tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88930763695293286132024-03-05T23:47:08.964-05:00The Sandman Slept HereCount Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-74645594883492219192014-07-05T00:00:00.000-04:002014-07-05T00:00:00.592-04:00Sandman Sketch by Francesco Francavilla<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80DjsbWqkpQJltjoPZZkydb17vqT7XW_-iFce_8u83tiL2HCOBcadlCDJJU0U2xk8gROleRQyoTsgpfL9TG7_4LR5KB1LKbuEkrPMSglhduQ6nwGXTJTYqWprWRMmH_af7B1GJ2Y8X7ag/s1600/Sand+Francesco+Francavilla2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80DjsbWqkpQJltjoPZZkydb17vqT7XW_-iFce_8u83tiL2HCOBcadlCDJJU0U2xk8gROleRQyoTsgpfL9TG7_4LR5KB1LKbuEkrPMSglhduQ6nwGXTJTYqWprWRMmH_af7B1GJ2Y8X7ag/s1600/Sand+Francesco+Francavilla2.jpg" height="640" width="471" /></a></div>
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One of my favorite artists in the business, follow <b>Francesco Francavilla</b>'s <a href="https://twitter.com/f_francavilla" target="_blank">Twitter feed</a> and check out <a href="http://www.francescofrancavilla.com/" target="_blank">his website</a>.</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-18589488381334534262014-06-28T07:38:00.002-04:002014-06-28T07:38:21.440-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #20 (Nov 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo68ykjHVQ8s4Jtm6pejKOGBQXtEzabav81B3NzjSLRfVsaYap6uaBDG_lhd-NuM82DeIr9aZDew4pxmVrGUXkO0Ww9o-HnRI2l9dJUP_YlDn-IN-TKVITHdNOPqkCWItJDvOO1Jsnz4tM/s1600/%2320cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo68ykjHVQ8s4Jtm6pejKOGBQXtEzabav81B3NzjSLRfVsaYap6uaBDG_lhd-NuM82DeIr9aZDew4pxmVrGUXkO0Ww9o-HnRI2l9dJUP_YlDn-IN-TKVITHdNOPqkCWItJDvOO1Jsnz4tM/s1600/%2320cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #20: "The Scorpion" Final Act</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
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Lieutenant Burke shows up at the hotel where Wesley Dodds arranged to meet with Stephen Cutler. Burke is thrilled to be working with a new partner, Max Collins, someone he knows he can count on in a rough situation as opposed to the "limp dicks" he's been bogged down with recently. In the hotel lobby, Burke asks the <i>maitre d</i> for Wesley Dodds' room number and, after threatening the man to keep quiet, the two detectives proceed upstairs.<br />
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Why is Burke looking for Wesley? The same reason that District Attorney Larry Belmont is hurrying out of the house when Wesley's girlfriend, the D.A.'s daughter, Dian, comes home. Dian pushes her father for details and he reveals that an anonymous phone call tipped the police to the Scorpion's next target, Stephen Cutler. When the cops called Cutler's office, they learned that he was meeting with Wesley Dodds.<br />
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In the hotel room, Cutler isn't greeted by Wesley; instead, he finds a Wes-sized dummy sitting in the chair. And then the Scorpion kicks in the door from the balcony.<br />
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The Scorpion is befuddled by the dummy in Wesley's chair, but nothing's more shocking than the sudden appearance of the Sandman from an inner room in the suite. The Sandman gives Scorpion the chance to surrender before sucking down the sleeping gas from his gun, but that delay is enough for Burke and Collins to kick open the door and mess up the Sandman's whole plan.<br />
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Burke didn't expect to find two masked men in the room, but he's plenty happy about collaring the killer and the vigilante that keeps knocking him unconscious. The Scorpion refuses to play along, though, and lashes out with his poison-tipped whip. Burke opens fire and the Scorpion takes a hit, but soon realizes that Max was struck by the whip.<br />
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While Burke is distracted by his partner's violent poisoning, the Scorpion kicks the gun out of his hand and whips him. Burke feels the venom agonizingly course through his veins as he tries to recover his weapon and stop the Scorpion. He's interrupted when the Sandman throws down the gas canister from his gun, filling the room with the knockout mist.<br />
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Burke coughs and says it's not bad enough to die, but he has to die choking on the Sandman's foul gas. The Scorpion and Cutler, too, choke on the gas, but while Cutler succumbs, the killer makes his escape to the balcony.<br />
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As the Sandman treats Burke with anti-venom, the Scorpion climbs down a grappling hook to a lower balcony and sets fire to the rope. Upstairs, the Sandman is too late to save Burke's partner; and when he gets to the balcony, he's too late to catch the Scorpion.<br />
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At the police station, Ross O'Donald fills in the district attorney--and Dian--about the events at the hotel. He reveals that Max Collins died but Burke somehow survived the Scorpion's sting. Dian asks about Wesley Dodds and the captain tells her Wesley wasn't even there, that was part of a setup to lure Cutler into a trap. Dian doesn't buy that theory, and she wonders about the anonymous tip. Ross acknowledges her curiosity and detective's mind. He also tells them that the Sandman was there, which further confounds and fascinates Dian.<br />
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She slips out of the office and calls Wesley's house. She asks Humphries to put her boyfriend on the phone, but the butler tells her that Wesley went to Philadelphia on business. That makes little sense to Dian as Wesley was terribly ill the day before (and she suspects he was attacked). Humphries tells her he can't remember the name of the hotel Wesley was staying at so she'll have to wait until tomorrow to get in touch with him. Dian hangs up, very suspicious of her boyfriend's deeds.<br />
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Elsewhere, Terry Stetson pulls his car into his parking garage and--no surprise at all--we learn that he is the Scorpion. And he's suffering a bullet wound. <i>And</i> he's being followed from the garage to his apartment.<br />
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Cassandra Cutler, daughter of Stephen and Terry's would-be love interest at the company, steps out of the shadows and joins Terry in the elevator up to his apartment. She says she's acquiescing to his desire that they date, but Terry is in no mood or condition to take Cassandra out to dinner. She very deliberately refuses to take the hint, though, telling him she has a special night planned for them.<br />
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Lieutenant Burke, still recovering from the scorpion poison, forces a patrolman to drive him toward Terry Stetson's apartment. Burke is still in rough shape and vomits in a paper bag most of the way there. At the station, Ross tells the D.A. and Dian that Burke is following a hunch that the killer is Terry Stetson. Ross wants backup there for Burke and orders three cars full of uniformed cops to Terry's address.<br />
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Cassandra points a gun at Terry and demands to know why he killed two of her father's partners. He confesses and says those men deserve what they got, just like her father will deserve what he gets. She can't believe it; her father treated him like a son, she says, to which Terry reveals that Cutler and his partners drove his father to an early grave.<br />
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Cassandra Cutler slumps to the floor and dies. Terry steps over her body, admitting that he liked her, but in the end she was just as bad and deserving of this death as the rest of the greedy company people like the Scorpion's victims.<br />
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Dian Belmont managed to get a taxi to take her to Terry Stetson's apartment before the police backup arrived. When she gets there, Burke and the patrolman have already discovered Cassandra Cutler dead and Terry missing. Dian tells Burke her theory that the Sandman orchestrated the meeting at the hotel that night to catch the Scorpion. Burke reminds her about the anonymous tip; Sandman wouldn't have called it in to spoil his own setup. Dian figures that it was Casssandra who called in the tip after suspecting Terry was going after her father.<br />
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They both figure that a desperate Scorpion might go attack Lane, Cutler's last partner, and Dian says she will drive the lieutenant there. She persists, reminding Burke that his backup hasn't arrived and the patrolman must stay to secure the scene. Dian is the only one who can drive Burke there on time since he cannot do it himself.<br />
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Emmanuel Lane enjoys a bath in his luxury apartment, unaware that the Scorpion has come to kill him. Across the street, the detective in charge of surveillance for Lane's place is asleep on the job, and doesn't see the Scorpion brand the wall and enter through the window.<br />
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Lane finishes his bath and calls out to his houseboy, but he's greeted by the Scorpion who threatens to kill him. Lane offers to pay him anything which only enrages the killer. Scorpion rips off his mask showing his identity to Lane. He explains that his last name isn't Stetson, it's Pritchard. His father wasn't in the railroad but rather a Texas farmer. Lane, Cutler and their whole firm bought up Terry's father's land for their oil companies. Lane protests that Pritchard was paid handsomely for the land, but Terry says the money cost his father his soul, that he turned to gambling and drinking and both of his parents were ruined and killed because of the deal.<br />
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The logic of Terry's vendetta isn't exactly sound, but at this point he doesn't seem entirely sane. He raises the whip to kill Lane when the Sandman appears.<br />
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After taking a face full of gas, Terry charges the Sandman and tries to rip his mask off. The Sandman is able to fight him off long enough for the gas to kick in, and a wild, raging Terry passes out on the floor.<br />
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When Dian and Burke arrive at the scene, the Sandman has gone. Lane is curled up against the wall in shock, reliving a traumatic molestation from his past, while Terry Stetson/Pritchard appears to have suffered a stroke. Burke knows the Sandman was there because the odor of his gas is still in the room and he left an origami folding of a scorpion.<br />
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Finally, after a bit of a hiatus, we get the crafty amateur detective Dian Belmont back. She witnesses enough suspicious behavior and finds enough clues to know that Wesley Dodds is keeping some real secrets from her, and that it's all tied in to the Sandman. Finally, she's confronted by the missing piece of intelligence she didn't have--that the Sandman leaves origami at the scene of his activities. The only other man she's known to do origami is Wesley, and it appears that she has finally discovered the truth of his secret identity just as Wesley decides to tell her the truth.<br />
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My favorite moment in this issue and maybe the whole story arc is when Dian convinces Burke to let her accompany him to the final crime scene. She uses unarguable facts and just the right amount of manipulation to press him into letting her tag along, and that's how she learns the final clue in the puzzle of her boyfriend.<br />
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As for the identity of the Scorpion, I'm a little disappointed. Terry Stetson was the obvious candidate from the beginning. Wagner and Seagle tried to misdirect us for about five minutes with Buster Calhoun, but really the only one the killer could have been all along was Terry. The only mystery was his motive, which was kept hidden until this final showdown. And then, when you scrutinize his motive, you learn it doesn't make a damn bit of sense and that he's actually crazy. But that doesn't make sense either and it undercuts what the character has been working toward for 80% of the story line.<br />
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I love the look of the Scorpion in these issues and I love the poisoned bull whip gimmick and I love that the Sandman faces another masked character. But the reveal of the killer's identity and reason for killing in this final chapter feels extremely lazy and out of character.<br />
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One last note, I'm not sure if there's a significance to the character of Detective Max Collins, but there is a crime and mystery writer named <b>Max Allan Collins</b>, whose most famous work is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Perdition-Vertigo-Crime-Allan-Collins/dp/1401231918/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1403955463&sr=1-2&keywords=road+to+perdition" target="_blank">the graphic novel <i>Road to Perdition</i></a>. Maybe Wagner or Seagle were friends or fans of Collins and named the ill-fated detective in this issue as an homage.<br />
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Come back next week for Act One of "Dr. Death"...</div>
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<i>Curtain.</i></div>
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Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-40555955446412698852014-06-21T00:00:00.000-04:002014-06-21T00:00:00.773-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #19 (Oct 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7WhWaatCp7trPHvespUqCbzX8_eBqFhyxW7IlaZvQhiBo4C367d1Hh5_fnm1ZCP0zR1cRA89SWBOSlMpwkp7va-t_0hNlx8O-G0MctPrqJ1hoIfCR-3j4kVibGGbgK8YZw1SW0Enos6qy/s1600/%2319page1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7WhWaatCp7trPHvespUqCbzX8_eBqFhyxW7IlaZvQhiBo4C367d1Hh5_fnm1ZCP0zR1cRA89SWBOSlMpwkp7va-t_0hNlx8O-G0MctPrqJ1hoIfCR-3j4kVibGGbgK8YZw1SW0Enos6qy/s1600/%2319page1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #19: "The Scorpion" Act Three</b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
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Judge Thomas Schaffer visits District Attorney Belmont's home, only to find the D.A. is away while his daughter, Dian, is home reading Chaucer. Dian and the Judge chat about their mutual friend, Wesley Dodds, with Dian assuring Schaffer that her boyfriend is a perfectly normal person.<br />
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At the same time, Perfectly Normal Wesley Dodds is ambushed in his bedroom by the masked murderer known as The Scorpion!<br />
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While the Scorpion continues to monologue about why Wesley deserves this awful death, Wes makes a desperate run for the secret door leading to his lair. Alas, he's too slow the the Scorpion's poison-tipped whip lashes over Wesley's shoulder and tears into his chest.<br />
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The Scorpion bids his latest victim "happy trails" and escapes out the window. Wesley collapses to the floor as the fast-acting toxin works through his system. He frantically fumbles with his jacket, feeling the pain and fear of encroaching death. He regrets not telling Dian the truth about everything while scrambling for a vial of the scorpion venom antidote we saw him create last issue. He manages to inject the antidote into his arm just as his faithful manservant Humphries enters the room.<br />
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The next day, Cassandra Cutler goes to the office to speak to her father. She's suitably concerned for her father after two of his business partners have been murdered in the last week, and because the deal they worked so hard to lock down seems to be falling apart with Wesley Dodds' investment. At that point, Cassandra's partner and suitor, the Texas-born Terry Stetson, joins the meeting. Terry had stormed off the night before, furious that Dodds pulled out on them. When he comes back the next day, he says he met with Dodds later the night before and considers him a "dead end". <i>Hmm</i>... that's a little suspicious.<br />
<br />
Before they can decide on a new course of action, Police Lieutenant Burke comes in to ask Cutler some questions about his company regarding the dead partners. Picking up on the western theme of the killer, he's looking into the company's oil fields in the southwest--the same area that Terry hails from coincidentally. Burke asks them about the Scorpion brand on the wall, and Terry seems a bit disdainful of the lieutenant.<br />
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Wesley makes up yet another lame story for his infirmity, this time blaming it on indigestion from bad oysters. But when Dian notices the dressing covering wounded chest, he doubles down on the lie, saying the oysters made him pass out in the shower and he cut himself on the faucet. I would expect Dian to be a lot less credulous than she is in this scene; I guess, perhaps, because she is in love with him she's more willing to believe a ludicrous story. But lest we forget Dian's fierce curiosity and budding detective skills, she does notice the brand of the Scorpion on the windowsill.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtzYAMnpEy3JQYmAYqQH94HnqynNwPxxyjEf1ZoZKoOuXCGHrYnWnS8qvT_ZP5Z0HFHra8E1VtcRYlllmRP2qydJEKvtFXgjfVS7bCXm8d6iBF2cymVf0gVcYhkq52lYpjwt81PdpAsnI/s1600/%2319page11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOtzYAMnpEy3JQYmAYqQH94HnqynNwPxxyjEf1ZoZKoOuXCGHrYnWnS8qvT_ZP5Z0HFHra8E1VtcRYlllmRP2qydJEKvtFXgjfVS7bCXm8d6iBF2cymVf0gVcYhkq52lYpjwt81PdpAsnI/s1600/%2319page11.jpg" /></a>At the Cutler business offices, Terry Stetson stops by Cassandra's office to ask for another date. She says she's way too busy in light of the murders and Wesley pulling out of their deal, but then her assistant tells her that Wesley called her office. Terry is quite surprised by Wesley's call.<br />
<br />
Cassandra returns the call and hears Wesley say that he wants another meeting with her father. He'll arrange the time and place later when he comes back from Philadelphia. As Cassandra relates all of this back to Terry, the Texan's displeasure grows more visible. Other than Wesley's apparent flakiness, why would Terry object to Wesley and Cutler taking another meeting? Unless something else is bothering Terry.<br />
<br />
Elsewhere, Dian Belmont goes home and finds her father, the D.A., asleep on the couch. To pass the time, she reads the newspaper and learns about the murders of Dechert and Rummel, two of the businessmen she met a few nights earlier at the fundraising benefit featuring Wild West star Buster Calhoun. Dian's father wakes up and joins her in the kitchen, filling in some of the details about the murder mystery, but the mention of the Scorpion piques her interest.<br />
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<br />
Lieutenant Burke returns to where his men are running surveillance on the last of Cutler's partners. They overhear a drunken Buster Calhoun calling and threatening Lane.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Dian calls Wesley only to have Humphries tell her that her boyfriend has gone to bed. She's a lot more incredulous now that's heard about the Scorpion.<br />
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At the Cutler offices, Cassandra advises her father to sound less pushy and desperate when he meets Wesley than Terry Stetson did when they met. Cutler and Cassandra exchange enough little notes about Terry to reveal that he's actively trying to learn the time and place of the Dodds meeting, despite being all-but told not to get involved.<br />
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Across town, Lieutenant Burke and one of his detectives follow Buster Calhoun to his apartment. Burke tells his man to climb up the fire escape and find out what's going on. The detective sees the shadow of Buster whipping someone inside and they spring into action. Burke races up the stairs and kicks in the door.<br />
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In his secret lair, Wesley uses his audio surveillance to listen in on the cops at Calhoun's place. They realize he's got some problems but he's not the Scorpion. As he prepares his Sandman costume, he agonizes over the lies he must tell Dian to keep this part of his life secret. He doesn't think he can maintain the facade for much longer.<br />
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Cassandra Cutler finds Terry Stetson coming out of her father's office. He makes up a story about dropping off some reports, but she doesn't look like she's buying it. When she leaves to speak with her receptionist, she bumps into Dian Belmont waiting outside her office.<br />
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<br />
Without saying more to compromise her position in the company, Cassandra does admit to Dian that she has some suspicions about the murders.<br />
<br />
That night, the elder Cutler is met outside his office by Humphries, who drives him to the hotel to meet Wesley. Cutler pours himself a drink and tells Wes all about the day's annoyances, including Burke's questions.<br />
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<br />
This issue seems to eliminate Buster Calhoun as a suspect while doing anything and everything to make Terry Stetson look shifty and suspicious. If he's not the Scorpion--and I don't know who else could be that won't be completely out of nowhere--he's definitely got some skeletons in his closet.<br />
<br />
Wesley is feeling the guilt and weight of lying to Dian, which is good because she's seeing through his deceptions. The collision course of her sleuthing and his vigilantism is coming to a boil and hopefully, the climactic chapter of this story arc will bring their relationship to a new level, both as lovers, and as crime fighters.<br />
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Come back next week for the final act of "The Scorpion"...</div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-80166343597228395162014-06-14T07:01:00.001-04:002014-06-14T07:01:14.213-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #18 (Sep 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #18: "The Scorpion" Act Two</b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
<br />
Helmet Rummel is terrorized in his home by "The Scorpion", a cowboy with a mask and bullwhip. Rummel attempts to bribe the intruder to let him live, and when that fails he reaches for a gun in his desk. The Scorpion kicks him repeatedly, cursing the rich man for keeping the rest of the world on its knees while he profits. All this happens as Rummel's servant Dominick looks on helpless. As he leaves, the Scorpion cracks his whip, striking Rummel in the face and in no time, the same poison that killed Karl Dechert kills Rummel.<br />
