Monday, April 18, 2011

Manic Monday--Speaking Of Alien Invasions...

You know, if you've got one of them there omniscient narrators, you'd hope he could at least be friendly, or helpful. But not in this story...

You're stuck with Mr. Sensitivity!! Sheesh, do you need to be such a downer, Narrator? Would it kill you to be a little positive?

Perhaps...but he has good reason to be negative, because our protagonist is going to meet:

So, these astronauts crash land on Venus, and the co-pilot is dead. But Rod Crenshaw lives on to meet the evillest life-form ever:

Yes, Rod, the two sets of eyes is the freakiest thing there...oh, wait, maybe it's THIS:


This bears absolutely no resemblance whatsoever to Starro or the Star Trek episode Operation: Annihilate. Nope, we would never suggest that they borrowed concepts from a 1952 Basil Wolverton horror comic. Nope.

But, completely unlike Starro or the slimy pancake thingies from Operation: Annihilate, you really really REALLY don't want these things to land on you:

You're not being very helpful, Mr. Negative Narrator!!

Gaze in terror as head Brain Bat reveals his evil plan (and Basil Wolverton proceeds to scare the bejeezus out of little kiddies):


AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Well, Crenshaw manages to make the ship really crash as they attempt to land on Earth. Threat over!!

But no, Mister Glass-Half-Empty Narrator is having none of that!!

Fortunately:

YAY!! Dead aliens!!

Well, all's well that ends well, right?


NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Damn you Mister How-Are-You-Narrating-If-Earth-Has-Been-Conquered!!!!!!!!

Maybe Rod should have tried trade negotiations...

From Mister Mystery #7 (1952)

3 comments:

Mark Engblom said...

That final panel....simultaneously terrifying and vaguely obscene!.

(Is that a mouth, or......? EEWWWWW!)

Interesting to see that Wolverton had a horror comics phase before he spent (seemingly) the rest of his career life drawing buck-toothed dorks and eye-popping grotesqueries.

Siskoid said...

The Brain-Bats are my new favorite monster. I want to put them in an RPG near me soon!

And I've always hated second person singular narration. It's not like I can choose which page to turn to in order to avoid wearing a Brain-Bat-Hat (new Holloween costume idea!).

Sina said...

Re: "Damn you Mister How-Are-You-Narrating-If-Earth-Has-Been-Conquered!!!!!!!!"

It's obvious, isn't it? The Brain-Bats *ARE* the Narrator? That's exactly *why* he happens to be so snarky and superior to the actions of the humans throughout the tale?