Saturday, June 1, 2013
Carnival of Terror
It's finally June, and here in the midwest among the severe thunderstorms and terrifying tornado alley action, the carnival has rolled into town-- and for those of you looking for some cheap thrills, this carnival spells ghostly TERROR! From the February 1952 issue of Web of Mystery #7, art by Charles Nicholas in his very first appearance as a steady contributor to Ace horror!
Dear all,
ReplyDeleteSome of these stories seem like they could easily have made the progression into a regular feature. This is one such story.
Another interesting thought I had was this: What if this story had appeared, say, a dozen years later and some tv studio honcho had picked it up? In 1952 the medium, and certainly the culture, was not ready for this story line.
I don't know. I must defer to those much wiser, but it does seem that timing is everything, and not just in embryology!
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ReplyDeleteThat's one dynamic cover ... normally these horror comics have either badly positioned figures or movement that's too static. That's a great, eye-catching cover.
ReplyDeleteAs for the story, I don't get why people had a problem with it. This happens to me ALL the time. I can't go to a carnival without a beautiful women picking me up out of nowhere and then I suddenly black out.
Of course, I usually wake up with a kidney missing, but other than that, it's exactly like the story above!
Kidney? You're lucky. It's always my #@*%$^*! wallet!
ReplyDeleteBut yes, otherwise exactly like the story...
I think Neal was a laborer or general overall help in the Carnival (I think but I'm not sure that a roustabout put up/took down the tents, assembled/disassembled the rides, cleaned up the grounds after the carnival closed,etc. Generally the hired hand/hired help)
ReplyDeleteIt was a good story, though it was tame by 1950's standards (no vampires/warewolves/zombies/spirits needing vengance/devil offering a deal, etc)
It is a good tale which much like many such tales, it could have been treated differently so many ways.
Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteAnd linking to my website ACE HORROR.
Charles Nicholas indeed tried his hand at horror first in Ace Magazines.
And soon after at the American Comics Group. Later on he contributed to Quality's WEB OF EVIL as well.
His crisp and clean style seems to blend a bit of romance and glamour into the dire horror lore...
;-)
In general, I found the work awkward here, but page three panel four is like an impressionistic masterpiece, so it all balances back out to even again. The story is kind of a hoot, though. It's a two-act play in which we are given a sequence of expository calamities--then they go over here and HORROR HAPPENS!, then it's suddenly deserted and MORE HORROR!--and then we are given a replay in which things TURN OUT SURPRISINGLY DIFFERENTLY! It's like Tarantino's Death Proof with a comically large number of obstructive word balloons.
ReplyDeleteGood splash panel image. Dreadful printing as usual for '50s comics.
ReplyDeleteYou don't often see the word "geek" in print prior to recent decades. It's always in the context of a circus performer.