Ross Andru and Mike Esposito give us a great cover, as well as (among other tales), a 5-page chiller about a cursed tree-- in the debut issue of Mister Mystery #1, from September 1951.
Good cover! A predictable story, but good, solid illustration. This Mister Mystery character -- he's just like the lamest horror comic host going. Is there any horror comic host sillier? I mean, he's supposed to be some top hat magician with a Lone Ranger mask? What is that? How am I supposed to get the chills seeing him show up hosting the story? He's no Mr. K!
This one has got some weird art -- page 3 has confusing paneling and page 5 is only saved by the arrow. This is no crappy artist, it's early Ross Andru, which makes the panel layout a bit more mysterious, but, again, it's early.
GCD says Andru drew most of this comic.
Mister Mystery comics pretty much reads like one of the earlier jump on the bandwagon horror comics that employed writers who weren't yet sure about the genre conventions.
So now we know the truth, Charlton wasn't the first publisher to crank out not so scary grade B horror, they learned from the best (or worst if you prefer.) This was still a decent enough tale, though with a different writer (say, one who worked for Eerie or Creepy) this story could have been memorable nightmare fuel, with the mandatory gore and detached eyeball flying through the air.
Speaking of Charlton, Mister Mystery's habit of actually addressing the villain at least once reminds me of "Winnie the Witch" the hostess GHOST MANOR, and how she was always being insinuated into the story itself, at least visually and sometimes in other ways. (I don't know if Trevor Markwart would find her any scarier than Mister Mystery, but she definitely has other attractions.)
I hate it when revenge stories have the character who's getting the revenge dragging someone else into it - I mean that poor horse! (I don't hate it when the story holds that kind of thing AGAINST the character, but this one doesn't seem to be doing that.)
7 comments:
Good cover! A predictable story, but good, solid illustration. This Mister Mystery character -- he's just like the lamest horror comic host going. Is there any horror comic host sillier? I mean, he's supposed to be some top hat magician with a Lone Ranger mask? What is that? How am I supposed to get the chills seeing him show up hosting the story? He's no Mr. K!
Har! I will definitely take that as a compliment! Thanks
This one has got some weird art -- page 3 has confusing paneling and page 5 is only saved by the arrow. This is no crappy artist, it's early Ross Andru, which makes the panel layout a bit more mysterious, but, again, it's early.
GCD says Andru drew most of this comic.
Mister Mystery comics pretty much reads like one of the earlier jump on the bandwagon horror comics that employed writers who weren't yet sure about the genre conventions.
So now we know the truth, Charlton wasn't the first publisher to crank out not so scary grade B horror, they learned from the best (or worst if you prefer.) This was still a decent enough tale, though with a different writer (say, one who worked for Eerie or Creepy) this story could have been memorable nightmare fuel, with the mandatory gore and detached eyeball flying through the air.
um yeah. Well I liked it. Great art.
Speaking of Charlton, Mister Mystery's habit of actually addressing the villain at least once reminds me of "Winnie the Witch" the hostess GHOST MANOR, and how she was always being insinuated into the story itself, at least visually and sometimes in other ways.
(I don't know if Trevor Markwart would find her any scarier than Mister Mystery, but she definitely has other attractions.)
I hate it when revenge stories have the character who's getting the revenge dragging someone else into it - I mean that poor horse! (I don't hate it when the story holds that kind of thing AGAINST the character, but this one doesn't seem to be doing that.)
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