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When the police come to investigate, the medical examiner Hubert Klein confirms for Lieutenant Burke that Rummel was killed the same way as Dechert.<br />
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Klein also notes the abnormal shape of the bruising on Rummel's stomach from the killer's boots and an unusual pattern of blood drip/stain on the carpet leading away from the body.<br />
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We find Wesley Dodds working in his lab, thinking about how insects and spiders terrified him as a child. After finding the image of a scorpion branded on the windowsill outside Dechert's home, Wesley researches scorpions and begins to cook up vials of some potion.<br />
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Is he trying to duplicate scorpion venom? Or produce an antidote?<br />
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That night, Wesley's dreams are filled with images of the American southwest, as a cactus and gas pump take on the fearful images of death.<br />
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The next day, Wesley goes to Stephen Cutler's office, his mind fixed on the inequities he sees in the rich and poor of society. Cutler, his daughter Cassandra, and his protege, Terry Stetson, sweeten their pitch as much as they can, but Wes remains disinterested in a business venture that he says "exploits the European situation to make a fast profit off the oil industry." Terry argues that the war in Europe will soon reach America's shores and this deal will put them in place to do good for the nation. That, at least, rings true with Wes and agrees to give the matter some more thought before giving a final answer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrog-U96tGVqmy2e68UYEdLgczEo1MJU__79lVzna8mPJkI65c7W6s8EH8QOP0wxv7AEqd1WmsN_5K_s17sFKrE5EuB4qiYoJ-FKmUtJ4bYGXXD2HzOCzhUYjn5pJ2mhypS4mAj56NMJ9/s1600/%2318page10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrog-U96tGVqmy2e68UYEdLgczEo1MJU__79lVzna8mPJkI65c7W6s8EH8QOP0wxv7AEqd1WmsN_5K_s17sFKrE5EuB4qiYoJ-FKmUtJ4bYGXXD2HzOCzhUYjn5pJ2mhypS4mAj56NMJ9/s1600/%2318page10.jpg" /></a>While Wesley is tied up in meetings, Dian Belmont brings a gift to his home. Wesley's butler, Humphries, lets her into the study with the package and a personalized note. She wants to make sure Wes notices the note right away, and sets it in the lap of Wesley's doll. Humphries is uncomfortable at her handling of the doll, but while she's amused at the thing's appearance, she fails to recognize the doll's similarity to the Sandman.<br />
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After convincing Wesley to reconsider the deal, Terry Stetson is brimming with confidence and goes to see Cassandra Cutler. He brings her a potted cactus and asks her out to dinner. Cassandra puts up the usual protests about not getting involved with someone at the company and needing to work harder to be taken seriously as a woman in a man's job. Terry brushes off her defenses and insists she get out of the office tonight... with him. He already has reservations for dinner. At last, she accepts. After he leaves her office, she pricks her finger on the cactus.<br />
<br />
When Wesley comes home, he finds Dian's note and the gift she brought: a record player and a record of Louis Armstrong. He plays the music and tells Humphries he enjoys the gift, but he can't thank Dian in person tonight.<br />
<br />
Wes goes down into his secret lab through, where Guy Davis shows us a set of masks adoring the wall of the stairwell. Clearly visible among the masks are the helm of Morpheus from <b>Neil Gaiman</b>'s <i>Sandman</i> series, and something more like the classic mask designed by <b>Bert Christman</b> for the Sandman's Golden Age tales.<br />
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Wesley uses his surveillance equipment to eavesdrop on Lieutenant Burke's office. But while Burke might ignore the medical examiner's theories, the Sandman is very interested. That night, when Hubert Klein goes home, the Sandman is waiting for him.<br />
<br />
Klein begs his visitor not to fire his gas gun because he has allergies and a heart condition, and while the chemical cocktail is usually non-fatal, there is a risk for Klein. The Sandman promises he won't use the gas gun if Klein gives him answers about the Dechert killer. Klein tells him the poison that killed Dechert and Rummel was derived from scorpion venom, something the Sandman probably already knew. But Klein does provide some new intelligence: the bruising and blood stains at the Rummel crime scene indicate the killer wore cowboy boots. According to the M.E. the killer may be from the Southwest... or wants them to believe he is.<br />
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Klein confronts the Sandman with his own similarity to vigilantes in pulp magazines. This bit of fourth-wall-breaking and meta-commentary upsets the Sandman who scoffs that the magazine like it's childish fantasy whereas he is very real and very serious. He recites his oath and his spiel about making evil-doers face his dark dreams. But in this context, it comes off as indignant posturing and a little insecure.<br />
<br />
Dian calls Wesley at home but only reaches Humphries. She's disappointed that her gift didn't net her a personalized thanks from Wes. Meanwhile, Terry takes Cassandra out to dinner where he reveals a little of his backstory and formative years growing up in Texas. Terry came from poor humble roots and his family worked their way up to a position where he could go to college and then come to New York to make his fortune. At the restaurant, Buster Calhoun, the cowboy movie star makes a scene when he's ejected for not wearing the proper attire.<br />
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After dinner, Cassandra invites Terry up to her place for a drink, but when they arrive, her father is there and drunk. Cutler tells them that Wesley Dodds declined their offer, which means they won't have the funding for the deal. Terry is outraged and curses Wesley. He storms out saying he won't let all their hard work go to waste.<br />
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Elsewhere, Cutler's third partner, Emmanuel Lang is under police surveillance. Burke's team discover Lang's homosexual proclivities, but no sign of the Scorpion killer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi529ZyKs4KjuUXQdYaY36TSPBXd0ho7wwQsLiHjhEda6K-_92KWMmJzLsoz6mM0GsYoILtrVV3BR-wRfy5ZZWQyBhEAuPIH2xcDuLJNT8H2sccYEW7Bl4KhMQix9eaVUeLmj-xq2-Y8E0G/s1600/%2318page22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi529ZyKs4KjuUXQdYaY36TSPBXd0ho7wwQsLiHjhEda6K-_92KWMmJzLsoz6mM0GsYoILtrVV3BR-wRfy5ZZWQyBhEAuPIH2xcDuLJNT8H2sccYEW7Bl4KhMQix9eaVUeLmj-xq2-Y8E0G/s1600/%2318page22.jpg" /></a></div>
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After spying on the surveillance team yields nothing, the Sandman calls it a night.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhKLBlbkSC2wY10Y4g5ZnNOXmU-eFDVqcbak4eVZj3SBUCTn5Xt-eaqRBPMwBkdePxAZC1wArzhlpgkRAj7eVlXwpmuFGiFFy1ZvOcatpxm__WhPMkXP93zNcKhNlWpPwAHo7Uinr8NxW/s1600/%2318page24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhKLBlbkSC2wY10Y4g5ZnNOXmU-eFDVqcbak4eVZj3SBUCTn5Xt-eaqRBPMwBkdePxAZC1wArzhlpgkRAj7eVlXwpmuFGiFFy1ZvOcatpxm__WhPMkXP93zNcKhNlWpPwAHo7Uinr8NxW/s1600/%2318page24.jpg" /></a>Wesley Dodds returns to his home and gets ready for bed. He fails to notice an intruder, however, until it might be too late. The issue ends with Wes stepping out of the bathroom and coming face to face with the Scorpion.<br />
<br />
Wagner and Seagle's script sure makes it clear that they want us to suspect Terry Stetson is the Scorpion. He's from the Southwest. We wears a western tie similar to the Scorpion. He comes from a poor background and the Scorpion seems to have a hatred for the privileged. His last name is <i>Stetson</i>. And Terry as much as threatened Wesley Dodds shortly before the Scorpion breaks into his home.<br />
<br />
But is that too obvious? Would killing Wes actually help Terry accomplish his goal of closing this business deal? Terry seems to legitimately want to become part of the wealthy elite that the Scorpion preys upon. Maybe he's too obvious a suspect. And Hubert Klein did say, after all, the killer may only want the police to <i>think</i> he's from the southwest.<br />
<br />
What suspects does that leave? Stephen Cutler had the same motive as Terry, but he seems too old. What about the actor, Buster Calhoun? He's appeared in both parts of this story so far, but not really as a character so much as a bit of background dressing. While being escorted from the restaurant, however, he does mention both "poison" and "kicking", and those are two pretty loaded words. Plus, there's the obvious cowboy garb he wears. We don't know anything about his background or his motivations, but we'd be fool to exclude him as a suspect at this point.<br />
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Come back next week for the third act of "The Scorpion"...<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-10979697523028011862014-06-07T00:00:00.000-04:002014-06-07T00:00:05.278-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #17 (Aug 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2robNcddKy0dhQnKg2t8sn-lx2oIbLV3QNyUduWwB6PV4V4ZoDGhbJN42TGJmfIA6RPNaemQb0lgsZ1BAwEB5X4kbZdV0qHpx1Q-AY8lcbpw5nPuf7P-s9FZDHwXx7Z6DogCOmoa2lku/s1600/%2317cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB2robNcddKy0dhQnKg2t8sn-lx2oIbLV3QNyUduWwB6PV4V4ZoDGhbJN42TGJmfIA6RPNaemQb0lgsZ1BAwEB5X4kbZdV0qHpx1Q-AY8lcbpw5nPuf7P-s9FZDHwXx7Z6DogCOmoa2lku/s1600/%2317cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #17: "The Scorpion" Act One</b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
<br />
Guy Davis is back to illustrate his second consecutive story arc coming off "The Vamp", and when Davis draws this book you knows there's going to be a freaky dream sequence. In fact, that's how the first part of "The Scorpion" begins, with Wesley Dodds dreaming about beauty and dangerous secrets as the image of a rose metamorphoses into a truly sexualized tongue and then into the barbed tail of a scorpion. Out of context, this first page could belong in an issue of Dark Horse Comics' <i>Aliens</i>.<br />
<br />
After the dream Wesley meets his girlfriend, Dian Belmont, for breakfast at an outdoor cafe overlooking New York's Central Park. They speak briefly about the last story arc's murder spree and their amateur detective work on the case, but mostly the dialogue centers around the night before when Wesley performed oral sex for Dian, and her enthusiasm to reciprocate and escalate their activities.<br />
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Wesley gives Dian and her father tickets to a charity gala. His inner monologue focuses on the irony of how much money is spent lavish fundraisers, money that ought to provide food and housing for the poorest elements of society.<br />
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That night, Dian and her father, District Attorney Larry Belmont, attend the charity concert of Buster Calhoun, a famous western film star.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwQHHon63_iVFO9j95VJpmYhM51vUYzEFfgeDFdTatLq47uCHKjI8POWvkJIRPXf_e6Q0SYUkx4jlWenb_aKveOaW16xoI8qLunu7wA58BbHr33LRIBZEl-yq4Xzadug6LiOVyiVU6wTR/s1600/%2317page5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRwQHHon63_iVFO9j95VJpmYhM51vUYzEFfgeDFdTatLq47uCHKjI8POWvkJIRPXf_e6Q0SYUkx4jlWenb_aKveOaW16xoI8qLunu7wA58BbHr33LRIBZEl-yq4Xzadug6LiOVyiVU6wTR/s1600/%2317page5.jpg" /></a></div>
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Larry bumps into the mayor, who jokes about paying the district attorney too much if he can afford tickets to an event like this. Larry explains that Wesley Dodds gave him his ticket as a gift, and the mayor introduces Larry and Dian to the wealthy elite who financed the fundraiser and Buster Calhoun's appearance. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYZEBbg22GoU7K74r4A9giRtqIzyaLv6aJ0FmcuVIp_2iGjr1sc_wQq8jm0P-PysqEIQHNCIYH-JDrJD2cBhY2KdqrXz3XeK57FDGZCI5JGb448qt1k5ghG_mphGYuus8-iW86MNDU9K7/s1600/%2317page6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYZEBbg22GoU7K74r4A9giRtqIzyaLv6aJ0FmcuVIp_2iGjr1sc_wQq8jm0P-PysqEIQHNCIYH-JDrJD2cBhY2KdqrXz3XeK57FDGZCI5JGb448qt1k5ghG_mphGYuus8-iW86MNDU9K7/s1600/%2317page6.jpg" /></a></div>
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The rich stiffs are disappointed that Wesley didn't show up and they don't even try to hide their displeasure. One of the partners, Stephen Cutler, tries to smooth the waters and converse with the D.A. and his daughter. Cutler introduces them to his daughter and business protege, Cassandra, and one of his advertising executives, Terry Stetson.<br />
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While Terry talks up a marketing campaign with the mayor, fathers and daughters chat. Larry seems fascinated that Cutler's daughter takes an active decision-making role in her father's company. Cutler reveals that he hoped Wesley Dodds would attend so they could discuss a business deal. Dian makes an excuse that her boyfriend is always working...<br />
<br />
...but when we find Wesley again, he is meditating at home. His mind is full of questions and concerns about the growing horrors of the world abroad and at home. He also worries about his personal security and solitude as Dian Belmont becomes a larger part of his private life.<br />
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That night, Karl Dechert, one of Cutler's partners from the Buster Calhoun gala, returns to his mansion with a young woman. Dechert undresses, takes out his dentures, and lights up a pipe to smoke, all the while chastising his young concubine, Sabina, for flirting with another man. Sabina, meanwhile, puts on a sexy outfit and engages in Dechert's sexy baby-talk where he treats her like a little girl in need of a spanking. This gets him hot and as he begins to have sex with her, a shadowy figure sneaks into the room...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx0O81WsEYixmbxgei6rRAR4QGk_t8wc5Whalpd7L1oa5qN1RFmGi3uTe454wzTDX92noCc40IDuteFMaYNwhP2SYR3x3BiJTqHhiIjMvprnPIZ4JnbZ4-9gYeZs5wu09mny47igoQ6Kd9/s1600/%2317page12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx0O81WsEYixmbxgei6rRAR4QGk_t8wc5Whalpd7L1oa5qN1RFmGi3uTe454wzTDX92noCc40IDuteFMaYNwhP2SYR3x3BiJTqHhiIjMvprnPIZ4JnbZ4-9gYeZs5wu09mny47igoQ6Kd9/s1600/%2317page12.jpg" /></a></div>
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Our old friend, Lieutenant Burke investigates Dechert's death, but when he questions Sabina, he rules her out as a suspect. They cops find a deep laceration on Dechert's lower back, but the girl doesn't have any blood on her nails. Burke talks up the details of the case with his chief and says the coroner ruled the cause of death as fast-acting poison. Neither Burke nor Ross, however, is away that the debriefing is being overheard by the Sandman.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLoWRrH7yEZkMZ-r9tn2jBACzO8_5U5w2Fonkhya-EtSoPITdtGGhPRlM88xve9Vyu6anBCJwQ-jzDx4Y4NgqVX-gXkKIN3lgQzsi-0oQpsMQEYatOUb4UCBobOH3Onnvrrn4tbQBg0XhY/s1600/%2317page14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLoWRrH7yEZkMZ-r9tn2jBACzO8_5U5w2Fonkhya-EtSoPITdtGGhPRlM88xve9Vyu6anBCJwQ-jzDx4Y4NgqVX-gXkKIN3lgQzsi-0oQpsMQEYatOUb4UCBobOH3Onnvrrn4tbQBg0XhY/s1600/%2317page14.jpg" /></a></div>
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The next day, Dechert's partners meet in their corporate high-rise building. After a moment of silence, Terry Stetson tells the group that the fundraising gala was a huge success. They lined up a number of backers for a project called the Foreign Oil Refinery Depository--F.O.R.D. Terry calls it. They still need one more investor, though, and everyone believes they need Wesley Dodds.<br />
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Stephen Cutler assigns his daughter and Terry the job of bringing Wesley into the project, but Terry doesn't seem too thrilled about working with a woman. For her part, Cassandra doesn't seem all that happy about working with Terry either.<br />
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Wesley brings Dian on his dinner meeting with Cassandra and Terry. He gives them the courtesy of listening to their pitch, but his mind is far, far from business. He's still thinking about the inequities of the system in how the poor seem to be getting poorer while the rich--himself included--take little notice. After dinner, he makes up an excuse about an early work day and sends Dian home alone.<br />
<br />
Terry Stetson drives Cassandra home and shows a softer more considerate side. She gives him a kiss on the cheek and seems to have softened on him a little, too.<br />
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Later, the Sandman investigates the home of Karl Dechert. Out on the balcony, he finds a symbol branded into the windowsill.<br />
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Later, Helmet Rummel, another member of Dechert's group, returns home to verbally abuse is hispanic servant. After shooting heroin, he makes the servant poor him coffee and rub his feet, but when the coffee spills he begins to beat the man. Beat him... until something lashes out and strikes his hand.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpr3Gv7yQOPF5J3w4SKCHEEvC6W7x0o5q8TepvSNQcIyYYRiNzjamrS-hvkptFW2SK7gNZe0j1i778b4S0GNhte9SxyE1zAJzZxt9JldiPCQ5bq9sJddgdDlw7ddVMGcOmJGjUp_DYlah3/s1600/%2317page25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpr3Gv7yQOPF5J3w4SKCHEEvC6W7x0o5q8TepvSNQcIyYYRiNzjamrS-hvkptFW2SK7gNZe0j1i778b4S0GNhte9SxyE1zAJzZxt9JldiPCQ5bq9sJddgdDlw7ddVMGcOmJGjUp_DYlah3/s1600/%2317page25.jpg" /></a></div>
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Who is the Scorpion--who is never called such in this issue, but still? He uses a whip and wears a western-themed outfit, which could point to the actor Buster Calhoun. On the other hand, there's Terry Stetson, whose surname is a kind of hat frequented by cowboys, and who wears western bola-style ties throughout the issue, just like the one worn by the Scorpion? Or is it possible there is another suspect, someone we haven't thought of or seen yet? I guess we'll find out.<br />
<br />
Every issue with Guy Davis on the art is a visual treat. His design for the Scorpion is period appropriate and simplistically awesome. Meanwhile, the real bad guys of the story, like Rummel and Dechert are characteristically ugly in their wicked behavior. Dechert, in particular, looks gruesome in death.<br />
<br />
Wesley's inner thoughts seem a little scattered and unfocused in this issue. I suppose that might be Wagner and Seagle's intention, but more likely I think it's because they as writers and we as readers been having so much more fun getting into Dian Belmont's head that Wesley Dodds seems a little boring by comparison. Hopefully that will pick up as the Sandman has a new costumed enemy to pursue.<br />
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Come back next week for the second act of "The Scorpion"...<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-38061352910897593142014-04-26T06:44:00.003-04:002014-04-26T06:44:23.900-04:00Sandman by Alex Toth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAYRXGTn_eZyTCx7xU2tR0iwHoPVxdZpjlkb9IujPaglYzMuXfWIJxtIAilJ0SNvbyavVvHqlOHxOQ5gmY7BpU9e7YpkkQ0unc_ep0V9jSGSKCcEd6oAFeKXDY_cfcOll31jLfodVRngQC/s1600/Sand+Alex+Toth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAYRXGTn_eZyTCx7xU2tR0iwHoPVxdZpjlkb9IujPaglYzMuXfWIJxtIAilJ0SNvbyavVvHqlOHxOQ5gmY7BpU9e7YpkkQ0unc_ep0V9jSGSKCcEd6oAFeKXDY_cfcOll31jLfodVRngQC/s1600/Sand+Alex+Toth.jpg" height="640" width="412" /></a></div>
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This wonderful and mysterious Sandman drawing is by <b>Alex Toth</b>. I don't know if it took Toth more than six minutes to finish this image, but I love it!</div>
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While searching the Interwebs for more Sandman art, I came across this image by <b>Colton Worley</b>, done in the style of/as an homage to the above Toth drawing.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyhGNs-06hymzJx-3a1NSJ_yOAVjzxpEXWrJLO4UvlHC4zD51d7_TKtXmM2PB6nUXV43RXQq5htieJITZrmVYZQv0CcauTRYnNMBy1Or0mszlS9bIRQ3B3kkHqm0aePicn1W0_lySSbpMr/s1600/Sand+Colton+Worley+after+Toth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyhGNs-06hymzJx-3a1NSJ_yOAVjzxpEXWrJLO4UvlHC4zD51d7_TKtXmM2PB6nUXV43RXQq5htieJITZrmVYZQv0CcauTRYnNMBy1Or0mszlS9bIRQ3B3kkHqm0aePicn1W0_lySSbpMr/s1600/Sand+Colton+Worley+after+Toth.jpg" height="640" width="434" /></a></div>
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Check out the <a href="http://www.tothfans.com/" target="_blank">Official Alex Toth Website</a> for more of his work, and <a href="http://coltonworleyartist.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Worley's blog</a> for more pulp- and noir-inspired images, too!</div>
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Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-54979913653810485002014-04-19T10:54:00.002-04:002014-04-19T10:54:19.224-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #16 (July 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38H2TzTDwOsFi5bD0Un7whCo9phA2I1P5LECRk4IqSoOmTXfBE1mPHfqRqjtqIn74NpnozNDG_B-BOMIXKaAcogZdKbx3gARAczIH_OJWgsf_8VqrTLt9bgTy_WVXjtECAk7uyNgOMjwg/s1600/%2316cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg38H2TzTDwOsFi5bD0Un7whCo9phA2I1P5LECRk4IqSoOmTXfBE1mPHfqRqjtqIn74NpnozNDG_B-BOMIXKaAcogZdKbx3gARAczIH_OJWgsf_8VqrTLt9bgTy_WVXjtECAk7uyNgOMjwg/s1600/%2316cover.jpg" height="640" width="408" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #16: "The Vamp" Act Four</b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
<br />
When the final act of "The Vamp" begins, the Sandman has just been shot by the mysterious woman behind the grisly murders of several former fraternity brothers. The vigilante staggers backward and falls to the floor. The killer goes to inspect the semi-conscious body of Barry Smithers, one of the Phi Delta boys she's been targeting for death by exsanguination.<br />
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But while the Vamp is distracted with Barry, the Sandman draws enough strength to raise his gas gun and fire one desperate shot.<br />
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<i>Damn</i>, he cauterizes his gunshot wound with a fireplace poker--pretty hardcore for the masked crime fighter!<br />
<br />
In a poorer, rougher part of New York, Dian Belmont continues her surveillance of her friend, Carol Swanson. Last time we saw her follow Carol to someone's apartment, and whatever Carol did inside was quite shocking to Dian.<br />
<br />
