*Credits also to Roy Thomas and Tom Palmer.
TOMORROW: True, Amazing Accounts of the Strangest blah blah blah...
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Vintage 70's Ads
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Dig Me No Grave!
Today our flashy Time Machine is set ahead for the October 1972 issue of Journey into Mystery #1, where we find a handful of my heroes all colliding in one great story*. To most of us, Gil Kane and Robert E. Howard need no introduction, but if you need a refresher just click on their names to get the scoop (all others proceed on your MARVELous mysterious journey...)
*Credits also to Roy Thomas and Tom Palmer.
*Credits also to Roy Thomas and Tom Palmer.
“So, uhm, we participated in the ritual which made certain that Malik Tous got 'im. Not sure why. Guess that we didn't have anything better to do.”
ReplyDeleteWow, this is some of the best work by Gil Kane i've seen, and for him that's saying a lot since he's in my top 5. I remember liking Kane's drawings of Morbius a lot in Spider-Man(man, Morbius was a great anti-hero/villain, they better not ruin him in any spider-sequels, that last one sucked so bad i feel like i'm still watching it.)but otherwise never got used to the way he drew other monsters, particularly the Hulk and other giants, so i assumed he wasn't very good at drawing big monsters. But here i was proven wrong; Kane CAN draw the Kaiju!(along with most anything). I don't recall this Howard story, guess i'll have to hop on over to my local Borders, pronto to but a collection i saw(though why should i ever need an excuse?).
ReplyDeleteBTW, “malik” is Arabic for king. There are various related words, including the name “Moloch”.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what “Tous” might mean, but Howard was the sort to have actually had some etymological or other historical motivation for it. Perhaps a Howard fan or a linguist can enlighten us.
I thought "Tous" is just the French word for everything which would make some sense here. Great story, I wasn't too fond of the recent "Hitchcockian" ones, since I felt the writing was too weak and almost all would've worked better in other formats and this one sort of reaffirmed that belief.
ReplyDeleteI am biased, I read this comic adaption more years ago than I like to remember as a back-up of a german Marvel comic and never forget it. So I think it is just perfect on all counts :-)
ReplyDeleteIt even held up much later when I first read Howard´s horror stories. It is creepy and rather uncharacteristic for Howard, as the narrator Kirowan who featured in some of his Weird Tales stories is just an observer. But it is a fine ghost tale.
Also it is a very good adaption, it follows the original to a tee.
Had to laugh about the cover, though, which I have never seen before. A horror comic just has to have a girl on it, even if she doesn´t feature in the story. :-)
I did a little poking around, and found that “Malik Taus”, literally “Peacock King” but often “Peacock Angel”, is the name of the central deïty of Yazidism, which deïty the Muslims identify with Lucifer.
ReplyDeleteUnbelievable panel constructions in today's story! I think most of us (myself included) are so caught up in Kane's mastery of anatomy and just flat-out superior draftsmanship that we tend to overlook his storytelling chops. This tale makes that impossible! Just spectacular stuff. Thanks for this little refresher course.
ReplyDeleteKarswell, this issue is on my 2009 want list, but seeing one of the stories within is "A-OK" with me.
ReplyDeleteUm, more-more-more ... please!
REH has an incredible output of non-fantasy, non-barbaric horror stories like this one that I highly recommend. If you're not a fan of the Conan type thing look for the great Baen collections like Beyond the Borders and Trails in Darkness, Berkley Pub's Black Canaan (also Skullface is awesome), and of course the top notch collection of REH's collected Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors, also from Baen. There are more of course, but these are good places to start.
ReplyDeleteThis is an icredible blog. I love pre-code horror, sci-fi, and crime comics. It's great that there is a place that keeps these stories alive.
ReplyDeleteawsome story, i remember that marvel adapted a bunch of howard horror stories in there 70s comics and would love to see more
ReplyDeletethanks!!!!!!!
I always liked this one. I actually own a copy of this issue. I also liked some of the Marvel Lovecraft stories of that era.
ReplyDeleteI have this story reprinted in Masters Of Terror # 2. It looks even better in black and white.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to read the story this was based on. Anybody know where to find it?
>I'd love to read the story this was based on. Anybody know where to find it?
ReplyDeleteI mentioned some books in my other comment above, Dig Me No Grave can be found in a couple Howard horror collections, the easy one to find would probably be Beyond the Borders. It's also reprinted in Cthulhu: The Mythos and Kindred Horrors. Both books were published by Baen.
So would you guys like to see more REH silver age comic adaptations? I have a few more and they're all great. I can move some stuff around and we can have a Howard Horror fest right here this week. Just let me know.
And thanks to the Oeconomist today for tranlating some of the text from this story today as well!
I know that I'd love to see some more REH stuff this week!
ReplyDeleteFor those interested, the current most exhaustive edition of Howards Horror sories is "the Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard", published by Del Rey last fall. 500pages in a tradepaperback for 18 USD, guess at Amazon it is cheaper. A hefty tome with a blah cover, but it has all the classics and some obscure stories too.
ReplyDeleteI vote yes for Robert E. Howard!
ReplyDeleteThanks Andy... fyi: the volumes I mentioned are all older paperbacks you can usually find at used books stores for around $5.00
ReplyDeleteI'll hold off on the Horrific series fest another day or two, so tomorrow you can look forward to more silver age REH terror tales.
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ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the references to Cthulhu Mythos entities were dropped-- or in one case, replaced by Shuma-Gorath, a REH entity that Marvel did much with.
Artwise, Kane is solid, though I always envisioned Grimlan as much more thin and withered, and Malik Tous as much more avian.