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Sapphire & Steel
"The Beast in the Picture"
Look-In (1979) #33-40
Written by: Angus Allan
Art by: Arthur Ransom |
A strange being forces an artist to paint pictures with the
power to enslave.
Notes from the Sapphire & Steel chronology
Read the story summary at
the Internet Archive copy of Animus Web
Didja Know?
Comic strips in
Look-In magazine were generally not credited to
author and artist. According to the
Animus Web site, the
Sapphire & Steel strips were written by Angus
Allan and drawn by
Arthur Ransom.
All of the
Look-In magazine
strips feature Sapphire and Steel dressed in the
clothes they wore in the first television storyline,
"Escape Through a Crack in Time".
The artist must have had only photo references from those early
episodes.
This story appeared in eight issues of Look-In, a UK
magazine geared towards kids. The story is told in comic strip
form and appeared in two-page chapters of each issue.
The story itself is untitled. I borrowed the title
"The Beast in the Picture" and short description from the
Sapphire & Steel Chronology on the
Look-In wiki.
Characters appearing or mentioned in this episode
Jack Terriss
Jack Terriss' wife (unnamed, mentioned only, deceased)
Marcus Terriss
Steel
Sapphire
Didja Notice?
The story opens at Scarstone House, a fictitious mansion in
the moorlands of England.
Widower Jack Terriss sends his son Marcus on his bicycle to
Gatefield Post Office to send the latest package of art off
to Dixon Advertising. Gatefield Post Office and Dixon
Advertising appear to be fictitious enterprises.
On page 8 of the story, one of Terriss' accursed paintings
falls from the wall directly in front of Steel and he runs
into it, becoming absorbed into the painting. In
"Escape Through a Crack in Time" Part 3,
Sapphire becomes trapped inside a room in the painting of a
cottage. On page 12 of our current story, Sapphire becomes stuck in a mirror.
In panel 1 of page 9 of the story, the French executioner
struggling to force Steel into place for the guillotine
says, "Venez ici aristo!" This is French for "Come
here, aristocrat!"
In panel 1 of page 12 of the story, Sapphire has a vision of
a druidic ceremony at a sacrificial circle that once existed on
the same site as the house. The circle similar to Stonehenge,
but must be a different site since
Stonehenge is still standing.
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