Author: redscraper

Tentacle Tuesday: tentacles, some fresh, some older than time

redscraper2 Comments

Welcome to Tentacle Tuesday! We now have an official logo for T.T., courtesy of my husband and fellow blogger. It’s brand-spanking new, so here it is in a fairly high resolution.

TentacleTuesdayLogoA

Give him a round of applause… oh, what’s that, it’s hard to applaud with tentacles? Okay, a round of « squish, squish », then.

Let’s begin (proper) with « The Thing on the Roof », adapted by Roy Thomas from a story by Robert E. Howard. The latter was a member of the renowned Lovecraft circle, so the Chthulian vibe of this is no accident. It’s illustrated by Frank Brunner, who does a bang-up job – the man was asked to draw the love child of a dragon and an octopus, and he did not disappoint!

ChamberOfChills3ThingontheRoof
The Thing on the Roof from Chamber of Chills no. 3 (May 1973, Marvel.)

Continuing in a similar vein (but fast-forwarding 40 years), here’s a terrific story from Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #19 (September 25th, 2013) which is so chock-full of tentacles that it could be a post all by itself. Written by Lovecraftian Len Wein and illustrated by Demonic Dan Brereton, it ranks as one of the top Treehouse comic stories as far as I’m concerned… but then I might be slightly biased. Or possessed by Chthulhu, whichever.

TreehouseofHorrorChthulhu1
I want a Lovecraft vacuum cleaner. *hint, hint*
TreehouseofHorrorChthulhu2
In this story, *everything*, animate and inanimate, sprouts tentacles.
TreehouseofHorrorChthulhu3
The dramatic/sublime/ludicrous wrap-up! Sorry to give the plot away. Yum, they even remembered to stick an apple in Milhouse’s mouth (it keeps him from screaming, I suppose). Did Lisa forget she’s a vegetarian?

I couldn’t help but post at least three pages of this story – hell, I was tempted to post it in its entirety – but I’ll let you do the work. Go read the whole thing here.

And to wrap up, let’s go back half a century or so, to the Miss Horrible Entity 1954.

StartlingTerrorTales10
This striking cover is by L.B. Cole, who can always be relied on to provide us with some eye-popping colours. He’s also got a knack for depicting especially disgusting, moist and fleshy tentacles, don’t you think? Startling Terror Tales no. 10 (August 1954).

What I want to know is who, upon being startled by a cephalopod cyclops with vampire fangs and one very bloodshot eye, describes it as an “entity”? “Monster”, sure, even “beast” or “demon” or “creature”, but “entity” (defined as “a thing with distinct and independent existence” by Webster’s)? If you’re going to be *that* stuffy, maybe you deserve to get eaten.

~ ds

 

The Marauding Mushroom strikes again

redscraper1 Comment

November is pretty much the last month of the year when you can find some edible mushrooms around. We’ve been picking (and eating) all the wild mushrooms we could get our hands on, and it must have been through sheer luck that I haven’t encountered *this* guy yet…

This fearsome fungus comes to us from the talented pen of Ken Reid (1919-1987), a British comic artist and writer, who may have been ingesting a few mushrooms himself when he drew this.

KenReidMaraudingMushroom

Reid drew three sister series (World Wide Weirdies, Creepy Creations and Wanted Posters) for IPC, The International Publishing Corporation, one of the three largest comics publishers in Britain in the 20th century. I’d say he specialized in depicting ugly mugs… and their loathsome, grotesque bodies were a bit of an afterthought. After all, Reid’s the creator of Faceache, a comic about Ricky Rubberneck, the boy with a « bendable bonce » who could scrunge his face into anything! (By the way, « Faceache: The First Hundred Scrunges », the first and only collection of Faceache strips, is about to be released, and with an introduction by Alan Moore, to boot.)

Oh, heck, since we’re on the topic, let’s look at a snapshot of the other sisters.

KenReidBoggle-EyedButty-BiterofSandwich
Creepy Creations were displayed in all their colourful glory on the back cover of each copy of Shiver & Shake (an IPC magazine that ran from March 1973 to October 1974, a total of 83 issues), and were based on ideas submitted by readers, lucky bastards, who not only got to see their monster sketch re-drawn by the talented pen of a professional comics artist, but also got a 2 pound cash prize for their trouble).

