Weird Tales 3(1) The Monster On Mars by Basil WolvertonImmediately, I was struck by the unexpected cleanliness of panels (sparing amount of shading and texture lines showing detail) and the attempted realism of Wolverton's Human characters, as I have only been used to the very distorted and cartoony characters in his comedy comic book stories and strips. This is a typical Science Fantasy of the 1930s-40s type, with almost no real science. Did people really think that the atmospheres on planets close enough for Human space vehicles to reach would bebreathable for Earth creatures? By the end of The 1940s, I, myself, as a child. knew that Humans would need to wear a space suit and helmet with an oxygen mask and source inside, or would die of asphyxiation. I also knew that their innards (organs) would be crushed or torn apart by too much, or too little pressure.
I like the design of the Mercurian aliens, and The "Grud". Could creatures really live on super hot and super cold, Mercury. They would have to live just on the very edge of the all dark and all light hemispheres. It would seem extremely unlikely that whatever atmospheres that could develop on the two very different sides of that planet, so close to its star, could support life that could become complex enough to evolve sentient beings. The living Hand, with eyes, and keratin fingernails is an interesting (although ridiculous) idea. And this story also includes the universal problem of the truism that languages developing in distant places, must, by definition, be very different an unintelligible to speakers of the other (combined with the fact that readers can't possibly understand a new language invented by an author). I suppose we have to assume the long-used Science-Fiction tradition that most intelligent beings alien to Earth can communicate with all other sentient beings in our Universe, by mental telepathy. So the dialogues between The Earthmen and aliens in this book are translations of those thoughts into 1940s American jargon.
The story, itself, about the stranded Earthman, is interesting. It also seems to be a first segment of a longer story, with our, unnamed hero, leaving his planet, and travelling with Princess Teba, to her country on Venus. Was this story continued in Weird Tales 4? - Or another series from Stanley Morse/Key Publications?
(2) The Slave Pits of Uranus by Ed SmalleThe artwork in this story is more to my taste for semi-realistic and realistic depiction. The story has some holes. At least, I'm glad to see that the characters ware not being slowly murdered, are wearing protective space suits and helmets with breathable air pumped in. But the unprotected slaves would freeze to death after after probably a minute or less, exposed to the extremely cold temperature on the REAL Uranus. The end of the evil Kazmar, would be Dictator of The Universe is a fitting turnaround. The action scenes with the combat between the space vehicles was eye-catching.
(3) Jumpin' Jupiter by Basil WolvertonNow we come to the side of Wolverton of which I am well conversant, his totally bizarre cartoony style in tongue-in-cheek, zany comedy vignettes, with grotesque-looking characters, poking ironic jabs at life and The Human condition (complete with signs containing utter silliness, in pun, or rhyming form). I love the predatory female character, who has unbelievably weird taste in men, and the really ugly male character she was chasing.
(4) Frontiers of Tomorrow - Text articleGood information, given the times. You see, we DID know, even back in the late 1940s and beginning of The '50s that so much depicted in Sci-Fi comic book stories could not be possible!
(5) The Desert Castle - by Tony MortellaroAh.... The old Frankenstein theme of creating life from inert matter! Mortellaro drew this story well. I like the atmosphere he developed, especially in the laboratory, and of course, the storm scenes. I always enjoy stories in which a millionaire hermit-type has bought a Gothic-looking, medieval European castle, disassembled it brick by brick, shipped it across The Atlantic to USA, and re-assembled it somewhere in the West (usually in a desert), often in Nevada. This presaged the purchase and disassembling, shipping, and reassembling of The London Bridge to span The Colorado River between Arizona and California, a few years after this book was published. This story has an obvious flaw that could have been avoided. It shows the results of the scientist's first success at creating living cells directly from inert matter creating a being that can direct its own movement as a very complex unit. It certainly can't be a one-celled or few-celled "being" (animal-like creature). In reality, a scientist trying to change the physical (atomic) structure of an inert grouping of molecules, would need to start with something very simple (one cell or a few cells). So the scientist should have mentioned that he finally has succeeded, after many years of hard work, in bringing a large group of inert cells or molecules to life as a complex unit that can act in coordination as a newly-formed being. He could add that he is finally ready to reveal to The World that he has brought inert matter to life, after years of having already done that with single cells and small amounts of molecules, which having done so way back then, might have lost continuation of the experimentation to others, who'd have been more well funded by their governments, and he'd be quickly forgotten, and wouldn't go on to great fame.
