Saturday, November 12, 2011

The Stolen Soul

Despite Gerald Altman's wildly uneven art in this one, it's a fun, offbeat tale about a dummy carved from a stolen cemetery casket, and the weird affection the little fella holds for his home, aka the grave. This is the last tale from the May 1953 issue of Beware #15, hope you enjoyed it (the entire issue is now posted.)







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7 comments:

  1. Trevor M11/12/2011

    This story has its problems with the nonsensical ending and the wildly uneven art (as you said), but WOW! -- it is one of the most disturbing ventriloquist dummy stories ever. Just imagine an audience sitting there for a horror show ventriloquist act where the creepy little dummy simply goes on and on about returning to the grave. That is awesome.

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  2. Mr. Cavin11/12/2011

    Yeah, this was really pretty freaky. And just goes to show how you can totally, existentially damn yourself with petty theft.

    And somehow I'm liking the art better than you guys. It has its problems (for example, I'm skeptical it's ever going to be a very good idea to crosshatch the sky), but it certainly comes off refreshingly against type. It looks a lot more like old political cartoons than comics to me. I think the awful colorist here screwed up what might actually have been some pretty fetching looking original pages.

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  3. Mykal Banta11/13/2011

    I'm loving Little Joey's side comments, particularly the wistful, "It's so still and quiet in the grave! and the flesh slowly drops off the bones!" There's a lunacy to the art that kind of grows on you (like the cigar that seems to float in space in from the talent agent's mouth on page 3) and some truly surreal angles that keep everything off kilter.

    A creepy, little number.

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  4. Prof. Grewbeard11/13/2011

    gotta back up Mr. Cavin's art evaluation and add that it is the TRIPPIEST-looking comic art i've seen since Fletcher Hanks...

    hey Kars can i tell you about my new blog?...

    http://magiccarpetburnout.blogspot.com/

    all kinds "musick", old & new...

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  5. Psychonator11/14/2011

    For some reason, I can't enlarge this one. :(

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  6. Mr. Karswell11/14/2011

    Someone else had an issue with the new display enlarger but it corrected itself the next day... if anyone else is experiencing this problem try back later.

    All apologies, blogger is of course the King of the Glitchies sometimes!

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  7. Psychonator11/21/2011

    Got it figured out, now.

    The art is pretty crazy at times. Some panels look downright brilliant, others look like the work of a talented ten year old.

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