Shiver & Shake was merged with Whoopee! in 1974, and Ken Reid continued in a similar vein with Wide World Weirdies until 1978. As for Wanted Posters, they were published in Whoopee, too, and were based on a similar premise (namely, readers contribute sketches for monetary compensation… though I suspect the kids were chuffed to have their work published even without the pecuniary prize).

KenReidTiddlesTheTerrible
Page from Whoopee! no. 5, March 6th, 1974. Er, guys… have you ever seen a cat before?

 

~ ds

 

Tentacle Tuesday: Educated Cephalopod Seeks Damsel in Distress

redscraper2 Comments

This is the slimiest, creepiest day of the week: Tentacle Tuesday. Hurrah, hurrah, all hail the Chthonians.

It would be a long post indeed if I tried making an exhaustive list of comics in which buxom females are being groped by grabby tentacles. Still, let’s make a (small) dent in this category. Here’s three candies with sweet fillings of adventure, fun, and sex.

Let’s start things slow (but entertaining) with this playful octopus from Virgil Partch‘s madcap pen.

VIP1946Tentacles
Liberty Magazine, 1946. Frankly, I think she’s better off with tentacles than with the unshaven and blasé Mr. Smeech.

Next up, we have Brenda Buckler who seems to be rather enjoying her captivity. Tous les goûts sont dans la nature!

EerieN60
« It’d been a long time since anyone touched Brenda. As the dry, scaly tentacle encircled her body, it touched something deeper than flesh… »  Eerie no. 60 (September 1974), painted cover by Ken Kelly (a gallery of his paintings can be found here).

Plot spoiler: the tentacled monster is actually her husband! Ain’t nothing wrong with bestiality as long as it’s sanctioned by the holy institution of matrimony. Brenda is the protagonist of the cover story, “The Man Hunters”, written by Gerry Boudreau and illustrated by Wally Wood (with colours by Michele Brand). Don’t worry, though: there’s a happy ending in store for her (aside from the whole “watching your shipmates eaten alive by a giant monster” thing). Moral of the story, never underestimate the erotic potential of “filth-encrusted tentacles”.

A coloured (and quite colourful) version of “The Man Hunters” was reprinted in Warren’s Comix International no. 2 (1975), and you can read it here: http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.ca/2010/02/ec-in-ya-wood-and-crandall-in-color.html

The wrap-up for today is scanned from a comic series I just finished reading, The Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror by Roger Langridge as author and J. Bone as illustrator. It was published in 2012, and collected as a paperback and hardcover in 2013. Aside from the healthy helping of tentacles it serves its readers, this comic features some top-notch writing from Langridge and some nice art. I don’t pretend this stuff is deep, but it’s a pleasurable romp with pretty girls, evil scientists, and a goofy-but-lovable hero. Recommended for some fun reading (although I admit I spoiled it a bit by featuring two of the main action pages)…

TheRocketeerRogerLangridge
I like a girl who can admit when she needs rescuin’.
TheRocketeerRogerLangridge2
Am I the only one that feels sorry for the monster, even if it *is* a robot?

Tentacularly yours,

~ ds

Louie Reads Some Ghastly Comics

redscraper1 Comment

In the heart of every grown-up tyrannized, exploited, henpecked cringing little milksop lives an enthusiastic kid. (Or at least I hope so.)

Mild-spoken, well-mannered, and easily intimidated, Louie was created by British cartoonist Harry Hanan (who, it is told, rather resembled his creation). Louie was a perpetual victim of life’s vexations – bullied by a towering wife, mocked by colleagues, abused by neighbours, bitten by pets, let down by uncooperative furniture… Hanan described his character as “the anti-Superman”.

LouieHarryHananComicBook
For once, poor Louie gets to have some fun. March 19th, 1972. Note the ever-so-slight smile on his face in the last panel… sweet.

