Ultimate Destiny is a long-lost, brilliant pre-code horror tale with a classic shock ending by the prolific Golden Age comic book creator Jay Disbrow. Included as the final story of the otherwise dull anti-crime comic book Crime Detector #5, this September 1954 tale must have been a giddy shock to the minds of young readers who flipped, bored, through the typical law and order morality tales that comprised the majority of the content of the book. Discovering this story must have been like unearthing a buried treasure and finding a gold coin among leaden slugs. I imagine this book was hidden from parents and surreptitiously shared, like some sordid photo magazine found in their Father's closet, with friends in alleys, forts and tree houses all over the America of the 1950s. This story has served as the inspiration for a number of teleplays and comic book stories over the years.
Enjoy!
This is one of the few times I've seen this story in color. I've only previously seen this story as photocopied pages with poor register in an old comic book anthology or two from the 1970s.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Ultimate Destiny
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I can picture the artists asking himself, "how do I keep from sliding into bathos in the final reveal?" Maybe he mulls it over awhile, tries a few thumbnails, and finally ambling over to the writer's desk and asking his opinion. Which is: "Hell, don't even try to hold back. Just go for broke on the last page. Make it unforgettable. Hilarious or terrifying, either way works for me."
ReplyDeleteIck. The narrator was right ... I think I did lose a chunk of my sanity.
ReplyDeleteCreeeeepy.
hahaha
ReplyDeleteohhhh man that reveal is phenomenal