The cover image featured on
HAUNTED HORROR #5 (coming this July from
IDW / Yoe Books) is from the November 1952 issue of
Mister Mystery #8, --and so is today's hairy tale illustrated by
Tony Mortellaro! If this one doesn't gnaw your brain to pieces, nothing will!
This reads like the first 4 pages of the origin of a long forgotten Batman villain. Except instead of getting eaten, he trains a horde of rats to steal jewels in elaborate rat-themed crimes.
ReplyDeleteCharlie's last name? Rat. Additional super power? Spontaneous hair loss!
This was a lot of fun, short, predictable end but non-predictable twist (the pills), and great art.
The cover is a joy to behold. Everything is spacially in a different dimension. Why there's a life ring inside a state room I'll never know.
Kars: I'm curious, why the slight color adjustment?
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ReplyDeleteYou're doing a great job picking covers for Haunted Horror. This one is explosive.
ReplyDeleteA disturbing little rodent story. Not sure how taking vitamins instead of eating is going to keep him from losing weight, though???
Wow, this was excellent. I liked the sympathetic character design and the odd-duck concept that a hard-to-navigate problem might be possible if one attempts to arrive at the solution obliquely. Like physics is just a riddle one might answer by tricking iron bars, for example, into looking the other way while they're getting bent. By the end, this story is far more a work of hoary impressionism than the usual illusion of fantastic reality--it's like the kind of tall tale usually accredited to Jack or Br'er Somebody. That seems pretty unique among the usual types of storytelling going on in the golden age.
ReplyDeleteawesome and crazy, thnx ! am I the only person wondering why Charlie has fangs ?
ReplyDeletethat prison guard noticed Charlie's weight loss but did not notice a bear-sized rat in Charlie's cell
And the guard didn't notice the bars on the window were bent. The civil service test for prison guards back then must have been a breeze to pass.
Delete(Couldn't pass up the chance to say it, James Cagney "You dirty rat!")
Minor tweaking and color correcting on the covers is always essential because sometimes the ones we have to work with aren't always in the best shape.
ReplyDeleteMore terror coming up-- sorry for the lack of comment engagement and steady posts, but I'm swamped again as usual with a zillion projects-- hang tuff horror hounds!
@lostcause:
ReplyDeleteSimple Charlie was locked up because he's a vampire... or a were-rat, take your pick xD