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35 Responses to Comic Sins: Best Comic Cover Ever In the History of the World
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Looks like it might be a Norman Saunders cover.
You know, the dummy looks a little like James Cagney. I can believe a dummy like that would empty a loaded firearm into an audience filled with copper/flatfoot lovers. H/T to Mr. Driscoll for calling this to my attention.
“…blow his godless head off.”
I love that turn of phrase.
The dummy looks more lifelike than the ventriloquist. It must mean something.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!! Good old-fashioned nightmare fuel!
An evil, live ventriloquist’s dummy – now there’s a twist we haven’t seen before -not. In fact, it’s so hackneyed that Joss Whedon used it to set up a big switcheroo in Buffy. http://www.fancast.com/tv/Buffy,-the-Vampire-Slayer/88780/562665714/The-Puppet-Show/videos
Notice, too that the comic is published by Ziff-Davis. Known more recently for PC Magazine, the late lamented Byte Magazine, and geek site ZDNet.
That is indeed beautiful.
I can’t help but wonder if there’s some connection between this and the Batman villain Scarface.
Look Ma, no hands!
I had the exact same thought, Barry.
Wasn’t there a movie they did on MST3K where the dummy was actually alive? Or am I getting them mixed up with Tales from the Crypt?
So what would the ventriloquist get: counseling or hard time?
Which one is the Dummy?
Saw The Watchmen this weekend – add an extra bucket of festering gelatinous gore to this cover and it would fit right in. In summation, I enjoyed it.
It is Norman Saunders:
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/10/14/scotts-classic-comics-corner-the-painted-covers-of-norman-saunders
The MST3K episode was Devil Doll. I’m sure it was in tales from the Crypt, too. Also, the movie “Magic”, with Anthony Hopkins. And then there’s “The Great Gabbo”. That story has been around the block a few times.
Which goes to show why you should never heckle a ventriloquist.
What a crime that Ziff-Davis got out of the funny book business. Only geek pr0n now.
There was a story in an anthology edited by Ray Bradbury about a dummy-ventriloquist reversal. I think it was called “The Glass Eye” by John Keir Cross, but my copy of the book is elsewhere at the moment.
What I really want to say is that cover is more terrifying than anything I’ve ever done. I don’t mean just in art, I mean in all my life.
Now I have to think about “Devil Doll” again for several painful hours.
That is a Norman Saunders cover. He painted a the Mars Attacks and Batman collector cards. Link is to a new book about him.
Hah, “The Great Gabbo” I was trying to remember the film. My only experience of the movie is from the Jay Ward “Fractured Flickers” episode where the dummy’s name was Shorty Woods, I laugh every time I say it.
Shorty Woods, hah, ha, ha,
without clicking any further… it’s…. AIG ON PARADE!
after clicking further… it IS… AIG ON PARADE! “Mess wit my bonus, willya, coppers? I got ya some insurance right here! Take THESE C D S, ya Washington wackos!”
Okay. So I was right on both counts. If I recall correctly, the HBO Tales of the Crypt of this featured Rickles and Bobcat Goldthwait. Devil Doll happened to be one of the rare times I only caught half an episode of MST3K.
Ventriloquist dummies rank right up there with clowns, and now I remember why. If I can’t sleep tonight, I know who to blame…….
Call Charley McCarthy, Detective!
Bob
bgbear – hey, could be worse – I could have made you think of the “Tickle Me Carlo Lombardi” doll….oops.
How did James miss THIS one?
http://failblog.org/2009/03/11/action-comics-fail/#comments
(Maybe he just wouldn’t stoop that low.)
hpoulter: That bad huh. I am saving “The She Creature.” It is an episode I missed and I can catch it on YouTube.
I never saw Mike destroy Brain Guy’s planet. I did see the trial when Professor BoBo defended Mike for the destruction, known around our house as the “Pie Crust Defense.”
Devil Doll, with the Great Vorelli – the oiliest ventroliquist ever!
“You’re an ugly little dummy, Hugo. You can’t have any ham.”
I never ever liked dummy-ventriloquist acts ever. Not as a kid, not as an adult. EVER!! They were not funny, not clever, they were just either boring or creepy. This type of act should be relegated only to Guantanamo Bay to torture whatever terrorist detainees are still there. All other instances it should be outlawed.
Speaking of MST episodes, I remember “The Violent Years” Tom Servo got a new ventriloquist dummy head for a new head. Mr. Nelson was not pleased with it at all.
Norman Saunders, eh? I thought the artwork looked familiar. As a kid I lurrrrved the Mars Attacks cards. Simply the goriest things a twelve-year-old boy could lay his hands on (at the time). Judging from the style, I believe Mr. Saunders also did the equally splatterific Civil War cards set.
_@_v – ah yes, nightmare fuel… of the good old-fashioned kind… is there any better?
Beckoning Chasm:
Good pick-up. The Glass Eye was one of, if not the best, episodes ever of Alfred Hitchcock. It features a dummy, a ventriloquist and a love-smitten spinster. The acting production and screenplay (Stirling Siliphant) are superb, 22 minutes of unforgettable drama. It features a very young William Shatner (a decade before well, you know) a middle aged Jessica Tandy and Tom Conway in superb performances. IF you are unaware of the story, you will truly be shocked.
“The Glass Eye” is on Hulu.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/48281/alfred-hitchcock-presents-the-glass-eye
Shatner, in his mid-20s, is already Shatner fully formed, and this is the sort of thing he does very well indeed. Well worth the time.
I saw “Magic” (with Anthony Hopkins) when it first came out. Great stuff. I remember the dummy (named “Fats”) commented on Ann-Margret walking away: “It looks like her ass is on ball bearings.” (Or something like that.)
Yup. Ann-Margret was in her prime back in 1978….so was Hopkins. (Not to mention Burgess Meredith as his agent.) Worth a viewing.
Bridey Says:
March 17th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
“The Glass Eye” is on Hulu.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/48281/alfred-hitchcock-presents-the-glass-eye
Shatner, in his mid-20s, is already Shatner fully formed, and this is the sort of thing he does very well indeed. Well worth the time.
I believe he just, emerged that way. Along the lines of the Immaculate Conception
The title font screams “Fifties Comics”, but the actual cover art looks more like a Thirties detective/noir pulp cover.
Wow. Brilliant cover. The kind, which if I had seen it as a child, would have left me indelibly scarred for life. Dead of Night notwithstanding, this is the ultimate ventriloquist dummy picture. I may still have the heebie-jeebies over it
Thanks for posting it ( and thanks for Michael for the link to the trip through the rest of Norman Saunders brain meltingly picturesque imagery.