However, Louie (and his creator) clearly had a sense of humour, if buried under layers of cowardice and mouse-like timidity. That’s what makes the strip so endearing, these occasional flashes of spirit and naughtiness. Hanan confessed to a having a « mischievous streak » in a 1952 interview with Erwin Knoll, admitting that « whenever he saw women with feathered hats he had to suppress the urge to snip the feathers off ».

This pantomime strip, syndicated by Chicago Tribune Syndicate, debuted in 1947 in The People (a London weekly tabloid). H.R. Wishengrad, head of Press Features, decided to export it to the United States and that’s how the strip crossed the ocean. Since it was silent and so needed no translation, it also appeared in more than 100 publications in 23 countries, including Turkey and Japan.

~ ds

 

Purple Tentacle Tuesday

redscraper2 Comments

Greetings. Today’s theme: purple tentacles! (No, that’s not a euphemism.)

First up on our list is this beauty of an octopus, the Octo Rod.

This intrepid purple fella is part of Topps’ 1980 series, Weird Wheels, which had 55 cards in all. The credit for the gorgeous artwork is split between Norman Saunders and Gary Hallgren; nobody’s quite sure which artist worked on which card, and whether Saunders actually painted the images himself, or just retouched paintings by somebody else.

Sadly, Weird Wheels just didn’t sell all that well, so you can still purchase them for fairly cheap today. You can see the whole set here (and please do feast your eyes on them, they’re quite stunning).)

OctoRod21Hallgren
Octo Rod is no. 21, 1980. The art is by Gary Hallgren, at least according to David Saunders, Norman Saunders’ son.

Speaking of David Saunders and his dad, here’s a quote from “Norman Saunders” (a book written by David in 2009):

« In 1980, at the age of 73, with failing eyesight, cataracts, and advanced emphysema, Norman Saunders defied doctor’s orders and went back to work on one last card set. Weird Wheels are painted with full control of his creative powers, but with a morbid humor that reflects his attitude towards mortality. When reprimanded by his son for risking his life on low paying work, the artist said, ‘It’s fun! I gotta keep working! What the hell else am I gonna do?!‘ »

Saunders passed away in 1989, at 82, after a remarkably prolific and varied career.

Moving on, here’s a thrilling scene of purple tentacles vs Nemesis:

AdventuresIntoTheUnknownTentacles
This is ACG’s Adventures Into the Unknown no. 157 (June-July 1965). The cover is by Kurt Schaffenberger (who signed as Jay Kafka here). “Case of the Tittering Texan” sounded intriguing – I figured that the Texan was being tickled by a tentacle – but no, he’s just a stuttering, crazy, power-hungry villain in a cowboy hat and spurs. Same old, same old…

I would also like to mention that Nemesis *is* wearing pants (well, shorts, at any rate), but his costume is still gosh-darned stupid. You try wearing a hood under water and see how far it gets you. I’m normally a fan of ACG‘s Adventures, but Nemesis is by no means a favourite character of mine.

Further developing the theme of violaceous violence, here’s another:

GhostlyHaunts31
« Giant squid, giant water rats! Are we in New York, or are we on Mars? Down here, it’s hard to tell! » Ghostly Haunts no. 31, April 1973, cover by Jack Abel.

“Sewer Patrol”, the cover story, is also illustrated by Abel, with an excellent script by Nicola Cuti – it’s a story about people who dump their pets (and still-alive food) when they don’t want them anymore… and where and how these pets end up. (The answer to that, of course, is “mutated, gigantic and in the sewers.”)

~ ds

On a Quest for an Original Tattoo

redscraperLeave a comment

Looking for a one-of-a-kind tattoo, now that everyone has ’em?

I bet you didn’t think of hiccups as a possible solution, but anything’s worth a try at least once. So keep in mind these handy tips for inducing hiccups: have a large meal; do something really exciting (like buying a new comic, for instance); forget to breathe properly while laughing (which can also be achieved by buying a new comic, as long as it’s funny); swallow your food whole like an owl, or drink water like you’re a cow in hot weather (76 litres a day!) Is it working yet?