A few hours later, Dian spies Carol leaving the apartment. Rather than follow her friend, Dian goes upstairs to confront the person inside. Said person happens to be <i>one</i> of Carol's lesbian lovers, but whereas Carol's relationship with Madeline Giles seems more recent and emotionally unhealthy, Carol has been sleeping with this woman, in secret, for half her life. The lover mistakes Dian for a jealous competitor come to fight over Carol when, in fact, Dian asks her if she thinks Carol might be involved or know something about the recent wave of murders.<br />
<br />
The lover scoffs at the notion of Carol's involvement and says the only thing Carol is guilty of his trying to find a rich man to give her a better life.<br />
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Back in the cabin, the wounded Wesley Dodds wakes and interrogates the drugged Barry Smithers. He asks him about "hell night" and Barry confirms what a clever reader would have already known, or at least suspected. Back in college, the Phi Delta boys had a little too much fun with one of their sorority counterparts. Possibly as many as thirty of the frat boys took turns raping the girl, who just so happens to be--not really a surprise at all--Madeline Giles.<br />
<br />
Wesley calls Dian at home looking for a way to contact Maddy. Thinking she's being rudely and obviously passed over for a sexier option, Dian bitterly refuses to help Wesley find her. Thus, the Sandman must seek out someone else who knows Maddy Giles, which brings him to Carol Swanson. He rouses and questions her, all while he's dangerously close to going into shock or collapsing from blood loss.<br />
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Carol tells him that Maddy and her friends own land upstate and he hobbles away in agony.<br />
<br />
The next morning, Police Lieutenant Burke catches up with Barry Smithers and asks where he was after he slipped his police tail last night. Barry lies, claiming he was with a woman he met some time ago named Carmilla Jones. Burke goes to follow up on the alibi, but when he knocks on <i>Carmilla</i>'s door, he finds Maddy Giles. Of course, Burke doesn't know her by that name, but he sure recognizes her as the Vamp he met at the Congo Club a few nights before, the same woman who scratched his face when he tried to arrest her.<br />
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Let's see if this encounter will go better for the lieutenant...<br />
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<br />
...Nope, the Vamp draws <i>second</i> blood on Burke and manages to bolt past him. But a cursory canvas of her apartment reveals a picture of Maddy's sorority friends, including the Congo Club's manager, Sally Star.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Dian has grown tired of Wesley ignoring her phone calls and the inexplicable distance he's kept from her, so she goes directly to see him, barging past Humphries the manservant and up to Wesley's bedroom.<br />
<br />
Wesley barely has time to throw a robe over his bandaged abdomen before Dian gets in his face about his interest in Maddy. The only way he can settle her down is by confessing to <i>part</i> of the truth: Wes tells Dian that in his spare time he dabbles in "amateur sleuthing". Just as a mental exercise, he insists, and tells her that he's been investigating the club murders and found their connection to the fraternity and to Madeline Giles.<br />
<br />
Dian feels foolish for acting irrationally jealous and Wesley reassures her of his honest affection for her. Then she springs on him.<br />
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Hiding his fierce physical pain and the bloody bandaging on his stomach, Wesley pleasures Dian until she falls asleep in his bed, freeing him up to sneak out and continue his search for Maddy.<br />
<br />
In her hasty flight, Maddy went to Carol Swanson's apartment so Carol could join the sorority girls in their exodus to the upstate hideaway. But Carol finally stands up to Maddy, saying she doesn't feel the same way and she doesn't want to leave with her. Carol doesn't realize how dangerous Maddy is, but she learns pretty quickly.<br />
<br />
When the Sandman returns to Carol's place, she is tied naked to her bed, having been partially drained of blood. She's far from lucid and speaking to the Sandman as if he's Maddy still in the room, which is convenient for him because she spills the details of Maddy's escape plan.<br />
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At the same time, Dian wakes up alone in Wesley's bed. Finding him no longer at home, she dresses and races to Carol's apartment to check on her friend. She arrives to find the Sandman lurking over her blood-drained friend.<br />
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<br />
Dian protests but Carol tells her to let him go so he can stop Maddy.<br />
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But the Sandman might not get the first crack at catching the Vamp...<br />
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<br />
As Lieutenant Burke is about to arrest Maddy, however, another sorority girl, Debra, steps out from the shadows and puts a gun to Burke's head. She makes him drop the gun, and Maddy picks it up. Before the Vamp kills Burke with his own weapon, though, the Sandman arrives and blasts Debra and Burke with his gas gun.<br />
<br />
Debra gets a full-face full and passes out instantly. Burke gets a partial dose; enough to knock him back and make him groggy and imbalanced, but not enough to render him unconscious. Maddy shoots at the Sandman, who dives behind the car for cover. Burke picks up Debra's gun and despite his diminished senses, manages to get off a shot that strikes Maddy, killing her.<br />
<br />
As Madeline Giles dies, she asks Sally to take the blood they drained from her victims to consecrate their land upstate. Burke recovers, but by the time he's up on his feet the Sandman is gone.<br />
<br />
The next morning, District Attorney Belmont wakes Dian and tells her Wesley Dodds called for her. She calls him back, telling him she's been thinking about last night.<br />
<br />
All told, "The Vamp" was a really enjoyable arc, but this last issue sort of let it down. A significant and delightful element of this series has been the growth of Dian Belmont, especially when she chooses to be proactive and a little reckless. It seemed like this was going to be the story where she really puts on her detective cap and makes a big case herself.<br />
<br />
However, in this issue, she pretty much abandons her detective work to obsess over her boyfriend. She gets jealous and then throws herself at him when he sugar talks her, but she isn't even keen-eyed enough to realize that he's been grievously wounded. And she hardly responds to his confession about being an amateur detective; that's what she's been doing and she doesn't even react to him sharing that bit of himself. I was a little disappointed to see her going from independent private investigator to leading man's love-interest so quickly and anti-climactically.<br />
<br />
Well, <i>erm</i>, I guess there was a climax for her...<br />
<br />
On the other hand, it was a refreshing change to see Burke actually do some detective work and crack the case on his own. True, he would have been dead were it not for the Sandman's intervention, but he found the killer once and then set a trap for her. He got his woman, and then of course things wen't awful, but he still ended up gunning her down when the time came. Good on him, I guess.<br />
<br />
One final thing that I found clever of Wagner's script: Barry identifies the Vamp to Lieutenant Burke by the alias of Carmilla Jones. <i>Carmilla</i> is the name of a vampire story by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, and Maddy's mode of killing her victims involves draining all of their blood, much like a vampire. Even the name "vamp" ties into it. It's a nice little touch for a well-read reader.<br />
<br />
Come back in two weeks for the first act of "The Scorpion"...<br />
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<i>Curtain.</i></div>
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Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-21299989767084160542014-04-12T19:59:00.002-04:002014-04-12T19:59:37.823-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #15 (June 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #15: "The Vamp" Act Three</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
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<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
<br />
The third part of "The Vamp" opens with Dian Belmont waking up and coming down to breakfast served by her father's maid. Again Dian is confronted by an overwhelming feeling of indirection and misplaced talents. She hates watching the world pass by without her involvement. She craves action.<br />
<br />
As she's longing for something to pique her interest, her father, the district attorney, is called away to investigate the murder. And the victim is another young, former frat boy with a club connection to the previous victims.<br />
<br />
Dian calls her college friend, Carol, who doesn't answer the phone because she's out meeting her friend, Madeline Giles. Maddy, though, isn't alone; she's hosting a whole group of her old sorority sisters, all friends of Carol's.<br />
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Maddy isn't only sleeping with Carol, but with Sally and the rest of the women in their group. And they're buying some property upstate to separate from men's rules and society. Amazons, perhaps?<br />
<br />
Across town, Lieutenant Burke visits the Delta Phi boys at their club to ask them once again what they know about the murders of their brothers. Burke gets little cooperation from the snobbish pricks. One of the boys, Barry, starts to cooperate with the questions, but the other brothers cut him off. They throw their money and society status around until Burke gets annoyed and storms out.<br />
<br />
Once Burke leaves, the brothers start fighting with each other. Barry posits the question that the murders may have something to do with an event he calls "Hell Night".<br />
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<br />
Dian stops Carol in front of her apartment. Carol, expecting or dreading Maddy, is flustered by Dian's sudden appearance and the news she brings that one of her old college friends was murdered. Carol gets in the elevator, leaving Dian with a lot of questions and suspicions about what her friend may be hiding.<br />
<br />
Amateur sleuth Dian goes to the Congo Club to see Sally Starr, the manager and one of Carol's sorority sisters. Dian asks about the both the club and the sorority's connection to the Delta Phi boys who have been getting bumped off. When her questions start hitting a little too close for comfort, Sally makes an excuse to leave.<br />
<br />
Dian leaves, not noticing Lt. Burke sitting at the bar. Acting on information he got from the bartender last time, Burke is staking out the bar looking for the "Vamp". He doesn't wait long before a familiar blonde comes around, and it doesn't take much more than a hello before she's dragging him outside.<br />
<br />
The Vamp feels him up in the alley, and then Burke pull out his badge. Naturally, she's not going down that easily.<br />
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<br />
So the Vamp isn't a natural blonde? Hmm...<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Dian goes to Wesley Dodd's house to tell him what she knows and what she suspects about the murders. He tells her to be cautious and give the information to her father, but also shows real encouragement and understanding of her desire to get involved. This understanding is enough of a turn-on that Dian throws herself right at Wesley.<br />
<br />
Surprisingly, Wesley resists her, making up lame excuses they shouldn't go to bed this night and then he brushes her out of his house. Immediately, Wesley slips off into the secret lair of the Sandman, but Dian comes back only a few minutes later to retrieve the purse she forgot. Wesley's butler answers the door and tells her Wesley isn't at home.<br />
<br />
Dian knows Wesley was just there and then left the house as soon as she went away. She's more confused and frustrated with the man than ever before, and wonders if he blew her off to go be with someone else, someone like Maddy Giles.<br />
<br />
The next day, Dian Belmont, Lady Detective, starts to tail Carol herself. She follows her friend around the city, shopping at stores, dyeing her hair blonde, getting lunch. Dian gets a taxi to follow Carol to the Lower East Side, a neighborhood she wouldn't imagine Carol ever being caught dead in. But Carol goes to an apartment building, knocks on a door, and goes inside. Dian can't see who her friend went inside to meet, so she starts climbing around the outside of the apartment.<br />
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<br />
Whatever Dian sees inside the room is quite shocking, but we'll have to wait until next issue to find out what.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Burke goes back to the office where his boss tells him that one of the Delta Phi brothers slipped the police surveillance that was following him.<br />
<br />
The man in question is Barry Smithers, the same guy who wanted to tell Burke about Hell Night. Barry has hidden himself away at a cabin upstate. He's started a fire to fight the cold while he waits for a visitor, but he's not expecting the Sandman.<br />
<br />
The Sandman asks about Hell Night, but Barry doesn't want to answer now.<br />
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<br />
Are there no natural blondes in this story? The Vamp wears a wig and Carol colors her hair. It was already pretty obvious that there was something dark and shifty about Madeline Giles. Should we suspect her now, knowing that the Vamp isn't a real blonde?<br />
<br />
What is Hell Night? What did the Delta Phi brothers do that they believe was "tradition" that some of them are now paying the ultimate price for? Did they victimize one of the women in their sister sorority, who now stalks them and punishes them mercilessly for the crime committed years ago?<br />
<br />
Lastly, what did Dian see through that window and how will it change her life? She may not have a badge, but she is a detective? Her character is a bit of an adrenaline junky. She lives for the excitement, the thrill of danger that comes with tracking killers and maniacs. And every case she involves herself on brings her closer to the identity of the Sandman. How long will it take before she learns the truth about the man she loves?<br />
<br />
Come back next week for the fourth and final act of "The Vamp"...<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-22873436121100865682014-04-05T00:00:00.000-04:002014-04-05T00:00:02.432-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #14 (May 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLJKDkIIzI1iFUdCMxZAuQngoUp5rngeuGEEJPULzfgKD5DDuwzABc7uBjY29TaHd-NdoGEGO6pgCbbqaav9xBKgSZ_qayh82CA52dJjDs123-uUrpfKcUaAhyphenhyphenDzsY1SuAbCQrBIQhd8Z/s1600/%2314cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbLJKDkIIzI1iFUdCMxZAuQngoUp5rngeuGEEJPULzfgKD5DDuwzABc7uBjY29TaHd-NdoGEGO6pgCbbqaav9xBKgSZ_qayh82CA52dJjDs123-uUrpfKcUaAhyphenhyphenDzsY1SuAbCQrBIQhd8Z/s1600/%2314cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #14: "The Vamp" Act Two</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
<br />
"The Vamp" story arc picks up with Wesley Dodds and Dian Belmont having a dinner at the Congo Club so Wesley can investigate the place's connection to the a murder wherein the victim was drained of his blood and had certain orifices sewn shut. Wesley and Dian's dinner is interrupted by the appearance of Maddy Giles, an alumna of Dian's old college and the lover of Dian's friend, Carol.<br />
<br />
Wesley seems charmed by Maddy, which doesn't please Dian at all. Wesley excuses himself to use the bathroom but actually goes into the adjoining hotel to find out about its management.<br />
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When Wesley returns to the table, Dian calls him on being gone for so long. The bathroom wasn't that far away, so she knows he's lying about something.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, upstairs in the hotel, the police find the latest gruesome corpse, who suffered from dozens of piercings by what the coroner suspects was a catheter pin.<br />
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An officer shows Lieutenant Burke some blood-covered towels and tells him the killer took a shower after the murder. As Burke leaves the hotel, Dian and Wesley catch him. Dian, being the snoop that she is, asks about the police presence. Burke tells them about the murder and that he has to go interview the bartender from the Congo Club.<br />
<br />
After Burke leaves, Wesley tells Dian he needs to work and ends their date. He gets her a taxi and makes a halfhearted excuse for blowing her off. She's none too thrilled about his sudden lack of interest in her.<br />
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The bartender eventually remembers the murder victim and tells Lieutenant Burke that the victim was buying drinks for "the Vamp". He describes the woman in general-but-attractive terms, but emphasizes her smile--"a smile that kinda sucks you in."<br />
<br />
Wesley eavesdrops on the bartender's questioning with some of the Sandman's surveillance equipment, but when the bouncer of the Congo Club spots him in the alley, Wesley has to make an abrupt exit.<br />
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Dian's father, District Attorney Larry Belmont, is surprised to see her home so early from her date. She tells her dad about Wesley blowing her off and about the latest murder she learned about from Burke. Belmont goes to call in about the case while offering consolation to his daughter, saying he always found Wesley a bit strange. She agrees.<br />
<br />
The next day, Dian and her friend Carol go shopping. Dian tries to talk about her charity work with the United Way but Carol seems only interested in the discounts at Bloomingdales. They're met by two more of Carol's sorority sisters, Debbie and Sally.<br />
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Not only does Sally manage the Congo Club, but she's got some insanely fierce green eyes. Is every woman in this comic but Dian terrifying?<br />
<br />
The ladies go for a drink and gossip about Maddy Giles. Dian feels shut out by their cliquishness and cattiness. This is the second time she's felt ignored in the last day, so she decides to go right to Wesley's house and confront the problem. She tells Wesley about some of her discomfort around Carol's friends.<br />
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As she talks, she notices his origami foldings... and then the doll...<br />
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That night, Burke goes to consult with the coroner, who confirms that the latest victim was killed by the same woman as whoever killed Trevor Barnes. The two enter the coroner's office, only to discover the Sandman there leafing through the crime report.<br />
<br />
The Sandman knocks out the light, plunging the room into darkness. Burke shoves the coroner out into the hallway and tells him to go for help. No stranger to the Sandman's knockout gases, Burke covers his mouth and ducks low. The Sandman turns on a desk fan and Burke opens fire. The Sandman tries to spray him but Burke dodges.<br />
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The Sandman throws Burke hard to the floor, grabs the coroner's report, and runs out of the burning room. Cursing the masked vigilante, Burke grabs the fire extinguisher to put out the blaze.<br />
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Elsewhere, Carol comes home when she's met by Maddy Giles who engages her in a deep kiss that takes them all the way up to Carol's bed. After they make love, Maddy leaves for a mysterious kind of work that she doesn't specify.<br />
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Dian goes to her dad's office but the D.A. isn't there. She sits at his desk and starts flipping through the file on Barnes and the new victim. Burke comes in and takes the report, scolding her for bugging into police business and "men's business affairs".<br />
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Later, in Central Park, a young man is having a pleasant and passionate night with a blonde woman. They leave the horse drawn carriage and she leads him to a secluded park bench.<br />
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And, of course, it's a trap!<br />
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<br />
This chapter has a few really exciting moments. The first is the fight between The Sandman and Lieutenant Burke in the coroner's office.<br />
<br />
I've lost count how many times Burke has been gassed by the mystery man, but it's really nice to see him anticipate the Sandman's attack and avoid being sprayed by the gas-gun. Throughout the series, we've seen Burke be racist, sexist, homophobic, and violent; pretty much every despicable characteristic for an authority figure who isn't outright villainous. But I think this is the first time we've seen Burke look really smart and competent. True, the Sandman gets the best of him in this latest confrontation, but not without resorting to some desperate tricks and leaving his jacket and hat behind.<br />
<br />
Guy Davis' art in the fight scene is incredible. He really captures the confinement and clumsiness of fighting in such an enclosed space with obstacles like desks, chairs, fans, and trashcans. On the other hand, I don't think David Hornung's colors work as well for this fight. The lighting doesn't really change after the Sandman busts the lightbulb, so it's a little confusing at first that Burke doesn't see the Sandman hiding.<br />
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The second great moment is when Dian Belmont finds Wesley Dodds' doll, the totem he puts in his bed when he goes out as the Sandman. She recognizes its similarity but cannot remember the masked face of the Sandman. But it's there, and she will make the connection soon. Throughout the issue, she is confronted by Wesley's lies, his secretiveness, and his strangeness. Dian is no dummy and this feels like the beginning of her discovery that Wesley Dodds is the Sandman. Will it happen in this story arc? There are still two more chapters to see.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Come back next week for the third act of "The Vamp"...<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-58852300718833179392014-03-29T00:00:00.000-04:002014-06-06T19:46:29.609-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #13 (April 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNvAg4ebGFMdStgRJAYhXEFUqmsWE1hTFf9-CJbk5aW_0567edJ1eVYMrXd7_YE3cc7HODa-a8bAfzhjygdcAzFZ7Z3tsJUwPni6WMXR9-4nscQRGn1Ny6iYmPJpVCyP9WUfRx6axEO53T/s1600/%2313cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNvAg4ebGFMdStgRJAYhXEFUqmsWE1hTFf9-CJbk5aW_0567edJ1eVYMrXd7_YE3cc7HODa-a8bAfzhjygdcAzFZ7Z3tsJUwPni6WMXR9-4nscQRGn1Ny6iYmPJpVCyP9WUfRx6axEO53T/s1600/%2313cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #13: "The Vamp" Act One</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner & Steven T. Seagle</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
