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Friday, August 29, 2008
Tour of Horror / Rivals unto Death!
TGIF peeps, and what a week! So let's top it all off today with two ACG tales for the price of one. Both of these shock spookers come from the May 1954 issue of Forbidden Worlds #29. Our first atmospheric story, Tour of Horror, is by Al Camy and George Klein, while our shorter, second tale, Rivals unto Death, is a nice bit o' great Bob Forgione filler.
"Then you killed us---for our money!"haha,no my dear i'm sure there was another reason,killing someone for their money?whoever heard of such a thing?.wondrously creepy,if sorta funny.i have to admit i found the second story enjoyable,but predictable(Count,vampire,you know where this is going)reminded me of Atlas's "OF ROYAL BLOOD" but with better art.thumbs up to both.
ReplyDeleteIn the second story, it could have just as easily ended with the blonde victim, herself a vampire now, exacting her own revenge. Frankly, whatever happened to "make it look like an accident, Brunhilde!" Who the heck imagines death by vampire as a trouble-free solution?
ReplyDeleteYou wanna take somebody out conveniently, I say crush 'em with a truck like the first story. WHAM!
Great art on both stories , especially the first , which has a really Killer splash page and some great looking babes !
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
I like where their eyes go black on page four. I assume everyone does.
ReplyDeleteTwo great stories - the first is my fave - tales of women looking for love in all the wrong places... :)
ReplyDeleteShe'll be safe with Horace - he has the dull glasses of an upright man.
ReplyDeleteNot as great as yesterday's, but that's still a cool splash on "Tour".
I like where their eyes go black on page four. I assume everyone does.
It's a good effect, but a little miscalculated - it makes them more scary than the stiffs.
The tour staff have my interest - the driver's suitably demonic and hulking, but the guide looks so very human and commonplace. Maybe he's got a tragic story of his own...
BEEN AWHILE SINCE YOU POSTED SOME ACG STUFF, THANKS FOR THE DOUBLE SHOT! VERY COOL TALES BOTH AND GREAT ART
ReplyDeleteMan, why don't they have cool murder tours in my neck of the woods? I'm TOTALLY laying down my two bits and getting on THAT bus!
ReplyDeleteBoth stories today were, shall we say, "time-honored retellings" of the sort of things we've all seen before, but the wonderful art really gives them something special. The faces of the victims, the creepiness of the tour guide and driver (I can see Bill Moseley as the guide--he'd be awesome), and in the second story there's some wonderful background detail--fountains, shrunken heads in the witch's room, etc. Also some interesting stuff going on there with the positioning of faces, profiles obscuring Olga for much of the tale, till the end, to say nothing of that great mirror-image panel sequence on pg. 2. Bravo!
I also love how eeeevil Olga is throughout--particularly her "I hope you won't think me cruel, but I'M GLAD THE BITCH IS DEAD! BWAHAHAHA!" line. ;) And once discovered, it looks like she has a "special plan" to gain the Count's forgiveness, IYKWIM...that is, until he vamps out on her.
I like to think the story will have a happy ending though--he'll make her a vampire and they'll fly off together, killing folks for the witch as a sideline to their dance-instruction/bloodbank business. But then I'm sentimental that way.
I love the look on Mr. Gaylord's face in the final panel of the MURDER TOUR story. It's as if he orchestrated the whole thing--a twist within a twist! "Take THAT, corsage-weilding textbook salesman!"
ReplyDeleteWhat a great double feature for a Friday... A Zombie/Murder tourbus, and a murderous love triangle with a vampire!
ReplyDeleteRaise the horns for Karswell as he delivers the horrors in a fine double dose!!
I guess we can all agree, good art, predictable stories... take the good with the good/bad/average/acceptables.
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun week, thanks again to everyone who stopped by and commented. Tomorrow we have the final Purple Claw tale for August (which I'm sure some of you are glad to see go.) Got some way cool news for you this weekend too on some great upcoming book releases for fall/winter, plus another poem from Brian Hirsch (written specifically for THOIA!) and lots more. Have a great mini holiday.
>tales of women looking for love in all the wrong places...
My favourite kind of women. Even more so are the ones looking for salvation in all the purrfectly wrong places.
It's a good effect, but a little miscalculated - it makes them more scary than the stiffs.
ReplyDeleteWell, yeah. I assumed it was a printing error.
The art on both these stories are above par, and I have to confess I didn't see the twist coming in "Tour of Horror", although I spotted it from the top of Page 2 in "Rivals Unto Death".
ReplyDeleteI think the latter story missed a couple of tricks by (a) not having dear dead Vera come back to chomp on Olga and (b) not showing the love triangle undead and still going strong, since now technically they are both the brides of dear Count Desmond and will have to share him for all eternity, or until somebody plants a stake in all three of their black hearts. :D
You used to post alot more ACG stories, I really dig them and would love to see more. Thanks
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