The bullet holes were the least of it. Gould never forgot to
let the
victims hemmorage so that the body was almost always found
with a little
pool of blood coming from the mouth. I also recall one
continuity that ended
with the criminal being scalded to death. Gould's art was
never close to
realism, but for me his quick impressionistic shorthand was
more suggestive
than any number of Alex Raymond "draughtsman". Sort of in the
saame way that
the most horrible part of _Psycho, for me, is that imprint of
"Mother" left
in the bed. As you point out, actual fatal wounds have the
potential to be
pretty mind-boggling, and couldn't be portrayed in any
newspaper....Gould
pushed the envelope as far as he could with his half-skelatal
remains, etc.
After the 1940s, the strip went badly downhill, but for the
first 15 years I
think it represented one of the few artistic achievments in
the comics
James
James Michael Rogers
jetan@ionet.net
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