Now we know what the Chicago Cubs and Styx have in common. Cursed by the Devil herself…
I filled this one with all types of references, as I’m a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and love their really deep references they would toss out. Today’s comic has a few of it’s own. Check your Chicago Cubs lore and you’ll get why I chose a goat as the Devil’s assistant.
Today’s comic title was a hit for the Louisiana-based John Fred and his Playboys in early 1968. Apparently he misheard “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” as “in disguise” instead of “in the sky” and wrote this song only to find out what it really meant. Catchy song with a really great bass line that I never learned to play… I’ll have to pick it up now. Guess what the Devil’s name is now? Yep… Judy.
More Devilish fun Wednesday, which will lead us all up to a SUPER special Halloween comic featuring a great guest artist. Be sure to toon in Saturday for that fun extra comic!
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A little trivia for you. I based the Devil’s staff on the one used in the “Lost In Space” episode called “The Keeper”. In it, a galactic zoo keeper wants the Robinson’s kids for his collection. Actor Michael Rennie played the Keeper and is best known as Klaatu from “The Day The Earth Stood Still” from 1951, not that damned remake of year or so ago. Anyway, here’s a shot for you all to savor!
The Keeper
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Discussion (31) ¬
Funny stuff. Love the sign in the background!
GREAT, GREAT, GREAT! Had to share this one with my darling. XD
Loving the Halloween header!
Great comic, B! The colors really jumped out at me.
Oh, gods – I LOATHE “Babe.” And yes, something satanic definitly had something to do with that song. Your reference to it cracked me up. Thanks!
(You ever see the Behind the Music episode for Styx? It was perhaps the funniest installment of that show so far. The other band members had no bones about bashing the crap out of Dennis de Young; James Young essentially said they’d hated recording and performing his material, but the songs sold so well they put up with it for the sake of the bucks. Tommy Shaw – who was far wittier than I would have expected – was downright brutal. After a painful excerpt of Shaw and Young performing some stilted “acting” from Kilroy was Here amidst a chorus of boos from the audience, Shaw deadpanned, “As you can imagine, I was doing a lot self-medicating at the time…”)
Funny thing – I just bought a “Billboard Hits” collection with “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses” on it yesterday. A music shop by us was having a moving sale, and had a bunch of CDs on sale for .80 cents each. That compilation was one of the handful I bought less than 24 hours before you posted a comic with that rather obscure song on it. Weird…
I never would have thought that a song written as a gift of love to the songwriter’s wife would be considered as something that was directed by Satan. I’m sure any wife would like that. After all, the song was never intended to be released on an album, but the ENTIRE BAND thought it would be good to include it.
Dennis is awesome. I love how Styx hated his stuff yet they still go around playing it after they booted him, b/c that is what people like the best.
wow cool updated Byron. Love all the references, and a glimpse into hell! Also digging the Halloween header, nice touch!
Why is it that as soon as a band discovers the multi-platinum power ballad, everything goes to hell. I love Heart in the 70s, have a lot less use for them in the 80s just because of that. I am certain Satan was involved. Of course, Satan in this incarnation is seriously hot, so I’d be tempted, too. 🙂
Actually, Tom, Heart’s “change in sound” had less to do with power ballads than with the Wilson sisters’ erratic relationship histories with fellow band members: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(band)
That said, I’m with you there. I had no interest in the band after the self-titled 1980s album.
Too bad there isn’t a way to get money by pointing people to itunes, or Amazon.com to download the songs in your comic titles, and you get a slice of the sales. Your music theme would fit SO PERFECTLY with that. (I for one went to iTunes to check it out, thanks to you reminding me of the song referenced in this comic.)
Hmm. Speaking from gig-sharing experience, I think the entirety of Styx – band and oeuvre both – can be tidily summed up as ‘a steaming pile of shite, right down there at the bottom of the food chain with Speedwagon and the rest of the Midwestern Ahh Murkan Total Fail brigade’ 😛 😛 😛 And I don’t give a toss how many records they’ve sold – the world is full of bad taste. In fact, bad taste is probably the default state of most music fans.
Of course, you and I disagree on quite a few things musically, despite being friends…not least about the Stones’ ‘Miss You’, which I’ve always considered to be in the same ‘sometimes white folks do it better’ category as Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ and ‘Fame’ or the Bee Gees’ (yes, may I be damned forever by Plan 9’s producer, the sodding Bee Gees) ‘Jive Talking’, so nyah nyah 😀 OTOH I break out in a rash if anyone ever inflicts ‘Waiting for a Girl Like You’ on me. Or ‘Kayleigh’. Or ~shudders~ ‘I Wanna Know What Love Is’. Eww eww eww.
BTW pleeeease tell me that the Devil Woman was responsible for Shania Twain? There’s no other explanation…
Never feel guilty about pleasure! 😉
I think you know my true opinion of Zep – they did some awesome stuff, but they’re not a patch on the real thing ~coughwormholeuniversecough~ especially in the lead guitar department. And I’ve never forgiven Page for the abomination he committed on Joe’s otherwise stunning version of ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ (nor for waking me at uncivilised hours in search of scrounging methadone off my housemate, but that’s another story, muhahaha).
Right, I’m commenting in yours, now go comment in mine when you get the chance 😛
Awesome! Those stalagmites get awfully dirty and singed down there!
During my early days as an engineer in the late 80s, I had my sole brush with fame. Joe Miceli, the drummer/percussionist for the Playboys had a day-job with the firm doing drafting work. He taught me more about real engineering than most of my professors.
That’s the most evil devil EVAR!