Balloons of Doom & Balls of Hate
Like a deep, dark, weirdness-filled mirror the world of Bunty (and girls' comics in general) continues to hold fustar.info in its thrall. The more I look, the more wonders (and terrors) I see returning my gaze.
Two weeks ago we revisited the jolly adventures of "Belle" and a ball that "had developed remarkable powers after being treated by space travellers from the planet Orbis".
As is the case with many such powerful, "paranormal" objects, ownership passes (over the centuries) from person to person. A quick bit of detective work (by myself and Jess) revealed the identities of the previous and current guardians – Sylvia Plath, and the Cruise/Holmes child-bot:
Thanks to the good people over at the Comics UK forums I've been reminded that narratives about young girls and "uncanny balls" were by no means rare or unusual. Take, for example, this brief excerpt from "The Ball of Hate"1 – kindly uploaded by "steelclaw":
A demonic glass ball that tells young Ms. Thorpe seductive (and destructive) untruths = fantastic stuff. It's not clear who/what "treated" (or possessed) this particular ball, but the fact that it's difficult to get rid of clearly marks it out as a thing of evil. Perhaps the dark gods of "Orbis" are responsible?
Speaking of evil, any discussion of uncanny balls and young girls must make mention of Mario Bava's Operazione Paura (a.k.a. Kill, Baby… Kill!) – a film in which…
"…the townsfolk of a backwards Carpathian village are bedevilled by the spectre of a young girl with long blonde hair, whose ghostly visitations are announced by the arrival of a white ball that rolls into the scene, seemingly with a will of its own."
The Movie Morlocks article "Follow the Bouncing Ball" (source of the above quote) also reminds us that Fellini borrowed the image for "Toby Dammit" ("his contribution to the horror anthology Spirits of the Dead"). Behold:
Creepy and scarifying, but I've saved the best till last. Not a ball this time, though not far off. Courtesy of that man "philcom55″ (over at Comics UK) comes this slice of freakiness, scanned straight from the pages of Bunty No. 1471 (March 22, 1986). You'll need to click on the image for the full effect…
That's some intuitive leap by young Katherine. Her town is hit by a "violent storm" and she becomes convinced that the blame lies with her sister's "strange balloon".2 Hmmm…her logic is not like our Earth logic. Still, given that some people believe the Twin Towers were felled by missiles hidden inside holograms of planes, I suppose it's not totally outrageous. I mean, look at its face for God's sake!
Since "philcom55″ himself has succinctly captured the unease the page generates (even among adult readers/viewers) I'll leave the penultimate words to him:
I'm particularly struck by the way in which a symbol of childish joy and wonder is transformed into something so horrifically sinister (rather in the style of Ray Bradbury's 'Something Wicked This Way Comes'); what's more the effect is cleverly enhanced by limiting any colour to the balloon itself while everything else is depicted in black and white.
Amen, brother.
- Drawn by Dudley Wynn, from Mandy I think? [back]
- I should add that the "Balloon of Doom" artist is none other than Robert Macgillivray, he of "The Flights of Flopear". [back]
October 31, 2007
5 responses to Balloons of Doom & Balls of Hate
Dark gods of Orbis? Nah – I reckon all demonic talking balls originate from the world of the Tall Man.
Is there any more of that Balloon of Doom strip scanned in anywhere? Cause I have the feeling that it imparts useful life lessons about not trusting talking balloons or going to the Moon with strangers – important stuff that kids should know. That’s exactly the kind of material I want my 2-yr-old goddaughter to grow up with – not all this Shrek and Toy Story mullarkey that she seems to think is so amazing – poor misguided tyke!
No more Balloon o’ Doom online as far as I know – which is, of course, a terrible shame.
The life lessons imparted in these stories might appear abstract (and related to highly improbable situations) but I’m sure children with decent critical faculties could decode them.
Balloon of Doom is probably about predatory paedophiles…or somethin’…
By the way, I wouldn’t class Toy Story (one of the greatest animated films ever made) in the same class as Shrek (a grossly overrated, lame-gag-heavy, formulaic buddy movie).
I don’t know how “Balloon of Doom” ended but it turns out that the balloon is not evil (despite the look on its face). Rather, it has powers that cause chaos and the only way it can keep them controlled is to attach itself to a human. It can also talk and seems rather bemused as to why humans refer to it as a balloon.
Just stumbled across your site – I remember exactly how the Balloon of Doom strip ended – the balloon actually contained little space aliens who were only trying to get back to their own planet. The balloon was their spaceship and the girl helped them. Happy ending just like all classic girls’ comics. Cheers
@Helen – how disappointing! I’m going to bury my head in the sand, pretend I never heard that, and carry on believing the balloon was eerie malevolence in balloon form.