Saturday, March 24, 2012
The Ghouls! / It!
The January 1983 issue of Creepy #144 is tagged as the "Giant Graveyard and Ghosts Issue!" and it really delivers, reprinting earlier 70's stories, as well as Frazetta's fantastic (though slightly re-colored) cover from Creepy #5. "The Ghouls", with its appetite destroying ending, is originally from Creepy #61, while Tom Sutton's awesome "It!" originally crawled forth from Creepy #53. FYI: An unfortunate printing error (?!) on a few pages of "It!" muddy some of the detail, but it's still readable, and still very worthy of posting for those of you unfamiliar with it.
The first story is disgusting, but really- who would go grave-robbing with an accomplice who cannibalised whatever was left of the corpses? Funny, to see an English church in an Hungarian cemetery, too.
ReplyDeleteThe second simply didn't make much sense, although the denouement seems to have foreseen that of the 5th Sense.
It! is a very unique reading experience. I've never been a big Sutton fan, but I like his gritty approach here! The story seems to transcend its cliches and throws in some original, haunting bits. That portrait under the shroud is great. Thanks for posting it!
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't know, "It!" makes perfect sense to me: a deformed halfwit comes back from the dead for his teddy bear, per the narrative he doesn't care about anything in the world going on around him... although some of those apparently responsible for his death fall victim to his supernatural presense anyway.
ReplyDeleteI always liked "It!", except that Sutton felt he need the twist ending, that was a bit unnecessary.
ReplyDeleteThe tight panelling is very cool (you hardly ever saw that, especially as it makes the art more compelx), and gives the story a slower pace that fits the slow zombie.
The depiction of the zombie as ignoring everything except his quest is great. Twist ending are fun, but sometimes a story is so stylish that it doesn't require one.
That story is easily within my top 20 for Warren mags.
"It" was an amazingly grim story. The shuffling corpse's quest for an long-remembered item. Leaving a trail of death in it's wake. Amazing
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