Lady Luck had the additional bonus of being drawn by one of Quality Comics’ best artists, Klaus Nordling,* who had also done Pen Miller and the Barker. The Lady Luck stories were cute and funny. They could also strain credulity, as in the panels where Lady Luck, in high heels, bounds across boulders, and even keeps the seams of her stockings straight!
*The Grand Comics Database attributes the art to Fred Schwab, ghosting for Nordling. Looks like Nordling to me, although I don’t know how much he actually may have had to do with the finished artwork.
From Lady Luck #88 (1950):
Just your luck, another Lady Luck! Just click on the thumbnail.
“And up through the ground come a bubblin' crude! (Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.)” G_d, I loathed and loathe that show!
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I enjoyed this story — mostly for the visual rendering; but the script, though light-weight, was nicely structured. By the way, I notice a perfect absence of narrative panes!
I suppose that, were Lady Luck to be revived as a character, it would be good to have some page or half-page devoted to revealing “The Secret of Lady Luck's High-Heeled Shoes!” (D_mn. We need Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson for this!)
"Wisht I'da larned to count, dad bust it!" That was a plot twist I did not see coming. Heh. The art style has its charm. Whimsical, fun approach to the masked/secret identity justice-monger hero character. I recently read —the first time for me— one of The Shadow stories from the late '30s or the '40s and found a few gaps in plot logic, credulity, too. Cranking out two Shadow novelettes a month evidently meant for not getting too fussy about story logic. The nice thing about these two Lady Luck ditties: just having a lark with the plot gaffes, all part of the fun. Both The Shadow and Lady Luck were entertainment. To me Lady Luck is a bit akin to MAD's Shadowskeedeeboomboom parody humor. But we wouldn't have Kurtzman's wonderful Shadow or the milder Lady L. without the more earnest thriller original. The Shadow evolved in revivals. A while back I actually bought a short run of The Shadow by Dynamite comics and I must acknowledge the writing was a lot more thought out and well knit than that original Shadow story I just read.
ReplyDeleteThat story just rambled on aimlessly, didn't it? It was pretty standard -- two people fighting amongst themselves because of a third party doing the real evil -- but the food subplot (abandoned) and just Lady Luck running back and forth made the thing spin it's wheels.
ReplyDeleteI do love her climbing rocks, though, that makes it worth while :)
You can see the Eisner influence here; realistic looking ladies but the men are all very cartoonish.
Brian, I don't disagree with your assessment, but I always enjoy the 1940s Quality Comics that had light-hearted plots. I admit that they have no credibility, but then, when you get down and analyze them no costumed hero comic has that.
ReplyDelete7f7, I am a pulp fan, even though it has probably been years since I read any Shadow, Doc Savage, Spider, or Avenger novels.
ReplyDeleteI do remember becoming a bit exasperated at some of the plots, but that was what made them fiction. I don't know about you, but unlike pulp heroes I don't walk out of the house and encounter a serious mystery or incredible danger I have to fend off.
Depending on my mood I can be harder on some features or heroes than others, but Lady Luck I give a pass...the same pass I give Torchy (hmmm, that sounds dirty), or Plastic Man, or the Spirit. Good fun, and forget the screwball story elements.
Dan'l, maybe Lady Luck bought her shoes from the same place Eric Stanton or Bill Ward's girls bought theirs. A woman being able to stand, much less walk in them, would be an achievement. Yet these women can even run and jump in 4" (or higher) stilettos!
ReplyDeleteThose hi-heel scenes R totelly believalistic, Pappy! Just axe any L8Y living in NYC
ReplyDeleteAlicia, cartune l8y or "real" l8y? Do you jog around the block in your 4" Manolo Blahniks?
ReplyDelete