We have a big horror double-feature now playing over at THOIA for Halloween this year, and AEET equally has you covered here as well. It's a killer crime pair-up from the Golden Age of precode comics, as Master magician, Blackstone is on the case at an appropriately set masquerade ball in "Costumed for Crime!" from the May 1948 issue of Blackstone the Magician #2. Yeah, if only my own holiday shindigs were this exciting! But first up, a criminally overlooked gem from the one-shot issue of Monster Crime #1 (October 1952) via Hillman Publication. Unfortunately, GCD has no listing for an artist for either the story, or that great cover design-- now isn't THAT a monstrous crime too! And speaking of monsters, earlier this month I showed you my Labubu Trick or Treater, and since Labubu's actually are monsters, here comes a cute couple now featuring plush pendant Labubu in a sitting Halloween pumpkin costume, while darlin' date Mokoko stuns 'em all in her black 'n orange witch attire! And don't miss the Labubu encore at the very end of this post too, because this time it comes in a smaller style vinyl keychain variant that lights up in the dark! Here's hoping that everyone has a safely sinister evening of Hallowe'en thrills 'n chills-- and we will see you again shortly in November for much, much more!
4 comments:
The art for "Another Halloween" sure looks to me to be by Gerald McCann. Happy Halloween!
Another Hallowe'en is one of the crime morality tells the crime comics did so well, and this one has a really good setup and decent payoff.
Costumed for Crime is the real winner here. Lots of costumes, good girl art and -- when costumed -- what looks like good comic animal art, and some clever uses of stage magic.
Using the circus performers for the escape was inspired and the fake guns at the end (I love the ones shooting cigs!) is a funny ending. That's a fine piece of late 40s superhero comics.
This is very good art I suspect it's somebody that came famous later and nobody placed it. There's a bit of a Feldstein look in some of the faces but I doubt it's him.
I think the first story is a little over ambitious for its page count. It tells a pretty lengthy story full of gangster melancholy and the absorbing notion that someone might regret straying from the path of their revenge. That's a really heady topic and, fleshed out, would make a great counterpoint to Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo. I like the art for its own sake, and every panel illustrates the story well. But this magazine illustration style doesn't so well do the heavy lifting of creating momentum through the storytelling sequence. It doesn't help that I had trouble telling the characters apart (maybe because they seemed to be so often in silhouette).
The second story was a lot of absurd fun. I love costume party screwball more than most kids my age, and I'm always thrilled by the quick changes and mistaken identities, etc. Since I feel much the same way about heroic carnies and tuxedoed magicians, this one was a triple threat. A stripey pirate costume is the icing on the cake.
But I'm most delighted by this villainous fox woman who always seems to be a step ahead of the heroes. She's like a Richard Sala character, and she totally steals this show. The mirror trick she pulls is just great, and then she takes the time to strip the leading lady and meticulously wrap her in mummy bandages? Amazing!
(As for the toys, I dig that heart-nosed Bubu best, I think.)
That’s Mokoko, she’s one of The Monsters as well, and all of her plush variants actually come scented. She smells amazing too, like candy, and if Glade made a room air freshener plug-in of it, I’d buy a freakin case of the stuff!
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