<br />
The fourth story arc of <i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i>, entitled "The Vamp" welcomes <b>Guy Davis</b> back to the book on art duty and brings <b>Steven T. Seagle</b> aboard as Matt Wagner's cowriter.<br />
<br />
The story opens with a sex scene. Or, the moments just before a sex scene, anyway. A couple enters a bedroom, kissing and fondling each other. The blonde woman is more than forward but aggressive. After biting the man's lip, she demands he take his clothes off and invites him to touch her.<br />
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She also insists on being on top, but when she gets there, things take a turn for the young man...<br />
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The men dressed in black tie him down and gag him. They tie off his arm, stick a needle in his arm, and begin draining his blood into glass jars. But that's only the start of the horror for the young man. Before he loses consciousness from blood loss, the blonde pulls out a needle and thread. <i>What is she sewing?</i> We'll have to wait a couple pages to find out.<br />
<br />
Across town in Harlem, Dian Belmont goes to a swinging jazz club called Voodoo to meet some of her girlfriends from college. Dian narrates this story, something she did during the second arc, and begins by insinuating there are parts of her life--certain decisions and choices--that she keeps from her father, the district attorney, in order to protect him. The girls ask about Dian's Chinese-American boyfriend, Jimmy Shan, and she tells them they broke up a while ago. She tells them she has a new man in her life, but won't tell them anymore, like his name for example.<br />
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Dian's friend, Betsy invites the ladies out behind the club to try something "a little daring".<br />
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After the ladies have smoked up and gotten high, they return to the club. Betsy dances the jitterbug, Trudy passes out at the table, and Dian and Carol laugh about ridiculous things and one of Carol's racist comments.<br />
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Naturally, after they do drugs, they kiss. Carol leaves like it's no big deal, but Dian stays there to sober up a little before going home.<br />
<br />
When she does get home, her father is on the way out, having been called out to deal with the crime we saw in the issue's opening scene. He tells her the victim was named Trevor Barnes and he might have been a college classmate of Dian's. She definitely recognizes the name.<br />
<br />
At the police station, Ross and Lieutenant Burke brief the D.A. on the victim, who was drained of 90% of his blood and had his lips, nostrils and urethra sewn shut. (<i>Yikes... That hurts just thinking about it!</i>) Also in the office is a janitor... or maybe not!<br />
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<br />
Dian wakes up late the next day. On her way out of the house, she meets Wesley Dodds who came to take her to lunch. They walk the street for a while and she tells him about smoking marijuana the night before. Wes admits to having tried it in the past. Despite his insistence that he doesn't like to alter his mental state with drugs or alcohol, he says he has tried it; he just didn't like it.<br />
<br />
Running late, Dian takes a raincheck on their lunch date so she can go see her friend Carol. Dian wanted to discuss a fundraiser for the United Way, but when she arrives at Carol's apartment, her friend isn't alone. Also there is another college acquaintance of theirs, a Madeline "Maddy" Giles. Maddy gives off a creepy vibe that has nothing to do with homosexuality and everything to do with obsessive jealousy. Every time Dian starts to suggest something for the fundraiser, Maddy criticizes the idea, even though she wanted no part in the conversation.<br />
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Eventually, much to Dian's relief, Maddy decides to leave.<br />
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<br />
In a much more affluent part of the city, Lt. Burke visits a private club frequented by Trevor Barnes. He arrives in time for a careful reader to read the set-up to a punchline delivered ten pages earlier. The gentlemen at the club Burke talks to are all rich society snobs who looked down at Barnes for being <i>nouveau riche</i>. They likewise look down at Burke for his Sicilian ancestry and offer little in the way of factual help in the case.<br />
<br />
Not used to being treated so dismissively, Burke takes his rage out on someone he can get away with hurting, like the manager of the hotel where Barnes died. He slaps the guy around until he gives up that Barnes came in every week with a different girl, so he might have been targeted specifically by the killer.<br />
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Unbeknownst to Burke, the Sandman is on the building's roof, using a listening device to spy on the interrogation.<br />
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<br />
The Sandman jumps across the fire escape and enters the room adjacent to where Barnes was killed. He searches the room and finds a box of matches from a joint called Club Congo.<br />
<br />
At the same club, we see the familiar blonde woman from the opening scene sitting alone at the bar. She's not alone for long, though, as a bold gentleman buys her a drink. She wastes no time inviting him to go someplace close for sex.<br />
<br />
Burke goes to interview a woman who Barnes used to sleep with regularly at the hotel. At the mere suggestion of her involvement in his death, the woman throws her drink, missing Burke by a foot. He instantly rules her out as a suspect, given how drunk and uncoordinated she is.<br />
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Back at Club Congo, Wesley Dodds treats Dian to a dinner at a place she never would have expected to see him.<br />
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<br />
Dian is charmed by his deflection, but before she can pry any deeper into his life, they're interrupted by the sudden appearance of Maddy Giles, the woman from Carol's apartment.<br />
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<br />
First thoughts right off the bat: damn, it's good to have Guy Davis back on this series. Neither of the previous two artists were bad, but neither were they Davis. Neither of them captured the beautiful-ugliness that he does so well. His facial expressions are a hundred times more expressive than most artists working at the time or today. His lines and shadows, along with Hornung's colors create a truly horrific opening scene where the sex scene becomes a torturous murder.<br />
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The "vamp" in the title would suggest a provocative woman, or part of a jazz song, but given the prominence of blood and stealing it away by the killers also suggests a vampire connection, whether literal or figurative. I'm looking forward to seeing where that goes.<br />
<br />
Finally, Matt Wagner is joined by Steven T. Seagle who would contribute to the storytelling for the rest of the series. I have no idea how these guys worked together or what the division of writing labor may have been. All I know is Wagner worked on the first sixty of the book's seventy issues, and Seagle worked with him and then wrote the last ten by himself. In any event, they worked wonders together and made an already amazing comic unbeatable.<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Come back next week for the second act of "The Vamp"...<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-31455703014017146012014-03-22T13:10:00.002-04:002014-06-06T19:46:48.536-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #12 (March 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #12: "The Brute" Act Four</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by R.G. Taylor</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
<br />
The final act of "The Brute" opens after an unspeakable evil occurred. Not only did Eddie Ramsey have his hand smashed to a bloody pulp by the titular Brute, but he returned to his hideaway to find that his young daughter Emily was raped by the old tramp who had been staying with them.<br />
<br />
Mr. Schenck is garbage diving for food scraps under the bridge. As if we didn't know that Schenck is a monster for molesting a child, he drops the N-bomb so we can really hate him. And that's when Ramsey catches him. Schenck vehemently denies whatever Emily said he did to her, but he makes the classic liar's mistake of denying it before he's been accused of it. Ramsey never said anything about Emily, so the denial is actual confirmation. And he does a Jason Todd Special on the wicked Mr. Schenck.<br />
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Back at the Riesling Estate, the hoods who enforce Arthur Riesling's illicit deeds coax the brutish thing back to the boathouse where it dwells. The goons treat "her" like a mindless animal, but Riesling's eldest son, Dennis, defends the Brute and sends the men away.<br />
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Wesley Dodds, who had snuck away from the illegal fights in Riesling's mansion, sneaks over to the boathouse and spies on Dennis and the she-thing. He witnesses Dennis feed the woman, give her a doll to comfort her, and generally treat her like a child. After that, Wesley returns to the mansion and finds Arthur Riesling. He apologizes for missing the rest of the fights but insinuates he will strongly consider investing in Riesling's business venture.<br />
<br />
As Wes leaves the house, however, Dian Belmont arrives. She has come to solicit a donation for the United Way charity. By now, all of Riesling's guests have left, as well as most of his servants. He leads her to his private study... and locks the door behind them. She's immediately uncomfortable, but tries to be diplomatic and kind, staying focused on business and talking about the charity. Riesling isn't interested in that, and makes it pretty obvious that he wants something else.<br />
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He feels up her legs and takes her resistance as playfulness.<br />
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Dian slaps him. But Arthur Riesling is not a man accustomed to being denied. He explodes and begins to choke her, calling her names and threatening to rape her. But ever-resourceful Dian knees him in the groin and then brains him with an ashtray on the table. Dian leaves the house as Riesling curses her, wallowing in pain.<br />
<br />
The scene is witnessed by Riesling's young twin sons, and from the sounds of their dialogue, this isn't the first time they've spied on their father taking advantage of some woman.<br />
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Meanwhile, Wesley's nights are filled with dark dreams.<br />
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<br />
Humphries the butler wakes Wes to let him know that Dian is downstairs. Wes comes down, apologizing for being late and inattentive, when he sees Dian crying. She tells him that Riesling tried to force himself on her, but she fought him off. Wes, normally so guarded and controlled, gives voice to his outrage!<br />
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<br />
Dian settles him down and Wes comforts her. They kiss passionately, but Wes breaks it off, not wanting to take advantage of Dian's moment of vulnerability. She doesn't seem all that vulnerable, though, as she pushes in to kiss him again. Wes invites her to stay over, but she declines. She doesn't want to spoil what would be their night of bliss by associating it with the despicable event that sent her to Wes' house and into his arms.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Eddie Ramsey and his daughter go to a diner to meet a man named Tully. An associate of Ramsey's, Tully doesn't believe the lies Riesling spread about Ramsey and agrees to help by giving him a gun. The gun, however, is old, rusted, broken, and looks like it would have trouble firing at all. Tully asks why Ramsey needs the gun. Ramsey says for protection.<br />
<br />
Back at the Riesling Estate, the Sandman visits the boathouse and fires his sleeping gas gun at the Brute, which he describes as having the mind of a child and the structure of a monster. Then Dennis Riesling enters with a tray of food for the Brute to discover her tied up unconscious. The Sandman confronts him, and Dennis reveals that the Brute is a woman named Maria. She's his sister.<br />
<br />
Dennis tells the Sandman that Maria was born very beautiful but that she was an illegitimate child, much like himself, and describes them both as the products of his father's unquenchable lust for women. His mother was not capable of raising the children adequately.<br />
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<br />
Another example of the horrors men and women inflict on innocent children.<br />
<br />
At the townhouse of the district attorney, Larry Belmont is enjoying a quiet night at home with his daughter, Dian, when he gets a call from the police chief. The Sandman phoned in a tip drawing the cops to the Riesling Estate. In no mood to sit around waiting to hear the story recounted later, Dian hails a taxi and follows her father to the scene.<br />
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<br />
Arthur Riesling hosts gangster Francesco Gamboni for a major drug purchase at his home. But when one of the mob goons brings the heroin into the room, he is gunned down--by Eddie Ramsey, who has broken into Riesling's home with his daughter. Ramsey shoots Riesling's servant and then holds his hated enemy and the mob boss at gunpoint.<br />
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Then the Sandman appears trying to protect Ramsey from self-destruction.<br />
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<br />
Ramsey fires two more shots, one that hits Dennis Ramsey in the face, killing him, and one that causes the shoddy weapon to misfire and explode, destroying Ramsey's one good hand. Unable to defend himself, the wounded Maria grabs Eddie Ramsey and breaks his neck.<br />
<br />
Then Maria is shot and killed by Gamboni.<br />
<br />
Then Arthur Riesling shoots Gamboni for killing his daughter.<br />
<br />
Then the Sandman shoots Riesling... but only with his gas gun.<br />
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By the time Dial Belmont arrives in her taxi, the police have swarmed the house. Riesling is in custody, and just about everyone else is dead. Except for the Sandman and young Emily Ramsey. Sandman tells Dian not to go into the house; she'll find only death there. He puts Emily in Dian's arms and asks her to make sure the child gets the treatment and help she needs. Then the masked man disappears into the night.<br />
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The next day, Wesley Dodds and Dian enjoy a carriage ride in Central Park and she recounts the events of the night to her boyfriend. She tells him that Riesling was buying heroin from the mob to sell to college campuses on the West Coast. But when the police arrived, the Sandman had tossed the satchel of drugs into the fireplace and disappeared with the money.<br />
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Wes asks if she thinks the Sandman kept all that money and Dian reveals that an "anonymous benefactor" set up a trust fund for Emily Ramsey with the money from the drug deal.<br />
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Out of the horror and tragedy that befalls many innocent lives in this story, some goodness shines through and bright. Despite her violation and the loss of her father, Emily will be well taken care of financially. And from Dian's near sexual assault, her infatuation with Wesley and flourished into a full on romance. They almost sleep together in this issue, and seem perfectly happy and flirtatious with each other.<br />
<br />
In spite of the darkness of this tale, I really enjoyed "The Brute" storyline. I think if Guy Davis had drawn this story arc, it might be my favorite of the three arcs so far. Taylor's art is great, but Davis' art is better.</div>
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<br />
Come back next week for the first act of a new tale called "The Vamp"...<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-82206771574852278872014-03-15T00:00:00.000-04:002014-03-15T00:00:00.882-04:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #11 (Feb 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #11: "The Brute" Act Three</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by R.G. Taylor</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i><br />
<br />
The third act of "The Brute" begins with Dian Belmont following Wesley Dodds' advice to meet with Judge Thomas Schaffer in order to learn more about children's charities.</div>
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For all of Dian's progressive thinking and open-mindedness toward other cultures and people, she comes off sounding naive regarding child abuse and neglect. Then again, she's a young socialite and all of her friends are young, rich, and childless, so perhaps this is a part of society's dark half of which Dian truly has no knowledge.<br />
<br />
And in that bleak, harsh realm of society where children starve we find former prize fighter Eddie Ramsey returning to the junkyard shack where he and his daughter have holed up with an old tramp named Mr. Schenck. Ramsey's daughter is sick with a persistent bronchial condition and needs expensive medicine to treat it. Ramsey encourages her to finish the medicine, telling her he got a new job and will be able to afford more.<br />
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Ramsey admits to Schenck that he lied about getting a job; he's in a pretty desperate situation now, unable to afford food and medicine while also hiding out from mob goons who want to kill him.<br />
<br />
<i>Is it classist or prejudicial of me that hearing little Emily say the old, dirty man plays "silly games" with her while Ramsey's away? That line set off my weird/creepy sensor.</i><br />
<br />
In a much more affluent part of the city, Wesley Dodds goes to the office of Arthur Riesling who has asked Dodds to invest in a research expedition to Antarctica. Wesley suspects Riesling of illegal activities, including--among other things--underground fights. He thanks Riesling for giving his friend Judge Schaffer tickets to a boxing match a few days earlier, and tries to entice Riesling into revealing his connection with less lawful sport.<br />
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As Wesley leaves Riesling's office, the older man is visited by his son, Dennis. The younger Riesling says they have a problem with "Maria" that is getting harder to control. The last time we saw Dennis Riesling, he was summoning the giant, ugly "Brute" into a car with a whistle. Is this hulking brute-thing Maria? And from the sounds of Dennis' cryptic dialogue, the brute might be Arthur Riesling's daughter, or his responsibility in some other fashion. Riesling is outraged that his son brought this business to his office. He slaps his son and tells him to leave. All of this is witnessed by Wesley lurking outside the office.<br />
<br />
Across town, Eddie Ramsey has found work as a laborer unloading freight. But when he goes to collect his pay, he's dismayed to only receive $1.20 for ten hours of hard physical work. The paymaster is unsympathetic and tells him to take it or find another job.<br />
<br />
Arthur Riesling drives to Harlem to meet with a known gangster named Francesco Gamboni. They make some racist comments and then get to business. It seems that Riesling approached the Gamboni family about buying a large shipment of heroin, but he's having trouble raising the money to pay for it at the moment. That's why Riesling wanted to get money from Wesley. Riesling assures the gangster that he will have the money raised within the week.<br />
<br />
Neither of them realize that the Sandman is spying on this meeting, using a listening device dangling down the building's chimney.<br />
<br />
Desperate for money, Ramsey goes back to his old gym to ask his trainer, Mel, if he can get him back in the ring. Mel is disgusted and wants nothing to do with Ramsey. Someone has been spreading the word to all the local gyms that Ramsey worked for the mob selling drugs to blacks in Harlem. No trainer or fight organizer will every work with Ramsey now.<br />
<br />
Devastated, he starts to leave when he overhears Arthur Riesling talking to another fighter. Riesling invites the fighter to one of his underground, bare-knuckle fights. After that, Ramsey returns to the shack to see Emily and Mr. Schenck. He spent the money he earned working on food and the three of them eat heartily.<br />
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Francesco Gamboni tells his father about the deal he made with Riesling, and then catches a taxi to take him out of Harlem. This taxi driver, however, wears a gas mask.<br />
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Dian Belmont invites Wesley Dodds to her home and tells him that she's taken up work for The United Way collecting donations for their charity. Without hesitation, Wesley writes her a check for three-hundred dollars and encourages her to reach out to her wealthy friends for more donations. After Wesley leaves, Dian calls the richest man she knows, Arthur Riesling, who she met a few days earlier at his St. Patricks's Day party.<br />
<br />
Riesling says he'll be happy to donate if she comes over to his house next week. Assuming the Sandman hasn't stopped him before then, that could be bad for Dian.<br />
<br />
A few nights later, Wesley Dodds goes to Riesling's house to attend a bare-knuckle fight. Ramsey goes there as well, although he isn't invited to sit ringside with the other rich guests. Ramsey skulks around outside and spies on the scene from inside.<br />
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After a round or two, the fight steps up a level as the fighters put on gloves covered in spikes and blades. Wesley pulls a Clark Kent and makes an excuse about indigestion to leave the room.<br />
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Outside, Ramsey is ambushed by Riesling's goons working security at the house. One of them blows the whistle that summons the Brute.<br />
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The giant steps on Ramsey's hand. Again and again. Crushing every bone in his hand and fingers.<br />
