the body shading here is the best I've ever seen. Page four, for example. Gazey as hell, maybe, but the illustration is on-point. I know Corben mostly drew from life models (or photos he'd taken of the same) and it really shows here--no matter how far he's gone to caricature these figures.
ReplyDeleteThe whole first page is brilliant.
TCBY