Featuring special guest host, John Scoleri! |
The EC Reign Month by Month 1950-1956
5: December 1950
Kurtzman |
"Conquest"★★
Story and Art by Harvey Kurtzman
"Hong Kong Intrigue!"★★
Story and Art by Al Feldstein
"Revolution!"★★1/2
Story and Art by Wally Wood
"Mutiny"★★★
Story and Art by Johnny Craig
When three unsavory characters in a bar in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, overhear some crewmen mention that Captain Steve Cutter, skipper of The Shark, is carrying a fortune in diamonds, they beat up the crewmen, steal their clothes, and get hired on as their replacements. Three days out at sea and the new crew stage a “Mutiny!” sending Cutter off on his own in a lifeboat. No one can find the diamonds, and when the sea is calm Cutter sneaks back aboard and quickly dispatches the scurvy dogs. After they’ve all been knocked overboard, he reveals that the diamonds were hidden in a bag of flour, the only food item that the baddies had tossed into the lifeboat. Yawn. This is straightforward sea action stuff, made bearable only by Johnny Craig’s usual artistic flourishes and his fine use of wordless panels to tell key elements of the story.
"Conquest" |
"Hong Kong Intrigue!" |
"Revolution!" |
"Mutiny" |
Feldstein |
"The Last City" ★★★★
Story and Art by Al Feldstein
"The Mysterious Ray from Another Dimension!" ★★★★
Story and Art by Harvey Kurtzman
"Second Childhood" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"A Trip to a Star!" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein and M.C. Gaines
Art by Wally Wood
Two visitors from Saturn hover over what’s left of New York and tell the wild story of Professor Farley’s Electro-Magnetic Force-Field Generator. Years before, in an effort to stave off atomic annihilation, Professor Farley creates a machine that enables him to cover all of New York with a protective shield. Unfortunately, the gizmo proves to be too effective when the Professor attempts to turn it off and finds it’s permanent. With no way to ship in food, the inhabitants of New York die a slow, painful death. Ironically, the world becomes embroiled in World War III and the earth is left a smoldering pile of ashes, save for New York, whose skyscrapers live on under the indestructible force field. Ivat and Cugo, the two narrating Saturnites agree that New York should remain as a museum, a testament to what “earthmen had once...and destroyed.”
"The Last City" |
It’s 1970 and everyone in the world is captivated, no, obsessed with television. Everyone, that is, except radio station magnate Norman Network. Norman can’t seem to get his head around why so many people find the tube fascinating. With his station revenues falling to an all-time low, Norman devises a plan to rid the world of TV. He hires a scientist to travel the world in search of any disease that can be linked to television viewing. The scientist discovers that TV can lead to disintegration and, for a time, Norman wins his battle. It’s only in the end that Norman discovers that humans watch TV in order to disappear (literally) and he’s very soon the last man on earth (and without a TV, to boot). "The Mysterious Ray..." is prescient satire in the Kurtzman style. Could very easily have found a place in MAD Magazine a few years later.
"The Mysterious Ray..." |
John Clayton, the brilliant scientist of "Second Childhood," makes simultaneous discoveries: he finds the key to halting the aging process just as he realizes his assistant, Betty, is a hot babe. Since he's "twice her age," the scientific breakthrough couldn't have come at a better time. Unfortunately, the serum reverses our hero's aging process rather than halting it and he regresses, by the climax, to an infant looked after by the same babe he'd hoped to marry. Kamen's art is perfect here since every panel is filled with talking heads and little else; let's just say Jack wasn't taxed with the layout. Al Feldstein presents a decent science fiction concept but then doesn't know where to take it, climaxing with a silly panel of Betty, feeding John a bottle and pleading with the reader to help her find a solution. The story is evocative of Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man (which wouldn't be published until 1956) but lacks that novel's powerful denouement.