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Wesley steps outside to get some fresh air. He hears the goons jokingly talking about Ramsey running away "like a bat with only one wing". He also recognizes the Brute as they push lead it away.<br />
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In agonizing pain with his hand completely wrapped up, Ramsey stumbles back to the shack to see his daughter. What he sees when he arrives, though, nearly stops his heart. Emily has blood at the bottom of her dress. His first thought is she has gotten her first period, but he thinks she's too young for that.<br />
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Then it gets worse.<br />
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<br />
...<br />
<br />
<i>Holy $#@%...</i><br />
<br />
Matt Wagner brought sex and violence into this series in the very first issue, but this is the most brutal issue so far. Seeing Ramsey's hand crushed would have been harsh enough to close out this chapter, but he ratchets it up even further by having a little girl raped by the man who offered her and her father shelter.<br />
<br />
Dian Belmont's quest to help abused children seems quaint, almost insulting from her place of privileged distance when put in the context of the violence done to a child in this story. Likewise, the case that the Sandman is pursuing seems almost trivial in comparison. Who cares if Riesling is entangled in a drug deal with the mob or if he's hosting illegal boxing matches? Who cares about the so-called Brute, even after she crushes Ramsey's hand, which will ensure he can never fight or work as a laborer again. None of these "villains" seem remotely as evil or menacing as Mr. Schenck now in the light of his assault on Emily.<br />
<br />
This issue hits you like a haymaker from a heavyweight fighter. The last two pages are more savage and troubling than anything since the first story arc, and we still have one more issue before the story concludes.<br />
<br />
Come back next week for the Act Four of "The Brute"...</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-63423714205634289422014-03-08T08:37:00.001-05:002014-03-08T08:37:25.978-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #10 (Jan 1994)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #10: "The Brute" Act Two</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by R.G. Taylor</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
The second part of "The Brute" opens with Dian Belmont and a friend leaving the movie theater having seen the Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant classic, <i><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWKBHzxDu20" target="_blank">Bringing up Baby</a></i>. After showing her open-mindedness on homosexuality, Dian has a profound encounter in the street with a woman abusing her son.<br />
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When a police officer further intervenes, the woman walks away. Dian tries to comfort the child who has clearly been beaten for most of his life, but the boy lashes out and bites Dian. <strike>That night, we see the first signs of her eventual change into werewolf.</strike> Dian's friend, Carol, scoffs at her attempts to help the filthy dregs of society.<br />
<br />
Elsewhere, the Sandman has come to rescue prizefighter Eddie Ramsey from mob enforcers working for Arthur Riesling. One of the hoods called in "backup", a brutish giant who easily disarms the Sandman and nearly takes his head off with one punch. Ramsey defends the masked hero, but even the boxer proves to be little use against the Brute. Luckily, the Sandman gets a second chance before the Brute kicks Ramsey's head in.<br />
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<br />
After gassing the giant, Sandman and Ramsey speed away in the Sandman's car. Sandman drops Ramsey off at his home and tells him to find a new place to live so Riesling's men cannot find him. Ramsey notices that the Sandman took a bad blow to the ribs during their fight.<br />
<br />
Eddie Ramsey runs to his apartment where his sickly daughter, Emily, waits for him. He apologizes but they need to flee. They hurriedly pack everything they can take, including what's left of her medicine and bolt in the night.<br />
<br />
Later, Dian Belmont goes to the mansion estate of her unofficial boyfriend, Wesley Dodds. Wesley's butler, Humphries, tells her he's not home, but in fact he is just arriving. Wes welcomes Dian into his sitting room for a late night chat, all the while trying to hide the fact that he probably broke a few ribs in his fight with the Brute and Riesling's men.<br />
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<br />
Dian tells him about her encounter outside the theater and how she stood up and stopped the woman from beating her child. Wesley is proud of her and commends her for her bravery and righteousness. She thanks him and apologizes for wasting his time and then leaves.<br />
<br />
At his own lavish mansion, Arthur Riesling hears the news that Ramsey snitched on him to the district attorney and then escaped the gang. Arthur tells his son, Dennis, to make sure that Ramsey is killed along with any family members the fighter may have, which is bad news for Emily. After the elder Ramsey leaves, the drunken Dennis is left alone with the two youngest boys. Dennis instigates a fight between them for what appears to be his own amusement.<br />
<br />
<i>Is this the first time Dennis Riesling has manipulated people and events so he can laugh about it</i>?<br />
<br />
Later that night, Wesley Dodds dreams dreams of children of abuse and poverty.<br />
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<br />
The next night, Riesling's hoods break into the former home of Eddie Ramsey only to find the place hastily deserted. Unfortunatley, while Ramsey and Emily may be alive, they haven't found a new place to live yet.<br />
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<br />
The two are befriended by an old tramp named Wilbur Schenk who offers them a place to stay in his shack. Ramsey's not wild about squatting with the man, but thinking about his sick little girl makes him desperate enough to accept the invitation.<br />
<br />
On a boat on the Hudson River, Arthur Riesling meets with a gangster to negotiate the sale and distribution of a large supply of heroin. Riesling says he has found an untapped market for the drug. Their conference is overheard by the Sandman.<br />
<br />
Later, the Sandman goes directly to the home of District Attorney Belmont to warn him of Arthur Riesling's activities.<br />
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<br />
Dian spies on her father's conversation with the masked man and then watches the Sandman leave.<br />
<br />
In a different, poorer part of town, a couple of kids are playing kick the can when their revery is joined by the Brute. The Brute's handler losses him temporarily, but the monstrous giant is called back by a whistle.<br />
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<br />
And the handler driving the car, appears to be Dennis Riesling.<br />
<br />
This is another great issue. There's some really exciting action in the beginning with both the Sandman and Ramsey trying to fight off the Brute. For all the Sandman's skills and all of Ramsey's fighting talent, they are both nearly killed by the giant. It's quick thinking and good luck when Sandman throws a trashcan over the Brute's head and fires his gas gun inside to douse the freak with his knockout drug. I can't wait to see the next obligatory fight between our hero and the monster. Should be a thrilling bout for the ages!<br />
<br />
There isn't any real doubt that Arthur Riesling is a bad guy, but the nature of his son Dennis is a little unclear. Is he merely his father's henchman, or is he something more? The scene where he provokes a fight between the boys had a bit of a sinister tone to it. And what's with those boys? Something's up in that department. Based on Wesley's dreams and the scenes in the beginning and end of this chapter, I'm thinking this story is supposed to be about child neglect, poverty and abuse... but we're not quite getting there yet.<br />
<br />
Also, Dian continues to be a strong character, but is she becoming too good? It's nice that she wants to champion child advocacy and protective rights, but her line about homosexuality not being a disease in the first scene felt more like the Matt Wagner's voice intruding on the scene. We already saw Dian championing racial sensitivity in the previous story arc, and she's fighting against systematic domestic violence now. Do we need her to stand up for every popular cause all the time in order to know she's a good person?<br />
<br />
Anyway, she's still awesome and I can't wait to see what she does next.<br />
<br />
Come back next week for the Act Three of "The Brute"...</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-77385427129450784662014-03-01T02:33:00.000-05:002014-03-01T02:33:57.260-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #9 (Dec 1993)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #9: "The Brute" Act One</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by R.G. Taylor</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
We open with something we haven't seen since the first story arc: a dream. A dream about a lost child and a horrible monster that devours the child, both depicted as skeletons. Wesley Dodds narrates the dream--and this story--in his typical poetic flourish.<br />
<br />
We then find Wesley having dinner with Dian Belmont. They briefly touch upon the violence in Chinatown that erupted during the previous story. Wesley asks about her former lover, Jimmy Shan; after acknowledging that Jimmy's no longer in her life, she wants to change the subject.<br />
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<br />
Cut to the harbor where an amorous couple--and by "couple" I mean a drunken English sailor and an equally soused Irish woman that he probably picked up in a bar on street corner--start to have sex beneath a light post. Their consummation is interrupted by the sudden appearance of a monstrous giant--a "brute"!<br />
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<br />
The Brute beats the sailor to death with his fists and his feet, spraying the woman with her would-be lover's blood. She curls up on the ground, begging to be left alone, but the killer makes no move against her.<br />
<br />
Back in the city, Wesley takes Dian home but resists her invitation to come inside for a drink. He has an early meeting--earlier in the morning than he's used to waking--scheduled with a man named Arthur Riesling. He invites his friend, retired Judge Thomas Schaffer, to the meeting.<br />
<br />
Riesling is a boxing promoter with other philanthropic proclivities. He wants to enlist Wesley in a scientific expedition to Antarctica.<br />
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<br />
Riesling arranges another meeting with Wesley and invites him to his house for St. Patrick's Day.<br />
<br />
That night, Schaffer and Dian's father, the district attorney, attend the fights. In one of the matches, a boxer named Eddie Ramsey loses an embarrassingly bad fight. After the fight, Ramsey's trainer, Mel, rips into him for not fighting harder, for not winning and getting them more money.<br />
<br />
After the trainer leaves, Ramsey is approached by Arthur Riesling.<br />
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<br />
Outside, the Sandman watches Riesling drive off and then Ramsey walk home. Did something that morning set off Wesley's suspicions about Riesling? Or is the Sandman following this lowlife boxer?<br />
<br />
Eddie Ramsey goes home to his sick daughter, Emily. She loves her father and takes pride in his boxing career, but she can tell that he lost tonight's match.<br />
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<br />
So Ramsey is desperate for money to pay for his sick little girl's medicine. Is he going to call Arthur Riesling to take him up on his offer to fight illegally?<br />
<br />
When Larry Belmont gets home, Dian hides the case files she was studying in his office while he was out. Larry tells her about the fights with great enthusiasm until he's interrupted by a phone call. Dian listens to her father arrange a meeting with someone regarding Arthur Riesling. Was it Ramsey on the phone?<br />
<br />
After Dian overhears her father talk about Riesling, she couldn't be happier to join Wesley on his trip to Riesling's St. Patrick's Day party. She admits to getting a thrill out of spying on her father's cases.<br />
<br />
Inside Riesling's enormous mansion, Wesley and Dian meet Riesling's youngest sons, who look no older than ten years old while Riesling himself looks like he's closer to 70. Then they meet Dennis Riesling, another one of Arthur's sons who looks much more like his father.<br />
<br />
And drinks quite heavily, it appears.<br />
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<br />
That night, D.A. Belmont meets with Eddie Ramsey.<br />
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<br />
As Ramsey walks home, a young boy calls out of help. When Ramsey stops, he's sapped over the head and surrounded by Riesling's thugs. Somehow, they knew about his meeting with the district attorney and they're going to kill him for trying to implicate Riesling.<br />
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<br />
The Sandman drops down on one of the thugs and leaps away into the shadows of the alley. He hurls trashcan lids like so many poor versions of Captain America's shield but it's enough to disarm or distract the remaining thugs. He uses his gas gun on another one, and ends up in a standoff with the final thug.<br />
<br />
But as their boss staggers to his feet, he pulls a whistle out of his pocket and blows. Is he summoning the police? A dog? Or something else...?<br />
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<br />
This is another solid chapter in this always stellar series, but as an opening act, I'm less sure of the ground we're on than before. "The Tarantula" had a very personal stake with Dian's friend being abducted, and "The Face" established its racial-political overtones right away. This story, however, seems to lack any real personal investment for either Wesley or Dian. I'm not even entirely sure what makes Wesley so suspicious about Arthur Riesling from their first encounter that he would spy on him. He claims to have dreams that trigger some skepticism, but his dream on the first page seems to have more to do with our hulking monstrous murderer.<br />
<br />
The one personal connection that is made wonderfully clear is Eddie Ramsey's love for his daughter, Emily. In just a few pages, Matt Wagner creates a sentimental father-daughter scene that doesn't feel sappy but tragic. And the best part is Ramsey doesn't pull a Jack Murdock and sell his soul to the mob. Even though he and his daughter are suffering, he does the right thing and tips the cops to Riesling's illegal activity. And he might pay the price for his goodness.<br />
<br />
We get yet another artist for this new story arc. R.G. Taylor's style looks like it fits exactly halfway between Guy Davis' work on "The Tarantula" and John Watkiss' on "The Face". Had this story come between the first two arcs, you could almost see the progression of art styles getting more exaggerated, but for now it feels like we're treading back to the classic form established in the first four issues. That's a good thing. Taylor's work is pretty good; background details are sometimes little more than squiggles, but he nails the details of character, and the Brute himself is horrifying to behold.<br />
<br />
Come back next week for the Act Two of "The Brute"...</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-49285666571919209352014-02-22T09:16:00.003-05:002014-02-22T09:16:55.474-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #8 (Nov 1993)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #8: "The Face" Act Four</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by John Watkiss</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
The Sandman has discovered the lair of the killer who has been chopping off the heads of various Chinese in an effort to stir up gang violence in Chinatown. The Face's hideout is loaded with sets of dentures, wigs, fake noses, foreheads with eyebrows, everything he needs to change his appearance so as to look like virtually anyone. The Sandman also notices a newspaper with a personal ad from the Face's shadowy employer, so now The Sandman knows how the killer gets in contact with his boss.<br />
<br />
Over in Chinatown, paramedics treat Jimmy Shan for the head wound he received when the Face tried to kill him. Of course, neither fact that Dian Belmont was following Jimmy nor that a woman saved his life are very appealing to Jimmy and his current anger issues.<br />
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<br />
Jimmy screams at Dian for another two panels, accusing her and her father and every white person of racism, and then sulks in pain and embarrassment. Dian's grief and humiliation is interrupted by her father's sudden intervention as he drags her back home.<br />
<br />
The Face, suffering a gunshot wound from Dian, makes his way back to his lair, coughing and muttering to himself, unaware that The Sandman is lying in wait for him. But despite his wounds and shaky appearance, the Face betrays unexpected speed and strength. When The Sandman points his gas gun in the Face's, <i>um</i>, face, the Face wheels around to attack.<br />
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<br />
So... that could've gone better.<br />
<br />
Back at the Belmont household, Larry screams at his daughter for sneaking around Chinatown and getting involved with Jimmy, who's assault only points to his involvement with the Tongs. He's also none to thrilled that Dian stole his gun, which she used to save Jimmy from the Face. Larry accuses his daughter of taking the law into her own hands like a "vigilante debutante."<br />
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At a dive bar across town, the Face calls a newspaper demanding they run an ad in tonight's edition so he can get in touch with his boss. An exotic dancer tries to come on to him, but he shows her what he looks like without his makeup and prosthetics. Terrified of his appearance and his not-so-veiled threats, the woman backs away.<br />
<br />
In the hospital, a pair of nurses chat as one of them goes to check on Jimmy Shan. One of the nurses says horrible things about Asian- and African-Americans. When they get to Jimmy's room, though, his bed is empty and the window is open.<br />
<br />
Elsewhere, the mayor sits at a meeting with local business men and other movers and shakers, including philanthropist Herman Ross and his partner Benson, who are still trying to get a school funded in Chinatown. Ross and Benson are flipping through the newspaper, which happens to be running an ad from the Face requesting a meeting.<br />
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The same ad is read by Wesley Dodds, who knows this is how the Face and his boos make contact. He puts his creepy doll to bed and suits up for a night in Central Park.<br />
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<br />
After Dian sneaks out of the house, we find Herman Ross in Central Park waiting for the Face. The Face, though, seems to be running quite late, so Ross dispatches his driver to look around and find him.<br />
<br />
After escaping from the hospital, Jimmy Shan goes to his mother's home to retrieve his father's gun. He's in a killing mood, and Dian can't stop him even when she arrives begging him to stop. Jimmy is so embittered by the world of late, that he actually comes across as racist as Dian's father.<br />
<br />
Back in the park, Herman's driver attacks him with an axe. It's the Face, of course, pissed off that he got shot when trying to kill Jimmy. He blames Herman Ross for setting him up and wants revenge.<br />
<br />
But "Herman Ross" may not be what he seems...<br />
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<br />
The Sandman throws a net over the Face to keep his speed and strength neutralized. In a rage, the Face lashes out, but loses his footing and stumbles into the pond.<br />
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Jimmy goes to see Wu Sung, head of the Huo Yubai clan, who he blames for killing his sister. But Dian followed him again, refusing to let Jimmy's hatred lead to his self-destruction. She actually stands between Jimmy and Wu Sung, insisting that if Jimmy wants to kill the man he has to shoot through her.<br />
<br />
Her defiance is enough to snap Jimmy out of the moment's insanity. He drops the gun and Wu Sung tells Dian to get Jimmy out of there.<br />
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<br />
Lieutenant Burke is heading out to enforce the peace in Chinatown when he finds someone tied up in front of the station.<br />
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<br />
Larry Belmont tells Dian what we already know, that Herman Ross' partner, Benson, hired the Face to start an all-out war in the Chinese community to further their business dealings. Benson hoped that Wu Sung would be killed because Wu Sung was the only person who knew that Benson was part Chinese.<br />
<br />
Larry apologizes to Dian for being racist toward Asians (<i>I think he should've apologized to Asians, but whatever</i>), and Dian tells her father that she isn't seeing Jimmy anymore on account of him losing his mind and pointing a gun at her. The story ends with her making a date with Wesley Dodds, now the best man in her life.<br />
<br />
The final revelation of the power behind the Face was a little underwhelming since he really didn't know that much about Herman Ross or Eldridge Benson. And despite how dangerous the Face should have been, he was taken down too easily. He slipped out of The Sandman's grasp once out of luck and desperation, but the second time, he just falls into the water and drowns. It doesn't have the same level of menace as the Tarantula from the last story arc.<br />
<br />
Dian's story throughout these four issues is a little more interesting, but Jimmy's self-destruction swings too far toward the melodramatic. There really didn't seem to be any racism or insecurity in his first appearance, so to see him fall so far so quickly is a little jarring. It <i>is</i> interesting that it's not merely the fault of society in how it limits and projects fears on him because of his appearance, that there is something dark and hateful inside him, but it comes out too suddenly. Dian, of course, shows a new kind of heroism in her compassion and her refusal to give up on the man she once loved very much.<br />
<br />
There was a lot of good material in "The Face" but it wasn't as awesome as the initial arc in the series. Still... "Pretty good" for <i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> is still better than almost any other series.<br />
