Monday, July 21, 2014

A Kiss to Save Him from the Grave! (PART ONE)

Pretty sure I've never posted anything from my gothic horror nurse story files (wait, do I have a file like that anyway? Apparently, yes!) And here's a good example, a supernatural terror tale dripping with ominous atmosphere, as well as wonderfully inconsistent art from Tom Sutton. Sutton seems a bit all over the place with this one (some panels look as if he's trying to ape Frank Robbins for example too), but it's still a cool and creepy, haunted mansion / ghost story-- it's also a sprawling 16 pages long so I split it into a two parter. From the April 1973 issue of Charlton's Haunted Love #1.










...to be continued!

7 comments:

Mestiere said...
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Brian Barnes said...

Kars, you're really on the money here, it does look like Robbins in places, I wonder if Sutton was rushing this for some reason? He's responsible for the inks (according to GCD.)

It's weirdly uneven. The splash is brilliant, but the nurses face changes drastically throughout the story and the shadowing seems haphazard sometimes.

And you know what? It's still great. Stylistically, it's perfect for that Dark Shadows style gothic romance book (it's hard to believe the market would support these books that both DC and Charlton were in on it!)

JMR777 said...

Horror Gothic Romance, Charlton beat the Twilight series by decades!

I prefer to look at Charlton as the coconut of comics, either you love it or hate it with very little room in between. Me, I always liked Charlton, faults, warts and all.

Mr. Karswell said...

I've always felt that Charlton was real hit or miss too, but when they hit it, they hit it hard... and Sutton rarely disappoints. Part Two coming up later today or tomorrow, thanks for the comments

Mestiere said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mr. Karswell said...

Interesting, thanks for sharing that!

Grant said...

Since this is an early ' 70s comic, the start of that last page - a blonde heroine in a skimpy nightgown - almost makes you think you're seeing a Joey Heatherton "Perfect Sleeper" commercial.