CharlesRodriguezBoobs

This Charles Rodrigues cartoon comes from a nifty little collection titled Spitting On the Sheriff and Other Diversions, first published in 1966. “Do you dig“, it asks the potential reader, « Crazy graveyards? Hilarious hangings that really swing? Sick medical humor? Screamingly funny torture-chamber gags? » What kind of stupid questions are those? Of course we dig!

If you’re hungry *hic* for more material from this collection without having to actually hunt it down, this blog has twenty or so other examples of Rodrigues’ sick, sick sense of humour.

http://learning2share.blogspot.ca/2009/01/more-cartoons-by-charles-rodrigues.html

~ ds

Tentacle Tuesday goes “blub, blub”

redscraper2 Comments

Today’s Tentacle Tuesday features octopuses in water where, after all, they generally belong.

We open the festivities with a scene from Japan, the undisputed motherland of all things tentacular. As a bit of an aside, for those wondering what’s up with up with Japanese tentacle porn, there’s an interesting theory that suggests that the latter was just a way to avoid censorship and obscenity charges when drawing erotic manga.

According to hentai artist Toshio Maeda talking about his experience in the mid-80s, “At that time pre-Urotsuki Doji, it was illegal to create a sensual scene in bed. I thought I should do something to avoid drawing such a sensual scene. So, I just created a creature. His tentacle is not a penis as a pretext. I could say, as an excuse, this is not a penis; this is just a part of the creature. You know, the creatures, they don’t have a gender. A creature is a creature. So it is not obscene – not illegal.”

For now we’ll stick with this G-rated page from Panorama Island.

PanoramaIslandTentacles
From The Strange Tale of Panorama Island, a graphic novel by Suehiro Maruo, based on the novella by Edogawa Rampo, the Japanese Edgar Allan Poe and godfather of Japanese detective fiction.

Don’t worry – the characters are in an underwater tunnel with transparent walls, so the girl is perfectly safe (for now). Read an interesting review of this manga here: http://goodokbad.com/index.php/reviews/strange_tale_of_panorama_island_review

Next in line is this cantankerous beak-mouthed octopus, actually Magica De Spell transformed (which explains why the creature appears to be wearing mascara – waterproof mascara, of course).

UncleScrooge193
Uncle Scrooge no. 193, February 1982. Pencils by Pete Alvarado, inks by Larry Mayer. (This one’s a variant cover with a white Whitman logo.)

The last of Tentacle Tuesday for this week: a snippet of a rather gruesome story, in which a scientist transforms a poor, city aquarium-dwelling octopus who was minding his own business into a terrifying man-octopus creature who runs amok. In the end, the octopus reverts to his normal form and kills the scientist. (Justice, if not particularly poetic.)

1025-octoman
The first panel of “Arms of Doom” from Harvey‘s Black Cat Mystery no. 32, 1952, drawn by Rudy Palais. So… how exactly is he going to destroy an entire city? He has 6 arms, all right, but he’s only human-sized, if a bit stronger than a normal man.

You can read the whole riveting tale here: http://pappysgoldenage.blogspot.ca/2010/10/number-821-octoman-is-here-let-it-be.html

~ ds

Edgar wakes up while snakes eat oatmeal

redscraper4 Comments

B. Kliban may not be a name that’s familiar to many (unless you’re one of those people who pays attention to the signature beneath a painting), but his cats will certainly ring a few bells, so to speak. They can be found on stickers and greeting cards, mugs and t-shirts, and, above all, calendars. Kliban’s Cat, a collection of cat cartoons that was published in 1975, was an instant hit, and its popularity hasn’t waned since.

KilibanMousies
One of the felines inhabiting the original Kliban’s Cat. Catchy little ditty, isn’t it? The official B. Kliban website is http://www.eatmousies.com/ – which is a very cute move.

One would expect something that’s been around for so long to be terrible and generic and banal (just think of Garfield merchandise – yuck!), yet each year a new calendar comes out, and each year it’s still stunningly beautiful. Kliban lamentably and tragically died in 1990, at only 55. Either he left behind an impressive number of cat paintings, or his ghost still comes out from retirement from time to time to continue the tradition. I mean, look:

KlibanCats2017

« People assume I’m gaga about cats. I like them, but I’m not silly about them. Cats look like cartoons. There’s something funny and vulnerable and innocent about them. » (from a 1978 interview.)

