Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Vampires Two
Every so often there comes a tale that actually deserves the crummy print job to match the equally crummy story... this is not to say it's worthless reading though, no sir-- as we've all seen with most ramshackle Superior Publishers pre-code stories over the years here at THOIA, the badder the better, right? You'll see what I mean, (and thanks to Brian Hirsch for the last two pages of this one which are unfortunately missing from my copy.) From the January 1954 issue of Journey into Fear #17.
"Huh! Oh-- YOWEEEEEEE!-"
ReplyDeletei knew all along this was the ol' "my goodness! you're a vampire too? how inneresting!" bit but i loved the weird dialogue. "the vampire shape!" "an old party like me!" i like the fact that Mr. Scruples(Scrupula?)drew the line at killing children. the whole thing was the right kind of weird for my tastes
Yeah, there's still lots to love here for sure... it just sort of drove me batty how the writer gave away the not so twisty ending on nearly every page along the way, and then still expected us to act surprised in the final panel on the last page?!
ReplyDeleteAnd don't forget the - wink, wink! - title: "Vampires Two".
ReplyDeleteWhat a no-twist!
But why can those vampires exist in broad daylight, eh???
Or is it just the bad coloring?
prof. growbeard, maybe it's just that kids *"aren't ripe/properly aged" yet?
ReplyDeleteHow many people does it take to sustain a given population of vampires, werewolves, (George Romero-style) zombies or other supernatural predators of humans, anyway?
SpaceLord; maybe vampires were the *real* inventors (or the *real* employers of the inventors) of sunscreen?
DBurch7670
Throw the little ones back.
ReplyDeleteOh I loved the color on this one. And not just that hot flesh-colored* night shirt, either. The whole world here was presented in bizarre cyan tones and pencil eraser pinks. I guess I should assume, since Brian's scans look normal, that Karswell's source was sun-faded (or missing a yellow pass), but I refuse. I like that this story looks like a Sea Monkeys ad.
ReplyDeleteAs for the story, I guess that was made up as they went along. Owing to this guy's reaction to receiving an unsolicited letter, I guess we can sort of assume there was little in the way of fan mail coming across the editorial desk at Superior. Sigh. Little did they know that unsolicited mail was the name of the future.
* in this case, Caucasian.
Seems like I read this before, with one of the pages (or at least panels) missing. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteOften wonder how desensitized we are to supposed surprise endings, compared to the general population both now and back then.
>I guess I should assume, since Brian's scans look normal, that Karswell's source was sun-faded (or missing a yellow pass),
ReplyDeleteMy copy of this issue is incredibly faded and the yellow print pass does look weaker than Brian's, but on the same note, Brian's scans are always really heavy on the yellow, though this is more likely due to his scanner setting than the actual aged print quality. Photoshop evens everything out to some degree, this post is a good example of how two seperate scanners read/capture the pages. I keep thinking about doing a post one of these days without any actual photoshop adjustments to the scans, just so you all can see the difference.
>Often wonder how desensitized we are to supposed surprise endings
some twist endings probably still work on people today, depends how exposed you are to what many of use consider cliche or "seen from a mile away." My son for example is just now finally old enough to start reading these comics on his own and finds this kind of ending mind blowing, haha. And looking at them again through a fresh pair of innocent eyes makes it extra fun all over again for me too.
I love the bold inks
ReplyDelete