Monday, October 27, 2008

The Vampires Strike

And so begins THOIA’s Halloween 2008 Vampire & Witch Assault (if you missed the memo please check yesterday’s post for the details.) And we kick off the final week of October with a blood suckin’ George Wilhelm classic from the July 1952 issue of Forbidden Worlds #7 (the print job here rather sucks too, but messy spills of red somehow strangely improve a horror story, especially one about vampires!)










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Two somewhat underrated 70’s horror films find their way to DVD tomorrow in spiffy new “SPECIAL EDITION” versions from Synapse Films. I actually like THIRST quite a bit, PATRICK I need to see again but I remember it being pretty decent too.

(Click images below for more info!)

15 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh, this was priceless. The boy vampire is undoubtedly the most ghetto monster I have ever seen in pre-code comics. I almost wish he had remained mute throughout the story. Or gotten a terrible sitcom where they cleaned him up just enough for television.

I like this week already.

blackwalnut2001 said...

What a laugh riot. This reads like a storyboard for some Ray Dennis Steckler mess. These yokels have to be the sorriest "vampires" in literature. They can't even get out of a cabin if the door's locked. Bet they're a real embarassment to their city cousins, eh? Bet they get SHUNNED good 'n' proper at the family reunion.

I never thought I'd live to see the day that someone bested a vampire by slamming a window on his fingers. Not to mention bashing him in the face with a door. Or flattening him with a good smack in the kisser.

And yeah, that belladonna patch should "keep them out of commission till the end of time," or, like, until the FIRST FROST KILLS IT OFF. But then Noel and his new bride will be back... with their PLASMA KIT!

And they'll LOCK THEM IN A CABIN.

Yeeeeeeee-Haaaaaaah!!

Mr. Cavin said...

I love this: "Must heroically, agonizingly, crawl through broken glass... get to plasma kit in the car... regain my strength... then take a little nap while backwoods eccentrics chase down and kill my nurse!" Crap! Belladonna? Well let's get married, then.

I love this story; this is going to be a great week at the Horrors of it All. Gazing at the splash reminded me of something I was meaning to bring up once before, and now here is the perfect line in panel five page three:

"Yes - wings! And -- you know what that means!"

Yes I do. In the comics world, that means vampires. When did this become ubiquitous? I don't know of any other medium in which vampires are regularly batwinged anthropomorphs. I can understand why artistic license took us all there--vampires changing into bats is difficult to draw (and vampires as anti-angels bolsters the moral tone of the era). But at what point did it happen, when did these comic book vampires tangentially evolve? Who was responsible? Atlas? And why did this design then sort-of become the house style over so many disparate publications?

silvano said...

KILLER ( no pun intended ) splash page , great artwork !
Thanks for sharing !

Anonymous said...

YOU'VE POSTED STORIES BY THIS ARTIST BEFORE, I RECOGNIZE THE STYLE AND LOVE IT........ ITS KIND OF OLD FASHIONED BUT REALLY CREEPY AND I LOVE THE WAY HE ILLUSTRATES WOMEN. THAT HAS GOT TO BE THE SEXIEST VAMPIRE OF ALL TIME. I ALSO FIND THE COMPLETE LOSS OF LOGIC HERE TO BE THE STRONG POINT OF THE STORY, THAT IS ENTERTAINMENT VALUE FOLKS!

I'LL HAVE TO CHECK OUT THIRST AND PATRICK, THANKS!

Patrick said...

I really enjoyed today's story- I like the premise of the old cabins and the vampires, sort of a Evil Dead meets Dracula vibe going on. Nice touch naming the vampire girl "Sangra" also!
Thanks for inspiring me Karswell- I will be good and ready to paint some scary faces at the Haunted Forest tonight!!

Marc Burkhardt said...

Typical. Claire does all the heavy lifting and Dr. Worthless hogs the glory in the end.

Still ... defeating vampires by slamming windows on their fingers deserves to be enshrined in some sort of comic book hall of fame!

Mr. Karswell said...

Hey Peeps, I appreciate all the comments so far this morning on this post. And don't forget every day this week you get TWO STORIES, so in case you accidently overlooked it don't forget the other tale today too-- it's a Russ Heath classic!

AndyDecker said...

Great story! A laugh a page!

Only 15 years, and the Public Health Service is finally on the case!

The cunning broken glas trap. I never knew that tires were that thin.

The Night of the inbred Vampire children. Guess the girl came after the mother *fg

Those shutters are murder.

The rescue of the plasma kit. (Now that is something I´d like to see, the selfadministered transfusion.)

The left hook of justice. Ka-pow!

Yeah, I am a doctor. I will bury him in the looney bin! Never underestimate the power of my profession.

If this would be a movie, it would be directed by Dave DeCoteau :-)

Priceless story.

Anonymous said...

Patrick is a decent movie. But a better one with a similar story is Medusa Touch.

Anonymous said...

Wow,Noel is even more stupid than most protagonists in these stories,so it's nice to see a resourceful heroine for a change.The only part that's bad is that we never see or hear what happened to the old man's wife(divorce?,or was she watching him at his VERY funeral!in memory of the home they shared--together!)and you have to wonder just how happy the ending is,how long until Noel is a vampire himself?guess plasma kits should be used more often in vampire stories if they are a be-all-cure all type of device,save a lot of trouble.And lastly,i have no problems with the dialogue,that's how i talk when i get up in the morning!;must--open--cabinet---get cereal---eat--!.

Mr. Karswell said...

>Patrick is a decent movie. But a better one with a similar story is Medusa Touch

Phibes is right, Medusa Touch is a tremendously underrated film, with a super fine and very chilling performance by Richard Burton.

Okay, more vamps and witches tomorrow. Be here before sundown, or else!

Zen Wizard said...

I would have her put on the nurse's outfit for our honeymoon--but that's just me....

DrSpecter said...

"The Vampires Strike" -My guess is that it was over the crappy working conditions. Who am I trying to kid? These crackers are on welfare! From the condition of Junior's fangs, I'm gueesing he also had a crystal meth problem.

Arben said...

♪ Belladonna walks
Belladonna taking control ♫