Thursday, December 9, 2010

Midnight Limited!

As mentioned in the comments of our last post we have another story from the Dec. '52 issue of Witches Tales #16. There's a rather confusing moment on the second page where our hero calmly meets a skeleton conductor and thinks nothing of his boney appearence, though fleshlessness suddenly seems to bring out the exact opposite reaction in him a few panels later on the next page. That bit of editorial / artistic snafooery aside, this tale contains some really nice moments, in particular the atmospheric, moss drenched depots of the dead, and a really good shovel wham double header panel on page 5.

[GCD credits pencils to Rudy Palais, but I have my doubts-- the sweat drops here look comparatively normal. -- Nequam]







 **INSTANT REPLAY!**

15 comments:

Gumba said...

An important part of all "live people by mistake enter the land of the dead" stories always seems to be that both sides are incredibly dense! Sure, our hero doesn't flinch at the skeletal conductor, but the conductor doesn't seem to realize they have a fully skinned live guy with them!

And what's in a dead person's luggage?

The Vicar of VHS said...

That kung-fu kick on pg 5 has the be the most uncomfortable-looking self-defense move I've ever seen!

Anonymous said...

HA! Love the instant replay.......

Mr. Cavin said...

I particularly like the freako perspectives of that train on the first two pages. There really is something very creepy about the visually awkward.

(Aside: howdy Vicar! It's just like the old days--you took what I was gonna say before I could get here!)

Thwacko said...

As silly as that hiccup was you mentioned, that was a genuinely creepy story! Of course, I hate to travel, so that helps.

As always, keep up the good work Karswell!

Mr. Karswell said...

>And what's in a dead person's luggage?

Lots of Monster Cereal (Count Chokula, Frankenberry, Boo-Berry) that shit is as hard to get in the Land of the Dead as it is practically anywhere else in the US.

>That kung-fu kick on pg 5 has the be the most uncomfortable-looking self-defense move I've ever seen!

Haha, I was going to mention that one too Vic... obviously to make that type of kick work you have to be able to dislocate your leg when you bring it up like that.

>HA! Love the instant replay.......

This will definitely become a new THOIA feature, that is, as long as there are stories with worthy enough instant replays to replay!

>I particularly like the freako perspectives of that train on the first two pages.

Agreed. Everything is just enough out of whack here to make things seem less real and more surreal than most stories. A nice touch.

>keep up the good work Karswell!

I'm doing my best, and thanks for the comments. As always, if anyone has requests, thoughts, or submissions just drop me a line.

JP Morgan said...

Maybe the writer's notes did not stress that the conductor should've been kept in the shadows... or maybe Dave's regular conductor is a skeleton, hence his initial lack of surprise.

Mark B said...

I agree, the Instant Replay made me laugh.

Mr. Karswell said...

>Maybe the writer's notes did not stress that the conductor should've been kept in the shadows

Or maybe he just should not hacve been a skeleton yet.

>I agree, the Instant Replay made me laugh

Usually in a comic book panel like this everything a character says would end in exclaimation points, but here oddly enough it doesn't which makes his action against the skeletons strangley subtle yet more tough and focused or something. Weird, eh?

Turok1952 said...

The Kung fu kick and the conductor really fired up my creative neurons: what a great idea borrowed from -- well, you know who...
Dave Barker, alias Sales Man, battles... the White Skull !!!!

So it's a little late for that...

Mike H said...

Man, WITCHES TALES sure had some great stories! The Harvey stuff was top-notch!

Chuck Wells said...

Well, that's what Dave gets for boarding the midnight meat train.

"Um, Clive put down that knife...."

Daniel [oeconomist.com] said...

The Eerie Publications reworking of “Midnight Limited” was reproduced by Mykal at the Bloody Pulp back in May.

Andy said...

How cool to see the Eerie Pub "rework" of the story. At least they fixed the editorial goof on p. 2 and put the conductor in the shadows.

Martin OHearn said...

The artist is Joe Certa, who'd later draw the Dark Shadow series for Gold Key.