Kliban2018
Okay, the late 2010s seem to have some sort of carrot theme…

Maybe these images are created by a dedicated team of artists hell-bent on imitating Kliban’s style as closely as possible, adroitly channeling his absurd sense of humour, dressing in the Kliban uniform (jeans and sandals) to increase their precision. After all, if talented art forgers can copy a Vermeer or Picasso so meticulously that it confuses the experts…

As lovely as his felines are, it’s too really too bad that Kliban’s other books (most of them published by Workman Publishing) have been swallowed by the hungry maw of obscurity. His peculiar sense of humour, his love of puns and his unorthodox approach to everything from relationships to kitchen implements wonderfully combine with stylish art to create a glorious mindfuck in cartoon form. His books – Never Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head, and Other Drawings (1976), Whack Your Porcupine, and Other Drawings (1977), Tiny Footprints, and Other Drawings (1978), Playboy’s Kliban (1979), Two Guys Fooling Around With the Moon (1982) and Luminous Animals (published by Penguin Books in 1983) – will make you wonder if Kliban ever underwent psychoanalysis, whether his doctor managed to hold on to *his* sanity after their sessions, and whether you should get psychoanalysed, too, because why else would you be enjoying these cartoons so much? The NY Times did a tribute to Kliban when he died in 1990, and all the author of the piece could say, somewhat diplomatically, is that « the books that followed Cat consisted mostly of extremely bizarre cartoons that find their humour in their utter strangeness and extremely unlikely environments. »
« Please », the journalist seemed to be saying, « can I go back to talking about cats already and skip over the weird shit? »

So here’s an example of some pleasurable weirdness:

EstherSleepsKliban
Edgar Asleep has been scanned from Luminous Animals and Other Drawings (1983).

Kliban’s other work has certainly been overshadowed by cats, but at least it gave him financial security… and a life full of cats, drawn and otherwise, which is not that bad a thing.

KlibanMonsters
« I spend twenty seven years making monsters and what does it get me?… A room full of monsters! » (Playboy, June 1972)

~ ds

Tentacle Tuesday Takes a Turn for the Domestic

redscraper1 Comment

You might think that tentacles are just something that happens to other people, to the intrepid swashbucklers and globetrotters of this world. But watch out! No matter how dull your job and how stodgy your lifestyle, no-one is safe on a Tentacle Tuesday.

Let’s say you’ve embarked on a normal working day in a bustling city. No ravenous tentacle will be able to reach you as long as you stick to main streets, you think. Right? Wrong.

AddamsTentacles
One would think New Yorkers would be immune to being fazed by *anything* found in NYC sewers. Cartoon by Charles Addams.

All right, let’s play it safe, call in sick and stay home.

10923218_770798442968251_4347912488547203824_n
Mother Goose and Grimm is a syndicated comic strip written and drawn by Mike Peters, published both in newspapers and online. Syndicated in 1984, it’s still going strong. Spoofs of modern culture, screwball comedy and dogs on blind dates, it’s all in there. Jan. 23, 2015.

Dang! How about going to a conference, instead?

GaryLarsonOctopus
Comic habitués will easily recognize the talented pen of Gary Larson, and identify this as a Far Side strip.

Sigh, I give up.

As today’s Tentacle Tuesday happens to coincide with Halloween (can this day get any better?), I’ll leave you with an image that gleefully combines both:

LittleLotta27
 I don’t know how Little Lotta manages to control all these tentacles when she only has two hands – maybe she’s in symbiosis with an octopus? This is Little Lotta in Foodland no. 27, August 1971 (okay, so it’s a masquerade party, not a Halloween one – cut me a little slack!), cover (as usual) by Warren Kremer.

