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From Out of the Night
Friday, June 26, 2009
The Dark Tunnel / From Out of the Night
Earlier this month we had a squirmy, wormy, Atlas double feature, and today the bugs are back with yet another deadly double shot of the shivers--- two stories from the always superb, Mr. Gene Colan! Our first story comes from the very first issue of Mystery Tales #1 (March 1952), and our second story from the February 1954 issue of Uncanny Tales #17. I hope one of you remembered the bug spray!
TWO GREAT EXAMPLES OF EARLY COLAN!! THANKS KARS!
ReplyDeleteNice to see so many touches of Classic Colan even in this early work. The narration in that second story, though... Oy! It doesn't even rise to the level of purple prose. Though maybe it was self parody. After all, on Page two, Slade lists the hackneyed, overused concepts of sci-fi ("Spaceships, Mars, monsters, time Machines, haploids...") and by the end, the story (and Slade himself) manage to combine almost all of these.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, "haploids" are an overused idea in science fiction? Really?
DARK TUNNEL was awesome! I'd never seen it before!
ReplyDeleteThe entire first issue of Mystery Tales is really great Mike, I should just post the rest of it sometime (check the achive for "Horror on Channel 15" that I posted a while back, it's from this issue too.)
ReplyDeleteSurprising developes today with the Atlas Poll. I thought it was gonna be a landslide for another All Atlas Month but it's looking like the NOs are starting to catch up. Whatever you choice is, better make it now... voting ends before July 1st!
NEXT: Some requests filled!
Heh, some reward. He ought to give the cockroaches a second chance; they accept him more than human beings back on the surface now would.
ReplyDeleteYAY! I missed the old banner!
ReplyDeleteEven though I'm kind of scared of insects (at least large ones), I can relate to the guy in 'The Dark Tunnel' because I would never deliberately kill a bug. Call me a wimp if you like, but I think these creatures have the same right to live as you and me.
ReplyDeleteAnd I voted for 'No' in the poll. While I really enjoy Atlas June, I think that one month should be enough to showcase what great comics Atlas put out in its day.
Whoever wrote "From Out Of The Night" must have spent two or three minutes coming up with that story.
ReplyDelete>YAY! I missed the old banner!
ReplyDeleteI was actually working on new banner concepts but not coming up with anything very inspiring... so what do I do? Yep, drag out the original old THOIA banner from Year One. I suppose there's probably alot of newcomers around here that haven't seen it though.
Have a great weekend everybody, and also a big Happy Birthday to Kitty's little sister Lazer too!
didnt think the second story was as bad as everyones making it out to be. colans art really brought it together. a hard act to follow though after the first story which was excellent imo.
ReplyDeleteIt's been said already, but it sure was cool to groove on some early Colan panels. I was amazed at how much Howard the duck and Dracula I saw here... thanks Kaptain Kars
ReplyDeleteEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!...
ReplyDeleteOther than the ending, I thought 'The Dark Tunnel' was quite good. It may even be the first comic book story to use the concept of roaches outliving humans.
ReplyDeleteThe second story was alright, I don't think it was that bad either, it's just that you see this plot A LOT. They re-used it several times during th Googam era 'And that is the story you now hold in your hands!!!'.
The art on either one of them kicks ass.
I lived for many years in a flat where fat garden roaches would wander in all the time and scare the living shit out of me. To this day they acre me/repel me. I need therapy after reading Dark Tunnel!
ReplyDelete[COMMENT NECROMANCY] "From Out of the Night" reminds me a little bit, at least in its central parasitic/alien concept, of Ramsey Campbell's "The Insects from Shaggai," even though it predates it by a decade.
ReplyDelete