Madam Satan in: Vampire panic!

[alicemacher]

In this two-parter from Pep #18 and #19 (Aug-Sept 1941; public domain), our villain learns to change up her strategy a bit from merely seducing men and trying to give them the death-kiss. Does it work? Let's find out!
















So...you're just going to embalm her and leave her in that bed, forever? Okay, if that's your thing, I guess. :/














Phooey. That looked like a good "whippin' up the mob into a superstitious frenzy" story at first. Then they had to spoil it by using Brother Sunbeam (such a "Woodstock baby" name for 1941, am I right?) as a deus ex machina, instead of offering moral and spiritual support behind the scenes as he normally does.

Oh well. Two more stories still to come; see you all next post, and remember: If she's a skull-eyed miss, you must not kiss!

Comments

[his_spiffynesss]

For a guy called Brother Sunbeam, he doesn't seem all that jovial.

[crinos]

Well look at the morons he's got to deal with all day.

[drtechnobabel]

Or that virtuous for that matter. Look at him just creeping outside of Tom's window at the end there. Something tells me he's getting more than just his ego stroked there, if you know what I mean.

[icon_uk]

In fairness, monks adopted named tended to be aspirational rather than descriptive.

[his_spiffynesss]

Yeah, I was thinking too much about Mr. Keeper from Kid Eternity.

[falkner]

and remember: If she's a skull-eyed miss, you must not kiss!
But what if I'm into that sort of thing, uh? UH?

[alicemacher]

Eternal damnation as a kink? I can dig it.

[writeofway]

Whatever sparks your flame...of eternal torment and damnation.

[drtechnobabel]

"Strange Tom, but I got such a queer feeling when I looked into her eyes."

If this story wasn't written in the 1940s, this is where it could have gone a very different direction.

[thanekos]

Madam Satan does sound like a title for lesbian pulp fiction.

[bradygirl_12]

I like the panel with Madame Satan's hair looking like she's got devil horns. ;)

The devil is actually very forgiving! Madame Satan has botched job after job yet he keeps her around. ;)

Nita's very forgiving, too. Hubby lets the mob take her to be staked but all is forgiven.

[silicondream]

The Devil's carefully-parted hair never fails to amuse me in this series. He's drawn so much like a 30's caricature of the Evil Jew Banker, but I don't have the art history skills to know who's ripping off whom, pulp comic artist or antisemitic propagandist...

[alicemacher]

Agh! Can't unsee it now.

I doubt it was intentional, though. MLJ's CEO, John L. Goldwater was Jewish (as were his founding partners Louis Silberkleit and--possibly--Maurice Coyne, though they weren't involved with the content of their publications), so unabashed anti-Semitic stereotyping probably wouldn't have flown there. Sadly, though, many early MLJ stories did feature, in their art and writing, the usual racist caricatures of African Americans.

[arilou_skiff]

She's incredibly bad at the seduction thing isn't she? She basically just orders people to kiss her.

[bruinsfan]

In her origin story she was dressed in her brassiere while sitting at the dinner table with her fiance's parents, so I suspect subtlety was never part of her game plan.

[leoboiko]

I always feel bad for Madame Satan being dissed by the boss :(