Also, it seems unbelievable that ALL the scientist's work on this project will be lost, just because he dropped the bottle containing the newly-living cells, and it broke, and the ectoplasmic and endoplasmic living matter (seems to be a thick liquid) is lost to posterity (e.g. he won't be able to re-create it). What kind of a scientist doesn't take notes??? (That's the theme of a Donald Duck story written and drawn by a colleague of mine at Dutch Disney Comics(Volker Reiche) in 1980, titled "The Soul of Science", in which Donald, as an aspiring chemist, takes a job as janitor in a top-lever chemistry lab, and changes the professor's experiment at night, when everyone is gone, creates a new substance, but when ready to show the big-wigs his results, drops the beaker holding it, it spills all over the floor, and cannot prove he made anything worthwhile because he forgot to take notes on what he did.
It's rather illogical that a metal suit of armour comes alive as a unit, because a small beaker of the liquid breaks on its breastplate. A few minutes later, the ENTIRE suit of armour comes to life (without getting charged with lightning from the storm!) The spilled living cells that came alive from the lightning bolt (apparently changing the molecular structure of the chemicals Professor Cowles mixed together), seeped into the metal of the breastplate, and made the entire suit of armour come alive! And not only THAT, but also "has the urge to KILL!"There is a brain that was formed from metal molecules that changed to biological structures and changed the separate pieces of metal into a single operating unit, complete with a brain complex enough to provide it a "WILL" to want to kill living organisms (at least, humans (animals)). To "kill" the demonic living suit of armour, Cowles' assistant tosses some VERY strong acid on the back and front of its breastplate. The outer shell (metallic armour) melts, and a Human skeleton is left. The story ends with The Scientist screaming: "What have we done?" He laments that they killed a Human that he "made" from metal! Clearly there are places where Mankind should not dare to go! It's a DEEP, DEEP story idea, but not well thought out, and thus, has too many illogical story elements (many of which could be avoided).
(6) Nightmare World - by Basil WolvertonHaving known only Wolverton's comedic stories and strips, I could see by the bizarreness of his characters' actions, and their ugliness, and the basic ugliness of his cartoony World, that he was a DEEP, DEEP thinker, and a tortured one, at that. And this story proves that theory, to me. Herman Lasher (and perhaps Mr. Wolverton, had they known about it) might have been tempted to take doses of LSD. After all, it was found to have psychedelic effects on users in 1943. This truly nightmarish story looks like an advertisement or public welfare message, warning against taking illicit drugs for recreational purposes or to satisfy curiosity. It has a similar warning feel to that of "Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde". Don't look too deeply into Man's nature, or you might see things that you won't want to see (like the fact that the capability of deciding to kill another Human, or do cruel things to others) lies deeply inside ALL of us, and can be brought up to the surface IF the right trigger arises in the right situation. And like I'm guessing about Wolverton, and other authors who show evidence of possible major struggling with life, I, too, share that trait. But instead of perhaps experiencing catharsis, by getting that out of my system by drawing it and writing about it, I choose to "hide" or "escape" from the "seemier" or uglier side of life by burying myself in comedy for entertainment. Although, my futuristic Robot stories are a mixture of lighthearted comedy and ironic black comedy.
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Topic: Reading Group #292 The unusual art of Basil Wolverton (Read 3116 times)
