Wednesday, February 12, 2014
The Torture Chamber
Another Gene Colan horror hit from the eerie Atlas archive-- penned by Stan the Man, and this time from the April 1952 issue of Astonishing #12. And speaking of archives, check the THOIA archive for all of the other stories in this issue: Horror Show, The Man Who Was Afraid, A Playmate for Susan, and Date With Death! Yes, we slam the coffin lid down on another full issue presentation!
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ReplyDeleteNot sure why the search engine isn't working, possibly the story titles are too generic or there are just too many other stories with similar words... I know they're in there somewhere I have them marked off my list-- ok, first person to find them and pastes the link in the comments here gets a copy of the new HAUNTED HORROR issue.
ReplyDeleteGreat news, regator.com, which lists only the Best Blogs lists The Horrors of It All as one of the Greats!
ReplyDeleteKudos to Karswell!
The story was clever with an ending leaving the reader to decide if it was the wax monsters, the hobo or an accident that led to the bloody finale for the writer.
My only critique to the tale is (in my opinion) a bit too much black and shadow in the story.
I understand the images were meant to be powerful by being in the dark to give it a brooding eerie atmosphere, but they went a little bit overboard in the attempt. The over use of black and shadow made it too dark and hard to make out the details of the wax monsters.
Again, this is just my opinion, others may feel that the use of black made the story, I just feel it was a bit too much.
All in all, a fine tale from Atlas.
I knew I forgot something....
ReplyDeletehttp://regator.com/blog_profile/1843/the_horrors_of_it_all/
Thanks JMR!
Delete"I've got to escape, somehow! I know - I'll shut myself in this small airtight box that locks from the outside!"
ReplyDeleteMaybe next month, I've already got the rest of this month planned out
ReplyDeleteA very Stan Lee story!
ReplyDeleteThe art is interesting, and I'll say a bit of heresy here that I think the cheaper paper/printing helped a bit. It's very full of shadows, and a little bleed here and there made it a bit more muddy and murky. And good job with the coloring, the white/yellow/black panels really stand out (obviously, praise to Colan, too.)
The final 7 panels are a great piece of horror work, both in script, pacing, and art. Predictable? Certainly, but the ending should never be the point, but the journey to the ending.
What's odd is that the most unnerving face is given to the hobo himself at the bottom of the third page. And it isn't a stereotyped hobo look - instead, he looks like Leo G. Carroll at the end of TARANTULA!
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