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Wednesday, January 4, 2012
The Moth / Ghastly Awards
The July 1952 issue of Black Cat Mystery #37 contains this ghastly tale of buggy wuggy horror, awesomely illustrated by the great Warren Kremer... could've swore I posted this in the past, thanks to JT for reminding me that I actually had not. And Happy 2012, (whether its been happy or not so far.)
NEWS! What's the Ghastly Awards, you ask? Click HERE to find out the ghastly details!
NEWS! What's the Ghastly Awards, you ask? Click HERE to find out the ghastly details!
I love Kremer's horror work.
ReplyDeleteHe did way too little.
Just that handful for Harvey.
Shame, really. Let's cherish it.
Yes, nice art here. Love the moth dream, it's pretty disturbing. Could this story be the original source for the infamous Mothman sightings? He was seen by two young couples in the mid '60's. Did they read an old copy of this comic and experiment with some LSD that night? Or maybe old Martin really did come to life?
ReplyDeleteThe art was great but the story really suffered from the kitchen sink approach -- why the death in disguise ending? Wasn't "moths ate his brains" a gruesome enough ending?
ReplyDeleteAnd what was the scientific breakthrough? Did that have anything to do with the moths? The dynamos got a lot of mention but didn't go anywhere!
This seemed like a much larger idea for a story that either didn't translate well or wasn't edited well.
Some great work on the lettering, though, especially where it wraps around people.
Reminds me somewhat of H. P. Lovecraft's "Winged Death"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/wd.asp
Put a pipe in the narrator's mouth and he looks a lot like Bob Dobbs (now that is a scary thought.)
ReplyDeleteMartin as a monster moth was pretty impressive in a night terror kind of way.
Great find as always Karswell!
>I love Kremer's horror work
ReplyDeleteMe too, check out his cover art on this issue too-- STUNNING!
>Could this story be the original source for the infamous Mothman sightings?
If you find any connections Trev, let us know!
>This seemed like a much larger idea for a story that either didn't translate well or wasn't edited well
Agreed Gumba, I think Trevor hit it on the head with the LSD connection though to answer all your questions. Hey, at least we got some killer Kremer art out of it!
>Reminds me somewhat of H. P. Lovecraft's "Winged Death"
We can thank HPL for inspiring alot of precode horror.
>Martin as a monster moth was pretty impressive in a night terror kind of way
And in 30 years he changed his named to Arthur and became The Tick's sidekick! Awesome how things come full circle, eh?
More Black Cat Mystery madness coming right up!
This is fantastic stuff. I've always felt Kremer was one of the finest draftsman that ever worked in comics, and I certainly feel well supported in that view with this post! The panels of the lab on page two boggle the mind. What easy, naturally perfect perspective. WOW!
ReplyDelete