Two space travelers rocket from Earth on a voyage to Alpha Centauri but accidentally enter a time warp and end up back on Earth one million years later. "A Trip to a Star!" makes me nostalgic for the days when astronauts could travel the length of the universe dressed in James Dean shirt and trousers. Perhaps the story comes across as predictable because we've seen so many "Oh My God! We were on Earth the whole time" dramas in the meantime. The only thing missing here are damn dirty apes.
-Peter
"Second Childhood" |
Jose: Kurtzman easily serves the most enjoyable entry in this issue, his delivery just over-the-top enough to elicit hearty chuckles from the reader. I also appreciated the fact that the “wonderful world” the TV viewers disappear to is left entirely up to our imaginations. “The Last City” really starts picking up steam once the force field over New York becomes impenetrable, the situation delving into some pretty grim realities that would’ve come as a shock to young comic book fans. It’s all explained by Feldstein in a detached, documentarian style that adds exponentially to its unsettling effect. “Second Childhood” has probably been my favorite of Jack Kamen’s SF stories so far. Faint praise considering some of the material we’ve put up with, but I found the premise to be quite engaging, especially when our put-upon heroine is forced to deal with the psychological demands of disassociating John as her husband and begin looking at him as her child. (Paging Dr. Freud.) 1950s propriety undoubtedly kept the climax of the infantized-John “demanding food” from getting too discomforting. Wood’s art is always a joy to behold, but the warmed-up leftovers of the plotline to “A Trip to a Star” guarantee that you can skip over the words here.
"A Trip to a Star" |
Feldstein |
"The Hunchback!" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Graham Ingels
"The Tunnel of Terror!" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"The Living Mummy" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Davis
"Man from the Grave!" ★★★ 1/2
Story by Gardner F. Fox
Art by Wally Wood
"The Hunchback" |
Roger Compton is walking through the village square on a dreary afternoon when he is met with the sight of panicked townspeople running through the streets. They warn Roger to hide, for “The Hunchback” is on his way! He’s surprised to discover that the miscreant in question is his old college chum, Peter Golgo, but any chance of a happy reunion is snuffed out when the half-crazed Golgo shoos Roger from his crumbling house. The villagers whisper stories of the recluse desecrating graves in order to feed on decayed flesh, but Roger puts it all down to superstitious hogwash. Consulting with the local M.D., Roger is related Golgo’s tortured history, the most shocking revelation of which is the fact that Golgo’s deformed back is actually the sentient remains of a Siamese twin that was never removed at birth. Compelled by the pain-inducing monkey on his back, Peter has been forced to feed his brother’s unholy appetites, but a final altercation takes place just as Roger returns to the house, his late intervention revealing Peter, his throat torn out by Li'l Brother, and the evil twin dead from the cessation of their shared heart.
"The Tunnel of Terror" |
There are definitely some interesting ideas at work in “The Tunnel of Terror,” yet I honestly can’t say if the tale ever quite clicked for me. The switch to a more exotic backdrop was a nice change, and the fact that we’re never quite sure what is going on—Is there really a monster on the loose? Is Linda’s brother dead? Is she crazy?—is a commendable balancing act other stories have hardly attempted to accomplish, yet I find myself uselessly wishing that the freaky underground nightclub angle had been explored a little further. I’m convinced that the ending could’ve been great had Kamen not dropped the ball with those last few panels.
