Word: spiritualistic
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...hands of underground-comic pioneer Spain Rodriguez, the 1946 William Lindsay Gresham novel (later a 1947 movie) gets the cartoon treatment its subjects--hustling and degradation in a 1930s carnival--beg for. Magician Stanton Carlisle hatches a plan to pose as a spiritualist to con rich marks, in the process revealing the family history that destroyed his faith in God and man. Nightmare Alley (Fantagraphics; 129 pages) is an existential novel wrapped in a noir chiller, and Rodriguez's lurid drawings strike just the right balance of sheen and sleaze. Step right...
...Coldy ambitious and hotly lustful, he learns the medium's secrets and begins a "two-a-day" mentalist vaudeville act with Molly, a virginal looker with a thing for daddy. Never satisfied, Stanton tricks up a house and puts on a minister's outfit, turning himself into a successful "spiritualist." Soon he meets a wealthy industrialist who's "overboard on the spook dodge. He's living on dream street," and willing shell out big bucks to square his conscience with a dead girl. But Stan's downfall comes when he meets Lilith, a comely shrink who's too smart...
...Thompson novel. As adapted by Spain, "Nightmare" pulls you into a secret world, with its own colorful language. "You can go back to carny and find another kootch show. But I want to have big dough," is a typical line, delivered when Molly hesitates on trying out the spiritualist "dodge." Throughout the book you get a privileged inside look at the tricks of the trade: the hand-offs, the cold-readings, the radio transmitters in the jacket. It's a rare treat to go behind the curtain, and it keeps you reading for more...