<br />
Come back next week for the opening act of "The Brute"...</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-80862388598662135292014-02-15T08:45:00.002-05:002014-02-21T07:23:43.640-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #7 (Oct 1993)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br />
<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #7: "The Face" Act Three</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by John Watkiss</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Act Three of "The Face" opens with the Sandman lurking around the city morgue, collecting samples of some kind from the Face's decapitated victims. A security guard hears the mystery man, but by the time he enters the morgue, the Sandman has vanished.<br />
<br />
In Chinatown, Jimmy Shan races to the house of Hsu Chang, head of the Lei Feng family. Jimmy is still somewhat recovering from his encounter with the Sandman last issue, an encounter that left him gassed and unconscious.<br />
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Jimmy recounts his meeting with the Sandman to Hsu Chang, pleading with the man not to go to war against the Huo Yibai because the killings are the work of a third party attempting to pit the Chinese against each other. Chang dismisses Jimmy's claims as childish and naive, and tells Jimmy that a third victim was found that night.<br />
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Hsu Chang shows Jimmy the head of the prostitute killed by the Face last issue. Jimmy loses his mind to grief, screaming the girls name. Obviously, she was familiar, someone he cared deeply for.<br />
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Back at his mansion, Wesley Dodds conducts some experiments on the samples he stole from the morgue, then does some research in his private library.<br />
<br />
Still upset over her father's behavior toward Jimmy the night before, Dian Belmont returns to Jimmy's apartment the following day. The Jimmy she finds is drunk and angry. Angry at himself, angry at whites, the Tongs, the whole world.<br />
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He asks Dian to leave. She offers to stay with him but he asks her again to leave him alone. She leaves, knowing that if she stayed, she would fall into the same abyss of bitterness that has claimed her ex-boyfriend.<br />
<br />
After leaving Jimmy's place, Dian heads to Wesley Dodds' manor. Wesley's butler tells Dian that he has turned in for the evening.<br />
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<br />
Dian confides in Wesley her suspicions that Jimmy may still be involved in the Tongs' criminal activity. Wesley advises her to get a night's sleep before sharing her suspicions with her father, the district attorney. Then, once Dian leaves, Wesley strips off his robe, revealing he's still dressed in his "work clothes". Humphries hands him his Sandman hat and coat.<br />
<br />
Lieutenant Burke leads a detail of uniform police to a medical supply shop. Burke says the coroner's analysis of the bodies suggests they were killed using a surgical hacksaw but that the murderer wasn't a doctor, so the police want records of all sales of medical equipment to non-doctors. The light is out in the shopkeeper's office, and Burke knows he's not the first person to come looking for the records.<br />
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<br />
The cops open fire but the Sandman gasses the room, disorienting the uniform officers and sending Burke running and coughing.<br />
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<br />
Elsewhere, Jimmy Shan meets with Herman Ross and an associate for a business meeting about investing in some property. But the death of Jimmy's sister and his recent drunken tear has left Jimmy woefully unprepared for the meeting. Ross and his pal are not happy with Jimmy.<br />
<br />
Later, as Larry Belmont listens to <i>Fibber McGee and Molly</i> on the radio, the D.A. gets a call from Burke telling him the Sandman is involved in the Chinatown case. Dian overhears this. Elsewhere, the Sandman's investigation takes him from the records room to an empty store front and a mob currier who drops off money at the train station.<br />
<br />
That night, the man who has hired the Face to incite war among the Tongs meets his hired assassin in a box seat at the opera. He gives the Face one final target: Jimmy Shan. The Face picks up his payment at a locker in the train station, but Wesley Dodds has him staked out.<br />
<br />
The Sandman follows the Face into an apartment and a secret room downstairs. Once there, the Sandman discovers the Face's room full of makeup, wigs, prosthetics and false-faces. But the killer is not there.<br />
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<br />
Dian follows Jimmy Shan around Chinatown to confirm or disprove her suspicions. And while he's distracted from how his life seems to be crumbling, she is alert enough to spot the killer waiting for him in the alley.<br />
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<br />
The story is ramping up for an exciting conclusion. The Sandman has the killer in his sites, but when the killer can appear as anyone, will catching the Face be that easy?<br />
<br />
We still don't know the power behind the Face's killings, but my money's on Herman Ross. He has no other reason for being in the story, and if the Chinese go to war against each other leading to violence and sanctions by the police department, it could open lots of real estate or other business opportunities for the philanthropist.<br />
<br />
Jimmy Shan appeared to have assimilated completely into the white man's world at the start of this story arc, finding financial success but still lacking the acceptance of men like Larry Belmont. He has fallen quite far at this point, full of hatred and prejudices of his own and wandering around the Chinatown that seemed foreign for him only a few issues ago.<br />
<br />
Dian continues to surprise and impress. Though she was turning into the worrying girlfriend for a while there, she makes up for it on the last page by actually shooting the killer and saving Jimmy.<br />
<br />
What will happen to Jimmy? What will happen when the Face returns to his hideout to discover the Sandman already there? And who does Dian really love?<br />
<br />
Come back next week for the fourth and final act of "The Face"...</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<i>Curtain.</i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-69922661043402175452014-02-08T07:32:00.000-05:002014-02-08T07:38:47.103-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #6 (Sep 1993)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIXHyiP1YYLjLNMyYpuVye-ffoMxnNd5gZC1nbKwwU9vt-z8ljiY2Y8jVG5fCP_A9hWM8P2jvnu8U4d4nn77DGz5aI062mCaq6fdD70ELI-_VlFZSInCrVQ4vq6t_KDW5L7xTYFKJlZvD/s1600/%236cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIXHyiP1YYLjLNMyYpuVye-ffoMxnNd5gZC1nbKwwU9vt-z8ljiY2Y8jVG5fCP_A9hWM8P2jvnu8U4d4nn77DGz5aI062mCaq6fdD70ELI-_VlFZSInCrVQ4vq6t_KDW5L7xTYFKJlZvD/s1600/%236cover.jpg" height="640" width="411" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><br /></i></b>
<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #6: "The Face" Act Two</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by John Watkiss</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
The Sandman skulks around a large house in Chinatown when someone creeps up on him with an axe. It looks like the same man who killed the standup comedian Ling Hoon, who may in fact be a mercenary capable of changing his facial appearance. A killer known as "The Face".<br />
<br />
Anyway, the Face swings his powerful axe right into the Sandman's back, bringing the vigilante down to his knees. But luckily, Wesley Dodds wore a plate of metal under his trench coat which functioned as a shield and saved his spine. He throws the metal at the axeman, creating enough of a distraction to get his gas gun out.<br />
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<br />
The Sandman grabs his jacket and slips out of the house through the window he came in. He jumps in his car and drives off.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, in the same house he was sneaking around in, the heads of the Lei Feng have met to discuss their declaration of war against the Huo Yibai for killing two of their people. The Lei Feng want blood, demanding counterattacks to salvage their pride and honor and maintain the appearance of strength and order.<br />
<br />
The only dissenting opinion is Zhang Chai Lao, the lawyer better known as Jimmy Shan to people outside Chinatown. He cautions the Lei Feng not to strike at the Huo Yibai, that the attacks might be the work of a third force trying to reignite old Tong rivalries and plunge them into war.<br />
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Any words of caution that might have gotten through to the group are muted, however, when one of the lord's servants--the axeman who might be the Face--informs them that an intruder was discovered trying to spy on their meeting. The Lei Feng assume the spy was of the Huo Yibai and their bloodlust returns.<br />
<br />
After being blown off by Jimmy Shan and then Wesley Dodds, Dian Belmont finally finds a friend to spend the evening with. She and a girlfriend go to the Palais Royale club, where they watch a group of teenagers dancing to the Jitterbug. In her narration, Dian comments about witnessing this kind of music and dancing in Harlem and it seeming so free and natural, but in this part of town with these kids, it seems "desperate." <i>Is this Matt Wagner commenting on how mainstream (white) culture tries to emulate and/ore steal the styles of black culture?</i><br />
<br />
Dian confides that she is still attracted to Jimmy, but is it something specific about him that appeals to her? Something he represents or something he gives her?<br />
<br />
Across town, Wesley Dodds gets home, strips off his Sandman garb and examines the metal body armor that saved his life.<br />
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The next day, the Mayor calls Chief Ross O'Donald and DA Larry Belmont into his office. He's worried that the murders in Chinatown will erupt into full-scale war amongst the Tongs and wants some unruly Chinese arrested as a show of law and order. Belmont's prejudices against the Asian community make themselves well known, the but Mayor quashes his attitude in the office. (<i>Say, the Mayor looks a little bit like the rich guy who met the Face in a limousine back in issue #5. He's even smoking a cigar, too...</i>)<br />
<br />
Later, Dian makes a date with Jimmy, which just pisses her father off all the more. He warns Dian that Jimmy might be involved in some of the beheading crimes, then leaves in a huff, knowing that if Jimmy is dangerous, that would probably just excite Dian. Despite her anger with her father, the idea is not so ridiculous to Dian. She thinks she saw the head of Ling Hoon delivered in a package to Jimmy's door. She's making plans with him because she wants to know how deeply involved in these bloody events.<br />
<br />
During her dinner with Jimmy, she is prevented from directly confronting him about his involvement, first by Herman Ross, the philanthropist, and then by Wesley Dodds, who makes up some excuse to be there even though he's clearly spying on Jimmy or Dian.<br />
<br />
Outside the Cotton Club, a young paperboy is accosted by a homeless dreg wanting a paper. A bouncer outside the club makes the paperboy give the homeless what he wants and then kicks him back into an alley. As the seemingly drunken homeless man shuffles off, he opens the paper to a page with a personal message for The Face demanding another kill.<br />
<br />
Donning another appearance, the Face returns to the prostitute he brutalized last issue. She tells him she won't service him, but that's not what he has in mind.<br />
<br />
Jimmy brings Dian home, but their goodnight kiss is interrupted by DA Belmont.<br />
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Belmont is rushing out of the house because the Tong have killed a prostitute, he says. He asks Dian to call off her date and go back inside. Jimmy says goodnight and walks back to his car.<br />
<br />
But inside, he is greeted by the Sandman who calls him Zhang Chai Lao.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Sandman gasses Jimmy and leaves him unconscious in the car.<br />
<br />
This chapter ends with the Face returning to his apartment. We see that he has a whole array of false teeth, false noses, false mustaches, beards, wigs, eyebrows, as well as scalpels and other tools. He begins to shed his current disguise, which distorts his speech as he has no real teeth. His actual face is obscured by shadow, but it must look dreadful.<br />
<br />
Of the six issues of Sandman Mystery Theatre up to this point, this issue might be the weakest. It's not a bad issue by any means, but it's the first chapter that doesn't really advance the story. We know that someone is paying the Face to incite a war between two Chinese factions, but we don't have any better clue as to who is paying the Face or who he is.<br />
<br />
Seeing Wesley meditating after his fight with the Face was a nice touch. It cements his time spent in Easter Asia and serves as a simple pain-management technique for a vigilante in a physical job. On the other hand, this story arc is getting rough for Larry Belmont. His concern for his daughter is kind of negated by his racism which makes it impossible to find sympathy for him. <br />
<br />
Methinks Dian Belmont is an adrenaline junkie. After coming so close to danger in "The Tarantula" story arc, she is actively seeking it out, using her previous fling with Jimmy as an excuse to get inside a Chinese gang war.<br />
<br />
This was a solid issue, and I actually liked John Watkiss' art better this time than last issue, but the characters and story seem to be treading water. Maybe it's because Wagner put so much information into last issue, that now we must let the story simmer before it really starts to boil.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
Come back next week for Act Three of "The Face"...<br />
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<i>Curtain.</i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-2160675023500475592014-02-01T09:59:00.001-05:002014-02-08T07:36:51.693-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #5 (Aug 1993)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbAC1CHsZt7vmyT4OLprWO8ZCkFQWfhEl66ZlNNaupsRbMZYmZwsnIAXmPdTYQIrlIpPwaqlsOruSgV7-JDvYIk0h8-r0hJTbMaX_vPep62G4J0wwbD6O4g-n5-Sx1Dm2S4WnVvMdfpdjD/s1600/%235cpver.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbAC1CHsZt7vmyT4OLprWO8ZCkFQWfhEl66ZlNNaupsRbMZYmZwsnIAXmPdTYQIrlIpPwaqlsOruSgV7-JDvYIk0h8-r0hJTbMaX_vPep62G4J0wwbD6O4g-n5-Sx1Dm2S4WnVvMdfpdjD/s1600/%235cpver.jpg" height="640" width="416" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #5: "The Face" Act One</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by John Watkiss</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain up.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The second Sandman story arc opens in Chinatown on February 26, 1938. Dian Belmont, the beautiful and forceful daughter of District Attorney Larry Belmont, narrates this story through what might be considered diary or journal entries.<br />
<br />
Dian has taken four of her socialite friends to a Chinese Restaurant so she can unwind and forget about the horror that befell her friend Catherine in the previous story. She seems much more at home, or at least more familiar in Chinatown than her friends, to whom the city and its people are still exotic and mysterious. Through Dian's narration, she explains that her father was far less supportive of her jaunts to this part of town.<br />
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After excusing herself somewhat awkwardly and embarrassedly, Dian talks to Jimmy. It's obvious they have a romantic history--obvious, especially, to Dian's friends who girl her about it when she returns to the table. They can't believe she slept with a Chinese, to which Dian corrects them that Jimmy is Cantonese. When they press her for more details, she describes him as "very passionate".<br />
<br />
The more Dian thinks about Jimmy, the more she realizes she misses him.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, Jimmy Shan goes upstairs to meet Wu Sung, head of the Huo Yibai family. Wu Sung tells him that a standup comedian from the Lei Feng family has been making a lot of jokes at the expense of the Huo Yibai. As a representative of the Lei Feng, Jimmy--or Zhang Chai Lao as he is called--promises Wu Sung that the comedian will be reprimanded and that peace between the families is of the highest priority. Considering the families they're talking about are ancient crime dynasties, the meeting is remarkably amiable. There seems to be no real tension or underlying threat between Wu Sung and Jimmy Shan.<br />
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The meeting is observed by the Sandman, who hangs outside the window from a rope harness.<br />
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The police swarm on Chinatown to investigate the dead discovered by Dian's friends. When Larry Belmont arrives to pick up his daughter, she asks why so many cops have shown up for one dead body. Larry suggests the reemergence of the Tong factions, those same Lei Feng and Huo Yibai families seen earlier. Beneath the severed head was a note claiming the murder was a message to the Huo Yibai from the Lei Feng.<br />
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Through her narration, Dian criticizes her father of prejudice against Asians. She outright calls him a bigot. But on March 1st, Larry brings his daughter to a charity benefit for a school in Chinatown. At the party, Dian meets the host, Herman Ross, who seems to have a reputation for fundraising...or at least for getting people's money.<br />
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Dian also sees Wesley Dodds, who is introduced to Herman Ross. At that moment, though, Jimmy Shan crashes their reunion, warning them--playfully perhaps--that business with Ross is never cheap. Herman explains that Jimmy was responsible for finding the school they want to fund. When Herman tries to introduce him to the rest of the party, Jimmy snubs them in favor of Dian. He knows she found the body the other night and asks her to call him.<br />
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He leaves without speaking to Wesley Dodds, though Wes seems intent on pursuing him until Dian stops him.<br />
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Wes and Dian search unsuccessfully for a non-alcoholic drink while reminiscing about Catherine's recuperation. Dian thinks of Wes as a "very serious sort, but also relaxed and confident in his own way."<br />
<br />
That night in Chinatown, we see the comedian Ling Hoon performing his act, ripping on the Huo Yibai to much applause and laughter from the crowd. After his set, he returns to his dressing room. Another Chinese, claiming to be picking up or dropping off laundry, enters the room.<br />
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Is this the work of the Huo Yibai killing the comedian for insulting them? Or is this retaliation for the severed head left on their turf? The fact that this killer wields an axe suggests he might have killed both. And what does he mean about "appearances"? <i>Hmm</i>...<br />
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The Sandman goes to an illegal gambling den in Chinatown.<br />
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The Sandman drops a gas capsule from a hidden compartment in his shoe. The gas covers his escape as he asks one last question, the ultimate question in a murder mystery: <i>who benefits</i>? Certainly not the Tongs, Master Bei insists, and suggests the killer might be someone outside of Chinatown.<br />
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Dian goes to see Jimmy Shan, deciding that she needs some closure on their summer tryst, or else she wants to start it up again. Jimmy informs her that he is working for the Lei Feng, but dismisses their characterization as a Tong; more of a mutual aid society or union, he says. He is interrupted when a package is delivered. Whatever is inside disturbs him, because after getting a quick look at its contents, he quickly ushers Dian out of his apartment.<br />
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Elsewhere, a drunken bum wanders up to a very nice looking car...<br />
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<i>A shape-changer</i>! A man who can rearrange his physical appearance so that he enters a limousine looking like an old white vagabond, and emerges from the same car looking Chinese!!! Who is he meeting with and what was he paid for? Is he the murderer of Ling Hoon? Was Master Bei right that an outside force is conspiring to reignite old rivalries and set the Tong against each other? For what purpose?<br />
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Well, the man in the car told the shape-changer to have fun. The first thing he does is visit a prostitute, introducing himself as Lian, meaning <i>face</i>. "The Face", get it? He messes up the prostitute to the point where she says her appearance is so ugly she won't be able to charge more than ten cents. So the Face is not only a killer and master of disguise, but a sadistic torturer of women.<br />
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Dian goes to see her father, but he's busy with police business in light of a symbolic declaration of war by the Lei Feng. Outside Dian bumps into Wesley, but he has to take a raincheck when she asks him to dinner. Dian is drawn to both Wesley and Jimmy, but a large part of the attraction is also what kept her and Jimmy apart: they are both obsessive men, driven by their passions and likely to prioritize their goals above her.<br />
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The Sandman skulks around Chinatown, looking for something, when someone finds him.<br />
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My first thought on this issue was I instantly missed Guy Davis' artwork. I am immeasurably happy that Davis comes back, drawing every other story arc, but it leaves the art in-between a little inconsistent. That said, there is nothing wrong with John Watkiss' work in this issue. It's terrific. He maintains a lot of the same aesthetics as Guy Davis while employing his own style. His Dian Belmont is still beautiful, and his Wesley Dodds is even more lean and naturally heroic looking. I'm not sure I like that; I kind of prefer the doughy version Davis drew as it seemed so unexpected.<br />
