After a fun 'n lengthy look at some different types of 70's comic book horror, THOIA now jumps back into freakish 50's pre-code mode with a shape-shifting tale of witchcraft and crazy cat ladies! From the August 1952 issue of Tomb of Terror #3!
I like this artist, GCD says it's Moe Marcus, and I know I've seen him before on this blog. There's some perspective problems (the last page has what seems to be a window that's 10x10 feet!) but the elongated faces, the well-staged action panels, the split between cartoon-y and real are great.
And, a good panther!
Fun story. Nothing special, but lots of crazy deaths, weird ladies, and creatures -- and the only real winner? The servant of Satan. Take that one, Wertham! :)
BTW, if I correctly figured out that cutting off a witches hair -- while constantly thinking to myself "it's the source of her power" -- I don't think I'd just leave it laying around. Burn it! What's with the half-jobs in these comics?
"Yes, officer. I think a hair burglar came in expecting the owners to be away. When he was surprised by the woman in the bed, he panicked and killed her with his own hair burglary tools, dropping the loot on the floor in the process."
Seems farfetched to me, too. But I utterly love the crazy panel full of rainbow vertigo at the bottom of page five, and I seriously dig the over-the-top panel of obligatory splash panel narration, a pre-code feature that I usually think is as useless as it is overheated, but is lividly inventive here. The bony fingers of a demonaic witch indeed.
4 comments:
I like this artist, GCD says it's Moe Marcus, and I know I've seen him before on this blog. There's some perspective problems (the last page has what seems to be a window that's 10x10 feet!) but the elongated faces, the well-staged action panels, the split between cartoon-y and real are great.
And, a good panther!
Fun story. Nothing special, but lots of crazy deaths, weird ladies, and creatures -- and the only real winner? The servant of Satan. Take that one, Wertham! :)
BTW, if I correctly figured out that cutting off a witches hair -- while constantly thinking to myself "it's the source of her power" -- I don't think I'd just leave it laying around. Burn it! What's with the half-jobs in these comics?
A prowler?
"Yes, officer. I think a hair burglar came in expecting the owners to be away. When he was surprised by the woman in the bed, he panicked and killed her with his own hair burglary tools, dropping the loot on the floor in the process."
Seems farfetched to me, too. But I utterly love the crazy panel full of rainbow vertigo at the bottom of page five, and I seriously dig the over-the-top panel of obligatory splash panel narration, a pre-code feature that I usually think is as useless as it is overheated, but is lividly inventive here. The bony fingers of a demonaic witch indeed.
Yeah I like this one too, Moe Marcus has been featured here at THOIA quite a lot-- check the archives for more of his creepy stuff!
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