Monday, May 26, 2008

Amnesia

Warren Kremer is another one of those underrated Harvey greats that I’d put in the same league as Nostrand, Elias, and Powell… possessing a rich, organic line style full of dynamic, moody, atmospheric detail, and characters perfectly straddling the lines of realism and cartoony in design... in affect, the perfect type of illustrator for comics.

From the May 1953 issue of Chamber of Chills #17







I especially love Kremer’s work over at Ace Magazines on the Super-Mystery Comics covers too. Check these out!
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And here's your BONUS Harvey filler for dessert!


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW, SATAN WITH AMNESIA......NOW THERES A WEIRD CONCEPT. AND I TOTALLY AGREE ABOUT THE ART, FOR INSTANCE THE HAUNTED HOUSE PANELS ON PAGE 3 ARE JUST FLAT OUT AWESOME. THERES SO MANY GOOD HARVEY ILLUSTRATORS THAT A FEW OF THEM JUST SEEM TO GET LOST IN THE SHUFFLE. I WONT FORGET KREMERS NAME NOW.

NEVER HEARD OF SUPER MYSTERY COMCIS BUT THE COVERS ARE VERY IMPRESSIVE. I GUESS THIS WAS MORE A CRIME SERIES?

FUN BONUSES TOO. THANKS KARSWELL AND HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

The Vicar of VHS said...

I was thinking the "Amnesia" story would be something like H.P. Lovecraft's story of a dead man returning to his old abandoned home (can't find the title right now... I thought it was "The Stranger," but that's not it...), but an amnesiac devil certainly surprised me!

Not much else to say about the main tale, but those Super-Mystery covers...WOW! I love me some leggy brunettes, and here's a triple-shot! The fave has to be the girl caught in the paper-cutter with her garters showing. Hubba hubba. They're all great thought.

As for the fillers, I love the martian demons fighting seals in Antarctica. But WTF is up with the naked devil there? And why is he looking at me so weird?

Tamfos said...

This was inked by Nostrand, I'm pretty sure. Here's a link to the original for the splash page:

http://tinyurl.com/5vsac2

Anonymous said...

I think the story the Vicar's thinking of is "The Outsider" but i haven't read ALL of his stories.what a great concept,that sure would be awesome to just wake up one day and remember;"oh yeah,i'm Satan".the things i'd do...

Anonymous said...

harvey had a killer bullpen of artists that could imitate anybody, kremers stuff here looks like nostrand and jack davis for sure, two guys who are technically not that easy to ape. nice stuff

Mr. Karswell said...

Thanks for the link Tamfos, I love seeing the original uncolored inks for this story.

>but those Super-Mystery covers...WOW!

Speaking of Super-Mystery, anybody have any issues from this series? I've never seen the inside art, just the covers, and was curious if these are worth picking up.

Anthony said...

You're right, Karswell- Kremer has an incredible style and I'm a sucker for that cartoony/realism look. His faces are just amazing throughout that story, I can't even pick one to single out.

I also agree that the first Super Mystery cover in the pic is a definite winner. And how much fun was 'Weird Worlds'. It's like the Harvey gang had left-over story ideas lying around that they just couldn't find a use for.

Thanks again for feeding my Harvey jones these past few days, Kars.

Mr. Karswell said...

>Thanks again for feeding my Harvey jones these past few days, Kars.

You're welcome.

Never call me "Kars" again.

Anonymous said...

Very cool story, and thanks for all the great extras too. You made my holiday!

The Vicar of VHS said...

>>Never call me "Kars" again.

Come on, Karswell, everyone knows you're secretly Rik Ocasek! ;)

Mr. Karswell said...

>Come on, Karswell, everyone knows you're secretly Rik Ocasek! ;)

Or Lightning McQueen...