Thursday, March 27, 2014
Paid in Full / Out of My Mind
Two stories from the Dec '51 issue of Astonishing #7, the first one possibly art credited to Harry Lazarus (looks like him to me), --and the second tale by John Romita! And how about that cool cover from the ever awesome Joe Maneely! My copy of this issue has definitely seen better days...
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ReplyDeleteThere's a lot of yellow in that last story. Atlas coloring was always big and bold, with a lot of big splashes of color, though it's taught me that a yellow ceiling with red beams looks awful!
ReplyDeleteBoth these are fun Atlas story, not great ones but regular, good reads. Some strange developmental problems that could have been fixed with stronger editing. In the first story, it's mentioned (quickly, in the caption) that Leech could never get, the family tomb. This setup the gotcha ending, but it's not obvious from the ending that this is the case, it just looks like the ghost tricked him.
Remember the Tales from the Darkside Episode that used "Paid in Full" as a ending? That was a great episode.
Second story wanderings in and out with out of the blue resolution, but the art is great and it's well paced.
I think that was the genius of Atlas, for every great story there was a lot of run-of-the-mill stories, but they were all entertaining to read, there were few clunkers.
Jeremiah LEECH (as in a bloodsucking parasite) the writer was quite 'subtle' in describing the heavy of this story.
ReplyDeleteEven in the fifties bankers and moneylenders were looked upon as misers and heartless Scrooges.
Wow, dig that baby Romita stuff. Looking back through your archives, I see that you've posted early Romita Atlas work before. It's always been very good, but it's also been very much of its time--serving the chunky, textured Atlas style right alongside all the rest. But this one feels funkier, like the man is testing out the visual storytelling boundaries he'd really start to batter down in the silver age. Like that narrative collage at the bottom of page one; or, better, that neat panel beside it featuring a studio audience interacting directly with the reader. So cool. I like the way the splash panel figures into the story three times.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see a reference to John Keel. He's nearly the only "Fortean" writers who can scare me the same way as an actual horror writer!
ReplyDeleteWas OUT OF MY MIND written after the Frederick Wertham campaign (or at least campaigns like it) started? The first parts of the story make you think of them, like the line "They should be banned!"