Monday, June 16, 2008

The Dark Passage

Another tribute week starts today, and this time we’ll be looking at the horrifically excellent Atlas work of Ogden Whitney… and kicking it all off with one of my all-time favorites from the June 1952 issue of Adventures into Terror #10.





13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love that haunted house.

silvano said...

Of course it's hard to get something that can be compared to last week's Cole bonanza , nonetheless this is a cool story , LOVE the splash page in the last tier of panels ...
Thanks

The Vicar of VHS said...

This is a good one--love those spooky spooks! I also love the fact that 15 mins after being taken to the infirmary, Raftis is in a stolen ambulance speeding toward the gate! He's a regular Houdini! Why didn't you think of this BEFORE, Rafts?

The whole idea of having to keep a death row inmate in perfect health right up until the execution always seemed weird to me. I mean, dead is dead, right? Or would post-nasal drip short out the chair, somehow?

Anyway, a nice way to start the week!

Anonymous said...

WOW THIS IS A SUPER SPOOKER. ITS FUN THOUGH TOO, I LOVE HOW HE SNEAKS IN TO THE HAUNTED HOUSE THINKING ITS A COSTUME PARTY. TYPICAL ATLAS TYPE ESCAPED CON STORY BUT OGDENS ART IS SUPERB AND THE COLORS ARE PERFECT. LOOKS LIKE ITS GONNA BE ANOTHER GREAT WEEK AROUND HERE!

Anonymous said...

Hello KARSWELL!

> Cool blog Arakna, added you to my links! Kriminal is great, and wears the most awesome costume of all time. About 8 years ago I did a rock poster for Rob Zombie and The Damned and used Kriminal as the subject. Some of you more dedicated archeologists may be able to dig around the web and find it.

- Thanks! KRIMINAL (a comic, with white costume and black bones/skull) is great for me too, but "THE DIABOLIKAL SUPER-KRIMINAL" characted is SADISTIK (a photo novel, with black costume and white bones/skull)... more info on the ufficial page: www.goSadistik.com

bye, bye....

Mr. Karswell said...

>it's hard to get something that can be compared to last week's Cole bonanza

Well they of course can't all be Cole level, but the Ogden stuff, (as you will see this week), works on a different level of genius. The writing may be typical but the artwork most definitely is not.

Anonymous said...

There's no shortage of stories where someone tries to run away from death and ultimately fails, but I never get tired of them.

Good story and wonderfully spooky ghosts. Those fangs are a nice, extra creepy touch you don't normally associate with specters.

But I agree with Vicar -- why wait 'til the last minute to plan a jail break? And no guards, no guns, no chase? Maybe it was all part of the ghosts' plan...

Mr. Cavin said...

"...Those fangs are a nice, extra creepy touch you don't normally associate with specters."

Yeah. Shades of Al Luster.

I'm going to love this week, Mr. Karswell. This is really my type of thing. Say, did anyone but me notice that the protagonist looks an awful lot he's been viciously struck mime in the last panel of page four? I think the dialog balloon should be replaced with an "AIII, I'VE BECOME A (choke) MIME!" thought bubble. I love the way one hand subconsciously explores his poor, newly-silent silent mouth, even while his other hand helplessly reaches out to define his imprisoning glass box....

Frederick said...

I understood that the whole escape thing was only in his mind, and he went to the chair as planned. Or did I read it wrong? I read this years ago in a reprint version I have. It was cool then too.

Anonymous said...

I think Fred hit it on the head, it was all in his mind and he was executed, then whisked off to the land of the dead.

Patrick said...

The thought of being dragged into that pitch black cavern with those ghouls isn't comforting at all... I really dig the ghouls, we need more stories FULL of characters like them!

Mr. Karswell said...

>I'm going to love this week, Mr. Karswell. This is really my type of thing.

Mine too Mr C. I have a good mix of stuff by Whitney lined up this week from Adventures into Weird Worlds, Suspense, Spellbound, and Mystery Tales. I do have some of his work with ACG but as good as the art can be the stories in my opinion are just super lame and unworthy of posting.

Frederick said...

Kind of like "Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge," made into an episode of the Twilight Zone, where the entire escape happens in his mind between the time the trapdoor opens and hit hits the bottom.