We're down to the final Friday Fright's sci-fi / horror tale of the month, a weekly theme that we will most definitely revisit more of here in 2022. I hope everyone enjoyed the selections! And this week we're altering the rocket settings away from the fantastically weird EC universe that we've been patrolling, and locking in our coordinates towards my other favorite destination / publisher, Atlas! Now if you've followed THOIA over the years, you know pretty darn well that when you needed a scary skeleton for a story, there was no better person to deliver one than good 'ol Joltin' Joe Maneely! So how do you top that? With a whole petrifyin' planet of 'em, that's how! This is seriously six rip-roarin' pages of shivery, superb, science freakin' fiction --and fans of Plan 9 from Outer Space and even Army of Darkness might detect a cool concept swipe or two as well! From the January 1954 issue of Speed Carter, Spaceman #3. And now stand by for adventure! 3... 2... 1...
Okay, that was pretty crazy, but...space skeletons? Great galaxy!
ReplyDeleteI love the skull shaped planet. Also love panel 5 of page 2 with the skeleton getting zapped. Also love panel 2 on page 5 of another skeleton getting zapped. Love the black outline of the skeleton against the yellow flare. Though the one thing that kind of glares negatively at me in this story is that the head alien behind the skeletons looks an awful lot like an Asian stereotype. A sort of Gengis Khan in space, if you will.
ReplyDeleteThat splash is a real doozy, and I love the contrast between it and the second panel on page two: The moon is setting and the skeletal workers have become backlit silhouettes (anybody else hear Indy's dig team from Raiders of the Lost Ark singing faintly on the soundtrack?).
ReplyDeleteI love the ironic classical feel of Maneely's work here, in both the swirly woodcut quality of the man's line work and the Greek and Roman forms of the background architecture (the North African obelisks and Grecian temples, the trees from Böcklin's Isle of the Dead, cars flying down a futuristic roadway that is nothing more than an ancient aqueduct). I mean, I know all of this is part and parcel of a shared interplanetary adventure look minted by early pulp illustrators, but here Maneely is being pretty cheeky by repurposing the cliche into a typical boneyard. That's having the cake and eating it too.
I also noted what seemed like it might be a negative stereotype here. I kind of hope it was meant to be an in-joke on an industry peer. If the alien taskmaster had worn glasses, I might have suspected it was Bill Gaines as Ming the Merciless. That sort of thing. Since this whole story feels more like a spoof than a rip-off, some attention paid to the Orientalism of its sources might should be looked on as pointed criticism. That could also just be wishful thinking on my part.
'Bill Gaines as Ming the Merciless'
ReplyDeleteDay made!
It's 1954, the casual racism isn't great, but not really a deal breaker, it's "of it's time." (Not an excuse.)
ReplyDeleteI've never seen an issue of this comic, so something new for me! Very much a mix of sci-fi and the older style, pre 50s super-hero/sci-fi stories. In 54, this was actually a bit of a throwback.
Maneely hits it out of the park, and win has he not? The skeletons are ghastly, the men are all squared jawed, and the woman are (again, sigh, it's 54) hot kidnap victims.
Does it ever work to just tell the bad guys "sure I'll join" and then they put you in charge of the self destruct button? These guys deserve to be in jail!
A few other more interesting observations here would be the possible influence on Ray Harryhausen’s awesome skeleton army from Jason and the Argonauts… as well as the first panel on page 3 of the robbed graves reminding me a bit of a great scene from Phantasm 2.
ReplyDelete