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What I really, really enjoy about Watkiss' pencils in this issue is the way he draws the Sandman's gas mask. There is a pinched quality to the rebreather and sinister angling of the eyes that make it look like a beetle or mosquito. Looks awesome!<br />
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After making such an indelible mark in "The Tarantula" I worried that Dian would fall back to generic love interest and supporting character. Once again, though, Matt Wagner puts her front and center. She not only narrates the story, but she is personally involved with the man intimately linked in a potential gang war. That she was open-minded enough for the time to have dated an Asian-American is just one more example of how multi-faceted her character is.<br />
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As for the story itself, Wagner isn't repeating himself. We have no Jack the Ripper cypher for our villain, but an intelligent and fiendish mercenary who can change his facial appearance. And who uses this skill not just to kidnap and kill women, but to enflame a centuries old rivalry between Chinese factions. The geo-political backdrop kicks this story up from whodunnit to true mystery classic!<br />
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Come back next week for Act Two of "The Face"...<br />
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<i>Curtain.</i></div>
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Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-11495551080130663242014-01-25T00:40:00.000-05:002014-03-01T12:38:02.682-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #4 (July 1993)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfvIQAkhiI9KXNbzAJnihgcSg2DMBNgny0xUu3AqsTWFEBKhOTuoZ_oqt2_bmCtCvckRrZ1Lhq5BuXizb7KAtBqkZGcJVqYP7_HPLfzBuzzqjo-GJ6YeKgDl-AxrF5Ke7c9RkVUNjGyGjk/s1600/%25234cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfvIQAkhiI9KXNbzAJnihgcSg2DMBNgny0xUu3AqsTWFEBKhOTuoZ_oqt2_bmCtCvckRrZ1Lhq5BuXizb7KAtBqkZGcJVqYP7_HPLfzBuzzqjo-GJ6YeKgDl-AxrF5Ke7c9RkVUNjGyGjk/s1600/%25234cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #4: "The Tarantula" Act Four</b></div>
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<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
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<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
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<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
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<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
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<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
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<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<i>Curtain up.</i></div>
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Chief Ross O'Donald and Lieutenant Burke go to question Albert Goldman about his daughter's kidnapping. Albert and his wife, Miriam, are completely incapable from hiding their animosity toward each other from the cops. Their son, Roger, smashes a glass in disgust and walks out of the room.</div>
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O'Donald orders Burke to postpone the questioning until the family can settle down. As he's leaving, Burke tells Albert Goldman that he's going to question an old accountant of Goldman's. Burke knows Goldman made his fortune bootlegging during prohibition and has plenty of illicit dealings with the mob.</div>
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Back in the house, Albert Goldman appears genuinely distraught about the loss of his daughter. Miriam...less so.</div>
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The Sandman, in his custom black coupe, drops its rear fender, which is lined with jagged caltrops. Burke's patrol car drives over, puncturing the tires and sending the car spinning out of control. Burke pounds the dashboard, cursing, as the Sandman drives off to interrogate Myron Fields before the police can.</div>
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Fields is just getting out of the shower when the Sandman gasses him. When questioned, the accountant reveals that the Evergood Milk Company used to be owned by Albert, but ownership was passed to Roger, along with several other failing businesses as part of the younger Goldman's inheritance. Fields reveals that Goldman disdains his son because of his business failures, as well as problems he had in school. Two different private schools expelled Roger: one because he assaulted a female classmate, and the other because he tortured a dog. (<i>Suspect!</i>)</div>
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Throughout the interrogation, Fields keeps nearly choking on his own saliva or passing out. The Sandman has to coach him in order to keep him semiconscious. Fields is obese and the effect of the Sandman's gas is messing with his system. Later, when the Burke finally does arrive at the scene, one of the uniformed cops says that Fields practically died but they were able to get him to the hospital in time. The Sandman also left another origami piece at the scene, this one containing a poem about his quest to bring down the Tarantula.</div>
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Chief O'Donald goes to the home of District Attorney Belmont to bring him up to speed on the investigation. The cops are thinking Albert Goldman might be the kidnapper and faked his daughter's kidnapping. When the other cops leave, the Sandman visits Belmont for the second time.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
"<i>To see the wicked brought low and to ensure the sleep of the just</i>," the Sandman replies. Then he leaves out the window.</div>
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Unbeknownst to the vigilante or the D.A., their conversation was overheard by Belmont's daughter, Dian. She watches the Sandman's black coupe drive off and follows him.</div>
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In the Goldman residence, Albert is grieving for his missing daughter. Roger goes into his room with a gun and tries to work up the courage to shoot his father in the head. Albert, ignorant of his son's intentions or just ambivalent, continues to admonish Roger for his continued failures and shortcomings. Roger lowers the gun and leaves.</div>
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Across town, Wesley Dodds is coming out of his mansion when Dian drives up. She took her father's car and followed the mysterious black coupe but lost it somewhere around this neighborhood. Wesley says he didn't see any car like that, and Dian drives off in a hurry. Naturally, Wesley opens his garage to reveal the same car Dian was pursuing.</div>
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As the police and D.A. Belmont go to question Albert Goldman about his son, Dian goes to the police station looking for her father.</div>
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Dian tells Lieutenant Burke that she can find where the Tarantula is holding his victims if she can see get access to the Hall of Records.</div>
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Albert doesn't know where his son Roger is at the moment but tells the police his wife probably does. When he goes to wake Miriam, he finds only pillows in her bed meant to create the illusion that she's sleeping.</div>
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In the Tarantula's lair, one of the kidnappers is savagely beating Celia with a chain.</div>
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The hooded torturer turns his/her attention on the first kidnapping victim, Catherine Van Der Meer, and is ready to hack her up with an axe when the Sandman arrives.</div>
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The Sandman removes the kidnapper's hood only to discover it's Miriam Goldman, not Roger.</div>
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But then Roger does show up in his black Klan-style robes brandishing his gun. The Sandman theorizes that Mother was the mastermind and Roger merely the weapon used to kill the girls. But why strike out at his own sister, the Sandman wants to know, unless she was the target all along and the others just practice while Roger got up the nerve to do it.</div>
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As the Sandman keeps Roger distracted, Celia regains consciousness. The electrical wires severed by Miriam's clumsy axe-swing are down at her feet. She is able to grab the wires with her toes and throw them at Roger. The wires land in a puddle at Roger's feet, electrocuting him.</div>
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<i>This was a clever twist on the old monologuing trope that bedevils so many villains. This time, the hero keeps talking long enough for providence to strike down the villain.</i></div>
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The cops arrive and Dian is there to comfort her friend Catherine when she regains consciousness. Burke reads another cryptic poem by the Sandman and fumes that the masked vigilante got away this time.</div>
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Sometime later, Dian and her father meet Wesley and Judge Schaffer for dinner at a club. They share information about the case and connect the dots: classic debriefing and expositional stuff. Belmont explains how Albert Goldman had an incestuous affair with his daughter, but as she grew up, she used that history to blackmail him into getting all of the family's money if/when he died. Roger and Miriam found out about this and planned to get rid of her. They kidnapped and tortured Catherine on the off chance she knew anything about Albert's situation, and then killed more women to create the fiction of the Tarantula and throw suspicion off the family.</div>
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Of course, Wesley secretly knew all this, so the exposition was really for the sake of the Judge... and any readers who weren't able to put the pieces together.</div>
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As they say goodnight, Dian and Wesley share a moment.</div>
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I've read this four act story three times and the quality never wanes. In fact, each time I find something more to love about it. This time, for instance, I was struck by how the Sandman's gas gun worked--or <i>didn't</i>--not once but twice in this issue. When the Sandman gasses the fat, sickly Myron Fields, the old man damn near has a heart attack. That certainly wasn't Wesley's intention and he has to work a little harder to keep the man alive, even going so far as to prop him up so the blood will keep flowing.</div>
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Later, the Sandman is nearly killed when the gas has virtually no effect on Miriam Goldman because of her alcoholism. Up to this point, the Sandman has seemed Batman-like in his preparation and steps ahead of the police. In this issue, we see two unexpected pseudo-weaknesses for the man in the mask. It's a nice touch that humanizes the hero and shows he is not above making mistakes at this early stage of his crime fighting career.</div>
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Of course, this being the Sandman's book, he has to take center stage in the climactic battle against the Tarantulas, even if one of the victims gets the credit for killing her captor. Unfortunately, this means Dian Belmont takes a backseat in this final act. Up to this point, her development as a dynamic and credible investigator had been one of the best parts of the series. This time, her gumshoeing is kept off panel from the readers. As a consolation prize, the characters within the story--from her father to Lt. Burke--all give her credit for tracking down the Tarantula's hideout. That'll do.</div>
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The last moment between Wesley and Dian is nicely understated. Problem solving is his speciality, he says, while saying she is anything but "needy". It's true in that Wesley is a secret superhero and Dian has evolved from vapid socialite to fearsome crusader.</div>
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This relationship and this series is just getting started. Come back next Saturday for the first act of "The Face"...</div>
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<i>Curtain.</i></div>
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Bonus: <b>Dave Marsh</b>, a music critic and radio show host, wrote the introduction to the first trade paperback in the <i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> series. He provides historical context for the new series, as well as thoughtful and prosaic commentary on the the bleak, nightmarish themes and desperate characters that made up Matt Wagner's world of the Sandman.</div>
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You may need to open the following images in another tab/window and zoom in to read the full text. Take a look--it's worth the read!</div>
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<i>Sleep well!</i>Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-66726248754366489022014-01-18T10:27:00.000-05:002014-03-01T12:38:37.958-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #3 (June 1993)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #3: "The Tarantula" Act Three</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
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<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
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<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b><br />
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<i>Curtain up</i>.<br />
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Late at night, Lieutenant Burke comes to investigate an Evergood Milk Company warehouse, but he's not the only one. The locks chaining the doors shut have been picked, and when Burke gets to the office, he finds the Sandman going through the safe.</div>
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Wesley Dodds returns home at three in the morning, but his butler, Humphries, tells him he has a visitor--Dian Belmont! <i>Hmm</i>, what could she want at 3:00 AM?<br />
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Dian confesses to becoming obsessed with the Tarantula case. She feels guilty that her dreams are uninterrupted while her friend, Catherine Van Der Meer, must be enduring agonizing torture at the hands of her kidnapper. She wants desperately to get involved in the case and help out, and she tells Wesley she just needed to say it out loud to someone.<br />
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So she didn't come over for sex. Disappointing. We do see a bit of her observational skills, though, as she mocks Wesley for being too tired to take his hat off while they're talking. Once she leaves, however, we see that Wesley kept the hat on because his head was bleeding after his struggle with Burke at the warehouse.<br />
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Elsewhere, the third victim of the Tarantula has been beaten to death and lies rotting at Catherine's feet. Upstairs, her kidnappers bicker and argue like, well, like family members.<br />
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Hmm... One of them refers to Catherine as a "shiksa". That's a <i>yiddish</i> word, ain't it?<br />
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Meanwhile, Albert Goldman is in his den closing a business deal that will put ownership of <i>something</i> in his daughter Celia's name. After that, he calls his driver and asks him to pick up his girlfriend, Miss Van Der Meer, and then remembers she was kidnapped, <i>duh-doy</i>! So he tells the driver to pick up another girl. Any girl. He stokes the fire with an iron, an iron that looks remarkably similar to the weapon the Tarantula beat Catherine and her fellow victims with.<br />
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The next day, Dian Belmont visits her father, District Attorney Larry Belmont, at his office and asks for a job working close to the case. He dismisses her and shoos her out of the office. On her way home, she passes a saloon called Sammy's Bar.<br />
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Inside Sammy's we find Lieutenant Burke and Captain Ross McDonald drinking and talking about the case. Burke is pretty sour about being sprayed by knockout gas twice. He tells Ross that the paper trail from the Evergood warehouse leads to a lawyer named Fenton Devere.<br />
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The Sandman followed the same trail. In Devere's penthouse, the guard dog attacks.<br />
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The Sandman threatens to kill the dog with poison gas if Devere doesn't answer his questions. Devere gives some information on the owner of Evergood, but when he starts lying, Sandman gasses him (with knockout gas, not poison). Shortly thereafter, Lt. Burke arrives.<br />
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Wesley Dodds goes to visit his friend Judge Schaffer to ask circuitously how one would obtain a company's bankruptcy records. The judge tells him to visit the bankruptcy court. At the same time, Dian Belmont confronts her father about wanting to help him catch the Tarantula, but he dismisses her again and tells her to stay in the house.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5AmlqD0ktxwZ6dtT_Uk2DIBPfdXt5wlKnh2G72DkSnR2ZkGMqdVK2_iDhmJdcrNWzAWd20wZZSqE_ZD3BzRFhb8Lm1Hx5oe-7Z4O8FjrKfY2vsqSMtQlVc84dSKzBOYiG-ReXb2a-co_j/s1600/%233page16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5AmlqD0ktxwZ6dtT_Uk2DIBPfdXt5wlKnh2G72DkSnR2ZkGMqdVK2_iDhmJdcrNWzAWd20wZZSqE_ZD3BzRFhb8Lm1Hx5oe-7Z4O8FjrKfY2vsqSMtQlVc84dSKzBOYiG-ReXb2a-co_j/s1600/%233page16.jpg" /></a></div>
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While Dian was sneaking through her father's records, the Sandman broke into the records room of the bankruptcy court. After that, Wesley returns home.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVddRvA6wvsXTbW-DyFTBNaLFXwIhlo6wNyOGhoobrJtqj1_0-E4VfLsEHxL5zk81fSLds6otFNgn7RBomWhuV_xx-7FZBcMn1cEfNllZQJ53jvTnLzGeX8aQBwypaaGoGjzgcDRC_7WOb/s1600/%233page18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVddRvA6wvsXTbW-DyFTBNaLFXwIhlo6wNyOGhoobrJtqj1_0-E4VfLsEHxL5zk81fSLds6otFNgn7RBomWhuV_xx-7FZBcMn1cEfNllZQJ53jvTnLzGeX8aQBwypaaGoGjzgcDRC_7WOb/s1600/%233page18.jpg" /></a></div>
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Wesley and Dian share notes about Albert Goldman, how he made his money bootlegging and whether or not he could still be involved in crime. Dian reveals that on the day Catherine was kidnapped, she mentioned being involved with a gangster.<br />
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At the Goldman Estate, Albert Goldman goes to his daughter's bedroom to tell her he has set up a trust in her name at the First Bank of Hollywood. She'll get boatloads of money if and when he dies. The news is so pleasing to her that she begins to kiss him. We get confirmation that they have been carrying on an incestuous affair.<br />
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But as Celia seduces her father, their tryst is observed through a keyhole by her brother, Roger.<br />
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At the police station, Lt. Burke interrogates Fenton Devere. When the lawyer won't give the desired answers, Burke beats him. Eventually Devere reveals that Albert Goldman was the owner of Evergood Milk, and used the company as a front for his booze smuggling during Prohibition.<br />
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That night, Wesley dreams of greed and lust, of corruption of the soul.<br />
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He wakes to find that he has a visitor. This time, it's not Dian but Judge Schaffer, who tells him the Tarantula has struck again. This time, the kidnapping victim is Celia Goldman.<br />
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The story is ramping up as we near its climactic finale. Matt Wagner continues to add layers not only to the mystery, but to the characters. We learn a few more hints about Wesley's complicated history with his father. We get a sense of what kind of man and investigator Lt. Burke is--the kind willing to use violence to get his way. However, of all the characters, Dian Belmont continues to be the most fun to watch. Her journey from fun-loving party girl lacking ambition to driven detective raging against stereotypes makes her the breakout character of the arc. It's also great to see how her relationship with Wesley develops slowly.<br />
<br />
Guy Davis "beautifully ugly" style looks better than ever in this issue. The dog that attacks the Sandman out of the dark is monstrously savage. The grotesqueness of the Tarantula's violence is brutal, while the smoldering passion of Celia's illicit coupling with her father plays out in Sandman's stormy vision.<br />
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If I haven't mentioned it previously, David Hornung's colors are amazing. In the first scene, the Sandman wears a violet trench coat over an olive suit, a lovely play on the color scheme of the Golden Age, when Sandman wore a purple opera cape over a green suit.<br />
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Come back next Saturday for the Final Act of "The Tarantula"...<br />
<br />
<i>Curtain</i>.<br />
<br /></div>
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Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-90744170053229057482014-01-11T08:24:00.000-05:002014-03-01T12:38:27.683-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #2 (May 1993)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjAaZqrCXjfNxMYfnt9KOiTjfay0Ysx3cryDad8fPqGJk7-JY6idFsmsN1Mtu3Bb0Itlo3_11R2w_OtS-TLQmtGHGqefiEbL73Hfr14oiPim0GZtUHj8fYSU5w6q3vlaex7xOsQSKpvOq/s1600/%232cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDjAaZqrCXjfNxMYfnt9KOiTjfay0Ysx3cryDad8fPqGJk7-JY6idFsmsN1Mtu3Bb0Itlo3_11R2w_OtS-TLQmtGHGqefiEbL73Hfr14oiPim0GZtUHj8fYSU5w6q3vlaex7xOsQSKpvOq/s1600/%232cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #2: "The Tarantula" Act Two</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b><br />
<b>Cover by Gavin Wilson</b></div>
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<i>Curtain up</i>.<br />
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In police headquarters, District Attorney Lawrence Belmont is meeting with Commissioner Davis and two of the senior detectives, Captain Ross O'Donald and Lieutenant Burke. The subject of their meeting: the newly discovered body of a badly mutilated woman, kidnapped by a murderer calling himself the Tarantula.</div>
