Number 925
Do you believe in werewolves...?
This 1947 issue of Crack Comics #51 is irresistible. The cover by Reed Crandall is fantastic. The drawing is great, and the werewolf skulking behind Captain Triumph has quite an expression.
Captain Triumph wasn't one of the upper-tier superheroes from Quality Comics, and it was only a dozen issues later that the title was changed to Crack Comics Western and Captain Triumph went into superhero retirement.The story is fairly straightforward: a town is terrorized by a werewolf, which our hero dispatches. The story hasn't much mystery or suspense. What it does have is the wonderful Reed Crandall artwork. The guy could make anything he drew look good.
This is absolutely beautiful!
ReplyDeleteGotta love that last panel on Page 13(!!!). And ain't Cap the coldblooded one, killing and skipping town like that?
ReplyDeleteCrandal really did some nice work.
ReplyDeleteOn a side-note, we should all be thankful that Capt. Triumph's magic birthmark was on his wrist and not somewhere more innapropriate that he woudl have to touch in mixed company.
From reading your blogs, Pappy, my memory of the general level of writing from the Golden Age period being generally simplistic hasn't much changed.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the werewolf's astonishment Lance Gallant's really Captain Triumph's on a par with people thinking Clark Kent can't be Superman because one wears glasses and the other has a kiss curl.
Where the art's concerned, though, I'm constantly astonished how sophisticated, farsighted and, ultimately, influential some of the guy's were back then.
For instance, instead of going for the Lon Chaney jnr. gambit of having his werewolf look like a bloke with an extra hairy face, Reed Crandall undertakes the far more technically demanding task of making a wolf behave like a man, even down to rendering the wolf anatomically accurately.
This's not only faithful to the actual werewolf mythology of the Middle Ages, but it actually predates the normally highly influential movie industry's rendering of werewolves by several decades.
Raffrey's real super power was being able to recover his clothes and dress himself so fast after changing back.
ReplyDeleteClawing Biff's arm would've opened the door for a good sequel if not for all that gland talk later on.
Borky, in comics of the era they could get away with a werewolf looking more like a wolf. No special effects problems or budgets like they needed for movies. When I saw American Werewolf In London I was happy he was more of a wolf than a man, unlike the earlier Curse Of The Werewolf with Oliver Reed, which was a pretty good Hammer film, but once again the hairy-faced man rather than a creature with a wolf's anatomy.
ReplyDeleteAs for simplistic writing, the comics of that time weren't aimed at the interlecktuals like us'ns.
Pappy,
ReplyDeleteFantastic post! I'm a huge fan of Crandall and his werewolves. I just posted a later werewolf tale by Crandall over at B'n'W'n'Red All Over, and was hoping to one day post this story as well, but you beat me to it (great looking scans!), so now I don't hasta! (In fact, I believe I will now take credit for all of your posts from now on! "Er...I was just gonna post that, too, yeah!")
(by the way, if you take a close look at the upper right corner of my header for
http://apocolytesworldofcomics.blogspot.com/
you will see Captain Triumph flying as well as the werewolf as depicted on this story's cover, both by Reed Crandall, natch...check it out...)
Love the early Reed Crandall work.
This is the BEST comics blog EVER!!
Capt. Triumph has no time for stone walls!
ReplyDeleteWonderful post, Pappy. The artwork is gorgeous.
But Reed's Werewolf is one of the better and more vicious looking creatures on the big screen, certainly on a par with Chaney Jr.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this story was pretty awesome!
I'm kind of overwhelmed by the number of comments on this particular posting...all you guys have interesting things to say, and I appreciate hearing from you.
ReplyDeleteSorry I beat you to the punch, Apocolyte. I'll be checking out your Crandall post at your Black and White blog.