wow! that is creepy... and yet I want a copy
Freudian slip
Either that or I am a little perverse... completely possible since I love torture/bondange...
Hmmm, this is really not going well for me
Oh I don't know
That is one weird funnybook cover.
Many of the people I work with are childhood survivors of emotional and physical abuse, which may be why I find this cover so compelling. To me, this is a real horror cover. But it's all in the sub-text, and -probably?- unknowing.
Whereas the sub-text of virtually all PCH is a wink "this is all just a story". Hence, the more Grand Guignol, the more cathartic.
Or in the case of bondage covers, they are about anything but Kraft Ebbing. They are about the critical moment of rescue. And the damsel is always innocent, and therefore deserves to be rescued.
It is in the rare instances where the damsel has no visible means of rescue that they are more disturbing - cf Underworld Crime #7.
Whereas powerful women tend to be depicted as evil/and or manipulative, which is pure Cinema Noir.
Or if good, then like Phantom Lady shining a light while scantily clad into evil men's darkness.
It may or may not be a coincidence that the same tropes seem to emerge in so-called Men's Sweat magazines after Wertham and the demise of the pulps. I haven't done my research, and don't know enough to be sure.
I do wonder about the influence of the war on the artists who returned.
In real life I am a mental health therapist... so I like covers which depict mental health in some way (hence the Boy #24). I am not sure whether I would call this abuse or just very very strange as the child is getting spanked (not beaten) by an adult size play toy... My feeling is that we read more into the covers than was ever intended. But I could be wrong...