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In the women's bathroom next door, the DA's daughter, Dian Belmont, happens upon the mysterious Sandman spying on the cops' meeting.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQeaGYa91G9sTL0OmT1ACj7xIwHl8YYLurH3qXJ95x147vbbRPanIleYcd24BgXSAx027B4M0Gcwt04sVmbIJUfjQRkwRZ11WAwucL2_swQf0Nu_IMPRXr7M26KpxWh1FktJb5dv6JbKd/s1600/%232page2-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQeaGYa91G9sTL0OmT1ACj7xIwHl8YYLurH3qXJ95x147vbbRPanIleYcd24BgXSAx027B4M0Gcwt04sVmbIJUfjQRkwRZ11WAwucL2_swQf0Nu_IMPRXr7M26KpxWh1FktJb5dv6JbKd/s1600/%232page2-3.jpg" height="291" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Click to enlarge.</td></tr>
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Dian stumbles out of the ladies' room and goes to her father, who is briefing some uniformed cops and Judge Schaffer. When Dian hears that a woman's body has been found--possibly her friend Catherine--she swoons in the hallway.</div>
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She wakes up in an office with her father and the judge hovering over her.</div>
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When we first met Dian last issue, she was carefree and little rudderless. In a short time, however, the tragedy of her friend's kidnapping has brought a change in her. She pressures her father into letting her identify the woman in the morgue, and after failing to spot distinguishing birthmarks on the body, she realizes that it's not her friend's body.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Then where is Catherine Van Der Meer? Well, she's alive, but not in great shape. She's chained up in some dark basement cell, being tortured by a man in what looks like a black Ku Klux Klan robe and hood.</div>
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The Tarantula is torturing Catherine for information about a man in her life. Is this the boyfriend she told Dian about shortly before her kidnapping? It's a little vague, but the Tarantula believes someone told Catherine something he wants to know, and he doesn't believe her pleas of ignorance.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_HIGRGIuwz1KFJs7LbqMGCr4oBJLe2d-wdk3F8852aShLn3GiAGoKufcYfJet1dx1-tohztfjcW6E_n4d1VnsNpDXzDbK1Tk4ttbkZ-mjlNQEU1-be-znvIeOBBiqGqwbciGL4DVHVeo/s1600/%232page9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq_HIGRGIuwz1KFJs7LbqMGCr4oBJLe2d-wdk3F8852aShLn3GiAGoKufcYfJet1dx1-tohztfjcW6E_n4d1VnsNpDXzDbK1Tk4ttbkZ-mjlNQEU1-be-znvIeOBBiqGqwbciGL4DVHVeo/s1600/%232page9.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
What's this? The Tarantula has accomplices--at least two; what appears to be a woman in a patterned shawl and someone else making a drink. The setting looks lavish and fancy. Is Catherine being held in the basement of a mansion? And why would these people allow these savage beatings and murder to happen in their household?</div>
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We jump back to police headquarters where Judge Schaffer has been tasked with taking Dian home. Outside, they bump into the judge's young friend, Wesley Dodds, who offers them each a ride in his car. Dodds drops Schaffer off first. When he's alone in the car with Dian, he acts emotionally distraught over the kidnapping and murder. He apologizes for acting so vulnerable--not manly--in front of her.</div>
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The next day, at the Goldberg estate, the socialite daughter Celia gently kicks one of her boy toy's out of the house. Her father, one of the richest men in the state, chastises her for bringing her playthings to the house, but she challenges him on his meeting with gangsters a few nights earlier.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFRt04-kcO-g4jzv1NAgldGHuFZ6l8JzCndu8MpKMIVRhdKUGcfCUSGdV5wUkHXzlJeVIf160A4TRvhgullU7ymKSxwYC9wFd3EbrHf1Ahn_4vvwEULPt3wW4WuyUp2Tol_gQQYyfmEdp/s1600/%232page13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFRt04-kcO-g4jzv1NAgldGHuFZ6l8JzCndu8MpKMIVRhdKUGcfCUSGdV5wUkHXzlJeVIf160A4TRvhgullU7ymKSxwYC9wFd3EbrHf1Ahn_4vvwEULPt3wW4WuyUp2Tol_gQQYyfmEdp/s1600/%232page13.jpg" /></a></div>
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The hint of incest isn't all that's messed up with this family. At dinner, Goldberg reprimands his son, Roger, newly moved back to the house, for his lack of drive, while the mother lies passed out at the table, a drink in her hand.</div>
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Yeah, this family has issues.</div>
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Dian receives a letter penned by Wesley Dodds full of apologies and encouragements. She seems quite taken with him, and maybe he is with her, as well.</div>
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In the city, Lt. Burke goes to question the cab driver who dropped off Catherine just before she was grabbed. But Burke isn't the first person on the scene.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUQW0C5DgjHKi2FiKmKXeA4M3_GZuLf98rMIPGcVljkBOGK1lNipGJcjB0sDdHLNHuKGmkwvU9GBDb5Wzp0FuxuzGulV7p_zcsU_Wsqkiakb_YD1vvuY205ymg0wxyZhJHqZGZgNSg1oI/s1600/%232page18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicUQW0C5DgjHKi2FiKmKXeA4M3_GZuLf98rMIPGcVljkBOGK1lNipGJcjB0sDdHLNHuKGmkwvU9GBDb5Wzp0FuxuzGulV7p_zcsU_Wsqkiakb_YD1vvuY205ymg0wxyZhJHqZGZgNSg1oI/s1600/%232page18.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
After knocking Burke unconscious, the Sandman switches gas cartridges and sprays the cab driver with what acts like a tranquilizer and truth serum. By the time Burke comes to, the Sandman has asked his questions and disappeared.</div>
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The next day, Dian meets Wesley for a meal or coffee where he shares some insight into his love of writing and why he came back to New York.</div>
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That night, the Tarantula strikes again, grabbing another woman. And Wesley's dreams continue to haunt him with nightmarish symbolic images.</div>
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Catherine wakes up and her kidnapper promises to torture and kill her new cellmate unless she tells him what he wants to know.</div>
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This issue keeps up the phenomenal character work established in the first issue. We learn more about our protagonist. Wesley is a literary man who might have become a writer if his father hadn't died and his dreams hadn't turned to pictographs of ever-increasing depravity as society grows darker and more violent in the years leading up to war.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
Wagner also gives us one of the greatest character descriptions for Dian when Wesley describes her as "a high-powered motor in neutral". That tells you everything you know about her. She's brilliant, she's resourceful, she's brave and she's bold; all she has needed is an inciting incident to unleash her potential. And the Tarantula--or rather, the Sandman--is exactly what she needed.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The tension of the mystery may be lessened a bit by the revelations in this issue. Seeing Catherine's captivity illustrates her pain, but also tells us that her kidnapper has an agenda beyond pure psychotic infliction of pain on women. There's more calculation to her torture, and that could be seen as more or less terrifying depending on your perspective.</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
The Goldberg's, so far, have served no purpose in the plot of this story, so obviously they're involved in the Tarantula. But who is the man under the hood? Is it Roger, the disturbed son who needed to move back in with the family for some reason? Or the father, who's involved with gangsters and may have an illicit relationship with his own daughter? What if it is Celia under the hood? And what of the constantly inebriated mother? We saw two possible accomplices discussing the Tarantula's treatment of Catherine, so perhaps the more relevant question is: <i>which one of the Goldberg's is </i>not<i> involved?</i></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Come back next Saturday for Act Three of "The Tarantula"...</span><br />
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Curtain.</i><br />
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<i><br /></i></div>
</div>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-90448432668289633562014-01-04T06:13:00.000-05:002014-03-01T12:38:16.217-05:00Sandman Mystery Theatre #1 (April 1993)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivGcS1Ren0yIS7oWY-4wd4DeOoWkSNZiyLba_Kos7jc65_5wJ-aWfrAwmZ4tONlJ7GYxvDk7zYQJYDtsgNIkB6iSXmYjRVODcMKPzC7vn2xeBT-uqnLCO1r422ZWukDm3xCoQgwwbHFFvm/s1600/%25231cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivGcS1Ren0yIS7oWY-4wd4DeOoWkSNZiyLba_Kos7jc65_5wJ-aWfrAwmZ4tONlJ7GYxvDk7zYQJYDtsgNIkB6iSXmYjRVODcMKPzC7vn2xeBT-uqnLCO1r422ZWukDm3xCoQgwwbHFFvm/s1600/%25231cover.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> #1: "The Tarantula" Act One</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Written by Matt Wagner</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Art by Guy Davis</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Colors by David Hornung</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Letters by John Costanza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Edited by Shelly Roeberg and Karen Berger</b></div>
<br />
<i>Curtain up</i>.<br />
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We open on a dream sequence, a nightmare or a premonition. Where this particular protagonist is concerned, is there any difference? The inclusion of a dreams as a theme and a narrative device creates a bridge between <i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> and the popular <i>Sandman</i> series by <b>Neil Gaiman</b>, as does the cameo appearance of the helm of the Dream King in the fourth panel. The uniform, almost windowpane panel construction and the fluid transition of images evokes <b>Dave Gibbons</b>' work on <i>Watchmen</i>. The immediate first impression is that this series will be very cerebral, conceptual and symbolic. Unfortunately, so many of the comics that attempted such a tone in the wake of <i>Watchmen</i> failed to tell a quality story because their heads were stuck up their own asses.</div>
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Can SMT avoid the same fate?</div>
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New York, late 1930s. Dian Belmont wants little more than to go out drinking and dancing with her friends. Her father, the district attorney, wants her to go to school.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPptW4lOrI_vRzfPrTLK4JDcXoUaYFHv_kvwv5vwOYFhgdSIVlkc4h6BFAI1H7FGX2lyvW10VxwIaTRKsi6IugWCGtftale7_ojFvXpr-mpa0H8pIDU7KBUx-gM9g6z_FSgToJzG_EBIh/s1600/%25231page2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPptW4lOrI_vRzfPrTLK4JDcXoUaYFHv_kvwv5vwOYFhgdSIVlkc4h6BFAI1H7FGX2lyvW10VxwIaTRKsi6IugWCGtftale7_ojFvXpr-mpa0H8pIDU7KBUx-gM9g6z_FSgToJzG_EBIh/s1600/%25231page2.jpg" /></a></div>
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Dian seems to live for the present while Belmont wants her to think about the future. He sees her lack of direction and passion but cannot keep her home at night. He can only watch her ride off in a taxi toward whatever decadence her generation gets up to at night.</div>
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Back in his study, Belmont finds an intruder breaking into the wall safe. Dressed in a fedora and gas mask, this masked man of mystery is the Sandman...</div>
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Artist <b>Guy Davis</b> retooled the classic Sandman look, swapping the purple opera cape for a trench coat that looks grayish purple. Gone, too, is the stylized mask, replaced by a relic of the Great War. The effect is so effortlessly simple that it's instantly iconic. The gas mask is alien, insectoid, but recognizable and functional. For a "superhero", the look is as striking as the Punisher's skull shirt, and maybe even more haunting and memorable (<i>maybe</i>).</div>
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The Sandman fires his gas gun at Belmont, causing the man to fall harmlessly to sleep in the chair in his study.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYs3uuCdIEgQb3xD5zZBdkwIqBN-3zErz_9J7Utz-cCCS5BZSK4niIVpR-u2W2-Af4StC_adBfP-6NoJWyb7nzBr_E103HXpSGqCZ_OIttYQQs6tpvuxJdSsq-3gTs7JXXWoK481mEbefQ/s1600/%25231page4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYs3uuCdIEgQb3xD5zZBdkwIqBN-3zErz_9J7Utz-cCCS5BZSK4niIVpR-u2W2-Af4StC_adBfP-6NoJWyb7nzBr_E103HXpSGqCZ_OIttYQQs6tpvuxJdSsq-3gTs7JXXWoK481mEbefQ/s1600/%25231page4.jpg" /></a></div>
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When the mysterious Sandman slips away, we cut to Dian Belmont joining her friends for a night of music and merriment post-Prohibition-style. Pages 6 and 7 are some of my favorite pages in this comic, despite them not showing the Sandman or any crazy dream images or any of the horror of the as-yet-unseen villain.</div>
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What Guy Davis does in this page is create a visual through-line for the entire series. The title card falls on one horizontal panel that stretches across both pages. The rest of the panels on page 6 read vertically before page 7. But that first panel--so cinematic, so perfectly evocative of the story's setting. Every time I get to this page, I hear a trumpet playing and I smell cigarettes.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4VjMoVhiEOrh8HMQWBrsjc7ZeDPN1VNkmy7fc3ayEPuyVvV_vSzkCraZXlMLakNc-ti_AKTIGydIquduzfjCGuiNl4flLTDh5Bxvq5DejJTv8nef-fPMj9TmwcP21jAh-8PENKl9ktVk4/s1600/%25231page6-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4VjMoVhiEOrh8HMQWBrsjc7ZeDPN1VNkmy7fc3ayEPuyVvV_vSzkCraZXlMLakNc-ti_AKTIGydIquduzfjCGuiNl4flLTDh5Bxvq5DejJTv8nef-fPMj9TmwcP21jAh-8PENKl9ktVk4/s400/%25231page6-7.jpg" height="303" width="400" /></a></div>
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Dian's partying rages until dawn when she shares a cab with her friend, Catherine. In the taxi, Cath spills that despite her socialization and flirting with so many men, she has a boyfriend that she keeps secret. Cath gets out of the taxi, but before she can make it safely to her apartment, a shadowy figure grabs her.</div>
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After sleeping late, Dian meets her father that night at a gala event hosted by the mayor. She's bored and a little rude while her father schmoozes with the retired Judge Schaffer. Then the former judge introduces Dian and her father to his young friend, Wesley Dodds.</div>
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Wesley Dodds doesn't look like the millionaire playboy type, but he is. He has returned from somewhere far off to inherit the family business in the wake of his father's death. Davis again plays against the convention of the Golden Age; this Dodds isn't a handsome lantern-jawed adonis with an athlete's physique like Bruce Wayne or Alan Scott. Wesley Dodds has glasses, what looks to be a receding hairline, and almost seems a bit <i>doughy</i>.</div>
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Dodds doesn't look like the superhero type, either, but that he is again, too. This is the Sandman, we gather from his narration and description of the characters. He doesn't think much of Dian, at first, mistaking her for a vacuous socialite, but he does recognize the effect her beauty and forwardness has on others.</div>
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Dian, of course, feels an instant interest in Wesley because of his apparent lack of interest in her (and the Yankees). His estimation of her is called into question before he leaves, when he realizes she's smarter than she lets on.</div>
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District Attorney Belmont is called away from the gala when Cath's kidnapping is reported. Wesley offers Judge Schaffer a ride home, allowing the older man time to reveal some inside information, like the kidnapper goes by the name of The Tarantula.</div>
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Wesley returns to his mansion, but does not go to sleep. A kind of voodoo doll-looking avatar occupies his bed while Wesley slips off to the basement.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4aFqN78aWD3c0aPbR0vjnIvTll8BNRFksX_pvKCBeeT273paKPNPm5IeEvJUA6PYZFeuLWJiiSnD09JbLpFn9eRd7qBLLScihgLW-U2Ty9kdDvC2A9_2aItgRXE9gkgcn0vXPA3n2y8P2/s1600/%25231page14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4aFqN78aWD3c0aPbR0vjnIvTll8BNRFksX_pvKCBeeT273paKPNPm5IeEvJUA6PYZFeuLWJiiSnD09JbLpFn9eRd7qBLLScihgLW-U2Ty9kdDvC2A9_2aItgRXE9gkgcn0vXPA3n2y8P2/s1600/%25231page14.jpg" /></a></div>
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Back at the Belmont house, the D.A. tells Dian that her friend was kidnapped off the street before she got home. Dian is terrified, confused, and angry.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXNHmeQtcpQOC3VU8p6pDsnlhQ8hVfKwd4o9P3HJh3T8STYh6ohbBNE1fAoOQk0lk294kY6CUkXNLu0fqGMyLN3ygIiqfaeIDayzXqtUyd83SUOaRjFbiEUPxVFv5eh_UKguMnZeu2Wt5/s1600/%25231page16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBXNHmeQtcpQOC3VU8p6pDsnlhQ8hVfKwd4o9P3HJh3T8STYh6ohbBNE1fAoOQk0lk294kY6CUkXNLu0fqGMyLN3ygIiqfaeIDayzXqtUyd83SUOaRjFbiEUPxVFv5eh_UKguMnZeu2Wt5/s1600/%25231page16.jpg" /></a></div>
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The Sandman goes to spy on the residence of Albert Goldman, a man of wealth and power hosting some gangsters from out of town. We see Goldman's daughter, Celia, vamp for the bosses before going out to party in town. Then we see Goldman's son, Roger, another source of consternation for his father. Roger seems like an odd sort; recently home from <i>elsewhere</i>, preferring to drink alone in the dark. (<i>My gut tells me keep an eye on this kid.</i>) We see Goldman's inebriated wife make a scene; though drunk, she clearly knows the kind of men her husband is courting and makes her disapproval obvious. Boy, everyone in this guy's family seems like trouble!</div>
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Back in the city, Dian is insistent on going out to drink and fraternize again regardless of the danger that fell upon her friend. When Wesley Dodds shows up to speak to her father, however, the urgency to leave deserts Dian.</div>
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Wesley seems to be there to pump the D.A. for information on Goldman, but when Belmont gets a phone call, Wesley and Dian share a moment. We learn that he doesn't drink, he spent time in the orient, and he's practiced in origami paper folding.</div>
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When Wes goes home, Judge Schaffer tells him the kidnapper has struck again and invites him to the police station to hear some more gossip. Wes feigns sleepiness and the judge leaves.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH8uouc_F7Y0D21TTYsGt9q_mJXmZW4vOgmRL-25dlbxNVKOGpNmjXUh-BPPzFBx-NQ7Me-NBi9wQ_yAuWeBy7GXjBw2aMbzN2hIhAbxsoCBKAgb6BsqBqDArns9VenWN0gOA27HBEaQDo/s1600/%25231page23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH8uouc_F7Y0D21TTYsGt9q_mJXmZW4vOgmRL-25dlbxNVKOGpNmjXUh-BPPzFBx-NQ7Me-NBi9wQ_yAuWeBy7GXjBw2aMbzN2hIhAbxsoCBKAgb6BsqBqDArns9VenWN0gOA27HBEaQDo/s1600/%25231page23.jpg" /></a></div>
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Dian is waiting for her father at the police station when Schaffer arrives. He notices that all of the cops seem particularly interested in Dian, not that any of them are helping her or making her feel more comfortable. One uniformed cop clumsily--and probably deliberately--spills coffee on her jacket and blouse.</div>
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She goes to the ladies room to clean up, but the lightbulb is out. Luckily, she has a flashlight in her purse. When she turns it on, she spots the Sandman crouching in the corner listening to something at the wall.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH68Qwx8STfz0hh-I0QZtU53ggr3yma9RdXF3yMUbqguC_MAVj_L1GYI0OLsnLenmpHQrSMEwf6NGVh3vO-yHnns1gndHOoibysGkLVX4xQEUHWD3yPfpeIDxy1FtPsJxWQzDx8joyfsNk/s1600/%25231page26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH68Qwx8STfz0hh-I0QZtU53ggr3yma9RdXF3yMUbqguC_MAVj_L1GYI0OLsnLenmpHQrSMEwf6NGVh3vO-yHnns1gndHOoibysGkLVX4xQEUHWD3yPfpeIDxy1FtPsJxWQzDx8joyfsNk/s1600/%25231page26.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Matt Wagner</b>'s script is tight. The dialogue feels natural and period appropriate at the same time. There are layers upon layers of the mystery, not the least of which being the identity and bizarre motivations of the Sandman himself. Davis' art is gorgeously ugly in the right places, really bringing the <i>pulp</i> out of this old fashioned crime fiction.</div>
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Come back next Saturday for Act Two of "The Tarantula"...</div>
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<i>Curtain.</i></div>
<br />Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8893076369529328613.post-61595903645412064532013-12-15T08:33:00.003-05:002014-07-04T20:58:32.111-04:00Welcome to The Sandman Slept Here<div style="text-align: justify;">
I swear, this idea came to me as an <b>April Fool's</b> joke. Changing the topic and design of my Black Canary blog for one day and reviewing some random issue of <i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i>. I had some time to kill, so I made up a new header design that I liked. Really liked. As in, didn't want to waste it on a single day.</div>
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It took about ninety seconds for the flight of fancy to break orbit as a full-blown idea. A blog for the Golden Age Sandman. I barely had enough time for the one blog I already ran, and now I wanted to double that workload? Not a chance!</div>
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But there <i>was</i> a compromise: updating the blog weekly instead of daily, using it to complement <a href="http://blackcanaryfan.blogspot.com/">Flowers & Fishnets</a> rather than rival it. And so <b>Sandman Saturday</b> was born. Every weekend starting in January, I'll review an issue of DC/Vertigo's <i>Sandman Mystery Theatre</i> or one of the classic Wesley Dodds tales from the Golden Age.</div>
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Enjoy reading... and <i>pleasant dreams</i>!</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilvMNtZt7AdOrjYAFReBmrlbiOMshAhpDVZ78IFSgGp5hJqnRqkHzN0aJGKFBXzWUX9SpTUncOxjpAZ-ZmUxNPMP3WN7KoQsDiECRJV9p5DrR6Humy616a4dHIeBvrEIpZEKMuCdLiyjGR/s1600/smfrancescofrancavilla.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilvMNtZt7AdOrjYAFReBmrlbiOMshAhpDVZ78IFSgGp5hJqnRqkHzN0aJGKFBXzWUX9SpTUncOxjpAZ-ZmUxNPMP3WN7KoQsDiECRJV9p5DrR6Humy616a4dHIeBvrEIpZEKMuCdLiyjGR/s1600/smfrancescofrancavilla.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sandman by Francesco Francavilla.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Count Drunkulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18130778855882160092noreply@blogger.com6