Thursday, March 5, 2009

Who Am I?

It's the last story from the Feb '53 issue of Mystic #17… and if you haven’t already this week, click the issue link that takes you over to the Atlas Tales site for the cover image, as well as an interesting opinion on who (or what) is behind the art for today’s tale.







+++++++++++++++++++++++

Vintage AD



TOMORROW: Something Twisted This Way Comes...
++++++++++++++++++++++
He is Legend

A spectacular new anthology celebrating the great Richard Matheson, featuring original, never-before published stories by today's best writers, like Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, Joe R. Lansdale etc., with an introduction by Ramsey Campbell… stories set in Richard Matheson's own fictional universes, and published with Mr. Matheson's complete cooperation!

Click HERE for more details and read about all the amazing bonuses which include the original full-length screenplay of Fritz Leiber's "Conjure Wife" penned by Richard Matheson himself, in collaboration with the late Charles Beaumont and filmed as "Burn, Witch Burn." **One of Karswell’s Favorite Films!**

10 comments:

Mr. Cavin said...

I don't know who (or how many) drew this story. I see what they mean when they say it's "Bizarre art that looks to have several different styles..." This is the kind of jumbled morass I would make, fan that I am, if I tried to draw a "pre-code" horror story. (It would also take me a month to do, not just, you know, "before lunch.") But yeah, here are Luster's teeth and stripes, Sinnott's forehead wrinkles and spooky campfire lighting--hell, even some Kurtzman-inspired panel compositions (at least to these eyes--what do you make of those center-frame shadows cast by partial foreground figures, back-field stooges lined up like tenpins, etc.?).

Sometimes it even works out pretty well: I love the handful of panels after the punchline reveal, where the housekeeper and the detective, horribly shocked, go on with the narrative like real characters might--"Well lady, is this him?" He's acting perfectly professional except that look of horror stays on his face like he doesn't even know it's there. Awesome. Usually the "I couldn't prove it was me" coda would have been handled in just one square yellow caption, allowing Ernie's satisfyingly horrible new face to be the final image of the book. But the way they did it here makes it seem more like drama than shock and I like it.

AndyDecker said...

Good one. A lot of stupid characters - if I had money and would need help, a man like Waller is the first one I would employ :-) But of course Waller is also too dumb to live, so everything is in carmic order. Nice punchline.

The Silent Stranger was hands down my favorite of this issue. Artwise they were all quite good.

Anonymous said...

Crime does not pay.

Mr. Karswell said...

Yeah Mr C, it's a completely crazy mash-up of styles... I love the 4th panel on page 2, totally wanna paint that from the floor to the ceiling on the back wall in my office.

Anonymous said...

This is great! The weird art collage (because I don't think it's just swipes) works well for me. When you consider the title and theme of the this story, it's almost a challenge to the reader to identify the cartoonist, isn't it? Seems very appropriate in a creative genius sorta way.

Anonymous said...

Some great panels in there, especially on the last page where we see that the killer now looks like an ol' mushy paper bag some kid painted up (the left eye looks like a monocle). And the next panel in yellow, with the detective and landlady going ga-ga with horror!

Anonymous said...

Horror to the max.

Anonymous said...

CRAZY STORY!! THE FIRST PANEL ON PAGE 2 ALMOST REMINDS OF SOMETHING SWIPED FROM TOTH MAYBE. THIS WAS A COOL ISSUE, THE STORIES WERE ALL DARK BUT HAD ALOT OF HUMOR TOO. THANKS!

Anonymous said...

This is without a doubt the stupidest criminal i've ever seen in a non-humor comic. This is my favorite, storywise of this week.

Mr. Karswell said...

Thanks again for the comments everyone, and I hope you enjoy the Flash Forward post tomorrow as well! It's NEW! It's DIFFERENT! It's EXCITING!