Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Something to Tide You Over
Update: IDW / Yoe Book's ZOMBIES gets a new release date-- it will now be in comic shops on May 30th (instead of this week), while regular book stores, as well as Amazon, will have it available on June 12th. In the meantime, here's "Something to Tide You Over"-- literally! From the Stephen King CREEPSHOW graphic novel (July 1982), and illustrated by the great Berni Wrightson. Check our posts from earlier this month for more on Creepshow-- also see: "Father's Day", another amazing undead adaptation ready for resurrecting from the THOIA Archives. "It's showtime!"
For some reason this was never one of my favorites from the movie, but it's always been one of my favorites from the comic. Maybe the fear of drowning just hits me harder in the silent, stationary picture frame of a comic than it does in film.
ReplyDeleteI liked it in the movie. Leslie Nielsen was terrific.
DeleteWell, all 5 stories are great so one of them has to be the least favorite I guess. I think everyone turns in a great performance in this film segment though, Leslie Nielson with his smiling evil revenge scheme is exceptionally top notch... least we forget the zombie fx are awesome too, especially when he's shooting them in the head and the water starts gurglin' out of the holes.
ReplyDeleteYeah I always thought the whole movie just had exceptional zombie effects. It was definitely some of Savini's best work, and I guess that's saying a whole lot when it comes to eighties zombies.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much feel the opposite of Ghastly Gil, though. Somehow, when I'm watching the movie itself, it never quite strikes me that I am seeing a segment with no real plot. "Man kills adulterous couple who then come back and kill him the very same way" is hardly more than the template of the genre we're critiquing, right? And never mind this story is virtually identical, in everything but the particulars, to Father's Day. Still, in the theater I don't even notice, but in the comic it sort of rubs me the wrong way.
My favorite from the book is probably Jordy Verrill. Bernie was always pretty good at swamp things, after all.
This was always my least favorite of both the comic and the movie. The drowning panel is great, but the entire story and it's pacing are as cookie cutter as it gets. It's everything that an EC zombie tale was, right down to each story beat.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of Creepshow is incredible and one of the all time great pieces of EC-like horror comics. But it was very playful with them and used the cliches as springboards. This was just the cliche.
As Karswell said, there's always going to be one that has to be the worse, and I think, alone, I'd like this story better. But next to Father's Day, the Crate, etc, it's a little static.
BTW, I forgot to mention, this story seems to come directly from something King mentioned in Danse Macabre; a story that I think Karswell published before that had a lasting impression on King, about the zombie coming in from the sea and saying "I'll be there, but slowly, as pieces keep falling off."
ReplyDeleteI agree, this is usually everyone's least favorite story from Creepshow, but only because it's got some very strong competition from Nathan, Jordy, Fluffy, and Upson Pratt... I've included it here on THOIA as a continuation of our Zombies (and Creepshow) theme this month.
ReplyDelete>about the zombie coming in from the sea and saying "I'll be there, but slowly, as pieces keep falling off."
Wally Wood's THING FROM THE SEA, from Eerie #16:
"Fish nibbling at my flesh... but I don't feel anything. Just want to walk... until I find what I'm looking for..."
(FYI: this classic Wood story is included in our ZOMBIES book too!) or see it NOW in the THOIA Archive:
http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2008/05/thing-from-sea.html
Yeah I definitely don't mean to slight this one, it's just that the competition is so fierce. Other than Jordy Verrill, which is far and away my favorite, the other four are very nearly tied for second place.
ReplyDeleteThis was always the story that stood out for me. Certainly far more unnerving than corpses singing Happy Birthday to themselves...
ReplyDelete"Where's my cake,!"
Delete>Certainly far more unnerving than corpses singing Happy Birthday to themselves...
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! It's Father's Day!
:/
>Certainly far more unnerving than corpses singing Happy Birthday to themselves...
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! It's Father's Day!
:/
your blog is awesome!! :)
ReplyDeletehttp://bubblemylicorice.blogspot.com/
Thanks Bubbles!
ReplyDeleteI re-posted this terror tale on my blog at the "Crypt".... the artist will be in Charlotte, NC this weekend signing his works.... at the Heroes Convention 2012..... I doubt that I will be up to making it there...
ReplyDeleteThis is the first horror comic I ever read...I was a kid, in a bookstore, waiting for my parents to finish shopping. It stayed with me for YEARS. I never saw the movie, but I can still "hear" "ALREADY DEAD...WE'RE ALREADY DEAD..." just from this comic. The wet footprints, the divots in their foreheads where they were shot, the suggestion of strings of spittle in their open mouths...YES.
ReplyDelete