Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Beneath The Grave

In our previous post of Ghouls Rush In, we saw the Atlas reworking of Henry Kuttner’s uncredited classic The Graveyard Rats, and now it’s Comic Media’s turn to show us their chops of said tale. From the March 1954 issue of Horrific #10, Beneath The Grave is essentially the same story (plus or minus some details) but told here in such a completely different visual manner that, thanks in large part to Palais’s freakish art style, it becomes something much more nightmarish, claustrophobic, and surreal than even the Atlas version.

NOTE: If you enjoy these story comparisons let me know and I’ll bring more up from the vaults for us to analyze in the future. Vote on which one you like better between this one and Ghouls Rush In!







8 comments:

Anonymous said...

definitely this one is better, the art is cooler and talking rats give me the creeps!!!!!!

Mr. Karswell said...

I think I agree but mostly like them both about the same for different reasons. I like how the guy throws off more sweat (and snot?) than a Don Martin character in this one...

Anonymous said...

But were the rats actually speaking? Check out the jagged outline of their speech balloons compared to everyone else's. As far as I am concerned, these mutant rodent babies were communicating telepathically.

Anonymous said...

P'shaw! Everyone knows that giant grave robbing comic book rats can't communicate telepahtically!

Brian Barnes said...

I couldn't choose between them because while they seem the same on the offset, they are pretty different stories in the execution.

The previous one is man vs rats, but while this one has rats and a graveyard setting, it's more like the standard "guy discovers some evil beings underground and they pursue him" vibe.

Both are great, though. It's hard to not throw a vote for the gooey, dripping, flop sweat art in this one.

nutsilica.blogspot.com said...

I agree they become two different types of stories. I have to give the Rudy Palais piece the trophy. His art was so energetic and unique. His character design is interesting.
The first story's ending didn't fit, (as interesting that it was...). It came out of nowhere. I still enjoyed it because it was good up until that point and to resolve the ending in my mind, I had to reverse engineer the story to work and came out with a whole new story in my mind... that's always fun.

Bill the Butcher said...

None of your other comments have mentioned it, but this is just a version of the Henry Kuttner story The Graveyard Rats.

Mr. Karswell said...

There is actually a zero need to repeat anything here in the comments that I have already mentioned above in my intro. People PLEASE read the intros! Thank you --Mr. K