"The Living Mummy" |
“Man from the Grave” has made me excited for future horror tales drawn by Wally Wood. I don’t remember ever taking to him on my initial reading of The Vault of Horror or Tales from the Crypt, but this story, about a thinly-veiled, destitute artist who is cursed by a colleague to become consumed by his work after dunking said colleague’s head in etching acid and stealing his gear to produce covers for the editor of a “macabre magazine,” is one of the most surprising and finely-wrought tales to have come across my radar since the start of this marathon. Wood was, among other things, a master of embedding small details that, I doubt, were ever in the actual script but added immeasurably to the effect of a composition. (In addition to Jack’s note below, I’m in love with that rockin’ death's-head pipe that the Wood-surrogate character smokes.) Outside of the obvious three (Davis, Craig, Ingels), Wood was probably the only artist who managed to make one of the GhouLunatics distinctly his; I adore the sardonic troll of a Crypt-Keeper we see here. There are indeed some stunner panels here, but in truth it’s all pretty great.-Jose
"Man from the Grave" |
Jack: Yes! “The Hunchback” is the kind of gross and disgusting story I’ve been waiting for! Welcome to the real Ghastly! “Man from the Grave!” also pushes the envelope of bad taste, as Wood treats us to some horrific images. There’s a great panel where a little girl watches a coffin be carried by. It’s chilling in a quiet way. Kamen’s story would have benefited from a more gruesome finish (and a different artist). Davis’s story is his first for EC and it shows, but I’m thrilled to finally be seeing work by one of the EC greats.
Night of the Living Dead (1968) |
Feldstein |
"Panic!"★★★
Story and Art by Al Feldstein
"The Radioactive Child!"★★★★
Story and Art by Harvey Kurtzman
"House, In Time!"★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Graham Ingels
"I Created a . . . Gargantua!"★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
Off the coast of Argenta, a small fishing boat drifts into the area of the Bikini bomb test, exposing Luis Martinez and his pregnant wife Rosa to a fatal dose of radiation. After Luis dies, Rosa gives birth to a boy named Pedro, who soon grows into an unusually bright little boy. Knowing she is dying, Rosa brings “The Radioactive Child!” to the office of Benito Perez, certain that only the country’s president should look after her son. After she dies in the president’s office, the boy surprises Perez’s advisers with his wise counsel and the president appoints him as the country’s new prime minister. Little Pedro tells Perez how to get his country up and running and, before you know it, Argenta is strong, profitable, and declaring war on its neighbors. When the United Nations agree to bomb Argenta off the map to stop Perez’s mad ambition, Perez approaches Pedro and demands that he tell him the secret of the hydrogen bomb. Pedro is tired and tells Perez to come back the next day. Perez gives the little boy a good wallop, which causes Pedro to revert to the personality of a normal child and lose his intellect. As a result, Argenta is destroyed and Perez is killed.
"The Radioactive Child!"
|
Al Feldstein’s “Panic!” starts out seeming like a tired retelling of the story of Orson Welles’s 1939 radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds,” but takes it one more step when a re-enactment of the show coincides with a real invasion, one that listeners laugh off as a hoax until it’s too late. Graham Ingels turns in very smooth art on “House, in Time!” which reads like it could be a swipe from a Ray Bradbury story but ends suddenly and unsatisfactorily. Last of all is Kamen’s “I Created a . . . Gargantua!” where a poor fellow is made to keep growing and, as usual, the scientist who assured him he could stop the process finds he cannot.
-Jack
"Panic!" |
"I Created a . . . Gargantua!" |
John: "Panic" gets off to a slow start, hits a low point with the 'Carson Wall' reveal, and then quickly gets back on a fun track. "Qua Brot" and "Spa Fon" indeed! I guess I'm the lone dissenter when it comes to "The Radioactive Child," which did nothing for me. I felt it was just too much of a stretch to believe that radiation would cause Pedro's abilities. A quick learner, perhaps, but not an all-knowing genius. Perhaps if he was shown to be of alien origin (in a Village of the Damned kind of way), I might have bought it. That said, having the president literally knock the sense out of the kid was a classic bit right out of the EC playbook. While the story wasn't anything special, I enjoyed Jack Kamen's art in "I Created a . . . Gargantua!" Last, and very much least, "House, In Time!" can be best summed up by the single panel below:
"House, in Time!" |
Next Week! Hank Chapman makes an ass out of Peter and Jack yet again! |
"The Hunchback" sounds like it inspired a story that really spooked me when I first read it, "The Prodigy Son" in Eerie # 40.
ReplyDelete