Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wolves of Midnight / The Horrible Trade
We've got a double shot of horrific animal horrors for you today from the Jan. '54 issue of Horrific #9. First, sink your weird fangs into the long awaited return of Rudy Palais to THOIA with "The Wolves of Midnight", followed by the jolting jungle jitters of "The Horrible Trade" from Marty Elkin. This will be another full issue for you completists, click HERE for Pete Morisi's "A Glimpse of the Pit" and more Elkin HERE for "Claws of Horror", as originally presented over at Killer Kittens back in 2009.
My fiancée made the fine point that, properly, Mr King should have been transformed into a female lion.
ReplyDeleteYes, a "King" female lion. Maybe the writer should have made his last name "Queen?"
ReplyDeleteJust my $0.06 ($0.4 for the first story, $0.02 for the last!)
ReplyDelete1. *loved the little girl's eyes in the first story! As a fan of "anime" (Japanese Tv and movie animation) and a "take it or leave it" person for "manga" (Japanese "comic books"*); all I have to say is that if the girl's eyes had been *a bit larger or off center, that comic would have to been in Japanese*!
*In Japan, unlike the US, "manga" and "anime" can run just about any genre regular books, TV shows and movies in, say, the US can and can be anything from "kiddy stuff" to "adult" in the non-porn sense to "OH MY GOD" porn!
2. In the same story; *who was that wierdo in the last panel of the last page*?
3. In the last story; when the native (Negro, Black, African, whatever PC or non- PC term you want to use, NO SLURS asked the (probably at least upper-middle or upper class white American) "Not So Great White Hunter" to take her with him, I wanted to say "THIS IS AMERICA IN THE 1950'S WE'RE TALKING ABOUT! NOT GONNA HAPPEN! YOU MIGHT HAVE BETTER LUCK WITH A SOUTH AFRICAN OR RHODESIAN; (OR AT LEAST NOT WORSE"!)
DBurch7670
That Bwana was a real bad character and deserved his fate. Ntala's Pop knew he was no good.
ReplyDeleteI would never have been cruel to Ntala. She was a fox!
As for the 50s...yeah, I would have just had to have stayed in the village with Ntala and Pop. Maybe nobody there would have given a rip.
I really liked the bottom, left hand panel on page four of that first story with the oddly Scooby-Doo looking wolves.
ReplyDeleteThanks, man. I've really missed the ol' Were-Wednesdays.
I particularly enjoyed Ntala's authentic African garb of a skin-tight strapless gold bathing suit. Ah, what happened to the old native traditions? And, on a more serious note, what happened to Don Heck? His cover for this issue (and several others) of "Horrific" is terrific! His later work for Marvel on their superheroes is dull and amateurish by comparison. I think you have to look no further than Heck for proof of what the Comics Code took out of the artists and writers after 1955.
ReplyDelete*who was that wierdo in the last panel of the last page*?
ReplyDeleteI think it was the narrator of the story, Walter Werewolf, also seen in the bottom left panel of the first page of the story.
The artist didn't make him look much like a werewolf, pointy ears and maybe fangs if you enlarge the last page big enough.
Walter Werewolf is no Lon Chaney Jr, or even a Paul Naschy for that matter.
Thanks, Anonymous!
ReplyDeleteDBurch7670
hey, thanks for the comments-- sorry I've been so quiet and spotty with posts lately but this summer is crazy and I'm actually working on a pre-code horror related project that I'm sure all of you are going to dig (more about that coming up soon!) Stay tuned, another post is on the way shortly!
ReplyDeleteThose were both good ones. Hardly anything is scarier than Kreepy Kiddies. Evil children always give me the willies!
ReplyDeleteIn the second story, King certainly deserved what he got. My only complaint is that in keeping with the racism of the times, Ntala has Caucasian features although they darkened her skin. She looks Filipina perhaps, but certainly not African.