~ ds

 

Some content on this page was disabled on June 30, 2022 as a result of a DMCA takedown notice from Gary Larson. You can learn more about the DMCA here:

https://wordpress.com/support/copyright-and-the-dmca/

Tentacle Tuesday, Franco-Belgian Edition

redscraper4 Comments

Today’s Tentacle Tuesday comes to us courtesy of France and its long-suffering neighbour, Belgium. There’s an easy joke one could make about the reputation Frenchmen possess of having hands like grabby tentacles, but instead I’ll concentrate on their wonderful comic writers and artists and the classic bande dessinée. Let’s gracefully step over all the obscene connotations of a “French edition” and delve into exhibit A:

DavidBFroideA
“So that’s it, your real face?” asks the old man. “What were you expecting?” asks the emerald-eyed cephalopod.  This is a page from Les chercheurs de trésor, volume 2: La ville froide, David B. (2004, Dargaud).

David B. is the nom de plume of Pierre-François David Beauchard. Non-Francophone audiences might know him from Epileptic, an autobiographical graphic novel that won accolades and awards from an international audience. And yet it’s not his most interesting œuvre, as far as I’m concerned. Although Epileptic is full of imagery and allegories, it’s when David B. lets his imagination soar without the constraints of real life that he creates his most dazzling worlds and astonishing stories. He’s one of those rare comic artists whose art is as accomplished as their storytelling.

Here’s a bonus “tentacle” from Monsieur B.:

DavidBLesIncidentsdelaNuit
La lecture des ruines was published by Dupuis in 2001. (It loosely translates to “reading the ruins”, “study of the wreckage”.) It’s the story of a mad scholar who tries to find a mathematical equation for violence in the decayed rubble that war has left behind. Excerpted material from an imaginary periodical is appended, Les incidents de la nuit (Incidents of the Night). This tentacled worm – Le Grand Ver, the Great Worm – is one of the creatures that lurk within…

Give a hand of applause, ladies and gentlemen, to David B., and let’s move to our next topic.

“Sorti des abîmes” translates to something like “Risen from the abyss” – and what sort of thing rises from an abyss? Why, tentacles, of course!

TifTonduSortiDesAbimes
Tif et Tondu: Sorti des abîmes (1972)

Tif and Tondu, an intrepid team of private investigators, were originally created by Fernand Dineur, but their most popular incarnation is by writer Maurice Tillieux and artist Willy Maltaite (who mostly went by the nickname Will), which is what you’re currently admiring. The strip saw birth in 1938 in journal Spirou and lasted a whopping number of years, ending in 1997, one year short of its 60th birthday.

Things are a bit tricky with the numbering, because Tif et Tondu are popular enough to have been anthologized several times. Sorti des abîmes appeared as the series’ 19th entry (1972), after being serialized in Spirou no. 1746 (September, 1971) to no. 1764 (February, 1972).

TifTonduSortiA(1)
A closer look at the creature from the abyss: not exactly an octopus, but in distinct possession of tentacles. “Armed and dangerous”, as they say! The poor thing is dissolved at the end of the story by some infrared rays.

Incidentally, “Tif” is slang for hair in French, and “Tondu” means “shaven, sheared”. Naturally, Tif is the bald guy, and Tondu is the hairy one.

Now that we’ve had our fill of scary, destructive tentacles, I’ll move on to something friendlier.

Pif2
Pif Poche no.72 (Aug. 1971) The last panel says “Paws off… Don’t touch! You’ve got cold hands!”
Pif3.jpg
Pif Poche no.72 (Aug. 1971) “This creature is starting to annoy me with its tickling!”

Pif the dog was the mascot of the kid’s magazine Pif Gadget (« gadget » referred to the fact that each issue of the magazine was accompanied by some thingamabob to amuse the youngsters). Pif Poche were pocket-sized collections of short Pif strips, as well as jokes, games and such. The character was created by José Cabrero Arnal in 1948, who gradually abandoned the strip by the 1960s while other artists took over.

Pif1
 Pif Poche no.72 (Aug. 1971) “Even in a can… I adore seafood! Ripoff… it’s octopus!” Story and art by Arnal’s immediate and worthiest successor, the prolific Roger Mas (1924-2010)

~ ds