Friday, August 31, 2007
Tag… You’re It!
From the July 1954 issue of Tomb of Terror #16 comes another neat E.C./Wood/Davis-inspired bit of fun from Howard Nostrand. Oddly enough, Overstreet calls this issue a “Special Sci-Fi Issue” when actually only 2 of the four stories are sci-fi (?!) I mean, does this story here seem sci-fi to you? Still, this was a good little yarn for The Tomb to end it’s glorious run with before finally caving in to Comics Code scare tactics and thus becoming “ Thrills of Tomorrow “ for only 4 boring issues full of reprints and weak Kirby Stuntman covers.
It's possible that mom's breasts were influenced by Bill Ward too.
ReplyDeletePage 1, panel 1 splash page is influenced by Davis: big feet and knobby fingers of the vampire. Yes, the rest is heavily influenced by Wood. I enjoy these comics. I've read every EC story over the years (been a fan since 1976), so these stories are like new EC stories to me.
ReplyDelete>I've read every EC story over the years (been a fan since 1976)
ReplyDeleteMy earliest pre-code horror experiences came from around the mid 70's too when I was around 7 or 8. I was tagging along with my grandma to some hillbilly antique shop in southern MO, while she looked at empty Avon bottles I was digging around in a box of magazines and found a bunch of coverless 70's Marvel reprints like Crypt of Shadows and Vault of Evil. I can actually remember my mind snapping and my eyeballs frying in their sockets. What I didn't know then though was that these were actually stories from the 50's but I knew I liked them. I convinced granny to buy them for me and for the next few years I read them over and over, scaring myself (and my sister) silly. And of course I needed more MORE MORE!!! I remember having little understanding at the time on how to get more horror comics (this was in the dark ages and comicbook stores didn't even exist yet in St Louis MO), but I knew that the old man barber shop my stepdad took me to for a crappy haircut had comics laying around on the waiting area table though it was always just superhero stuff... and the metal spin rack at the Rexall only had the typical top 10 Marvel / DC titles. I remember going into a liquor store with my uncle and up on the top shelves I saw the black and white Warren and Eerie publications, (right next to the porn of course.) It wasn't until I was in high school in the early to mid 80's when I finally found more of the horror comics I really wanted, at a full blown comic shop. This was probably around the same time I was introduced to EC too.
If anyone else cares to share their earliest pre-code horror comic stories please pass them on! Nostalgia is a fun way to help pass the day (when not reading comics!)
I VE ALWAYS HEARD OF PRE CODE HORROR BUT NEVER READ ANYTHING UNTIL THIS BLOG CAME ALONG!!!!!! THANK YOU!!
ReplyDeleteThis is so deliciously weird! Howard Nostrand draws exactly like he was the love-child of a Jack Davis/Wally Wood affair. Great stuff...I'm gonna keep checking back!
ReplyDelete"love child between Wood and Davis" nice analogy,but i still see an Eisner influence in the tra-hatch shading,but still,this guy is a pretty good storyteller in his own right,look at the "camera" angles,the feet,the lynch-mob slaying,great stuff.i always love stories with monsters and kids,its a tradition going all the way back to the Grimms and the silent versions of DER GOLEM,and as for my first exposure to pre-code stuff,well,it was a perfect night for mystery and horror,the air itself was filled with monsters(well,okay it was an old issue of WHERE MONSTERS DWELL with a frankenstein story,but the quote comes close enough!)....
ReplyDeleteGreat to have you onboard Sherm, love Cartoon Snap and just added Cartoon Zoom to my links below!
ReplyDelete>i always love stories with monsters and kids
ReplyDeleteWell get ready then cuz I have some "toddlers in terror" lined up just for you for the next few posts! "It was a perfect night for mystery and horror, the air itself was filled with..." ahhh you'll see.
i'm glad you mentioned the Bill Ward thing, I thought I was just thinking like a pre-vert.
ReplyDeleteFree download here : http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/index.php?dlid=5414
ReplyDeleteI figured out who was the vampire fairly early in the story. The key was that it followed the rules of the game.
ReplyDelete