Monday, January 26, 2015
Give the Devil His Due
Never before have I seen such Satanic salivating for a second part to a story from THOIA followers as this! And so here it is, friends, your devilish due in the soul-searing finale of this wild, roller coaster ride into Hell, from the March 1975 issue of The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #50; highlighted by the awesome art by Tom Sutton. And for more Sutton, check the THOIA Archive, as well as the brand spankin' new Chilling Archives of Comics hardcover, Tom Sutton's Creepy Things, from IDW / Yoe Books-- just click HERE!
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ReplyDeletePage 9 bottom panel, the devil looks like the demon from 'Night of the Demon'
ReplyDelete"So, the Devil lives in North Carolina."
Well the last time when the devil went down to Georgia he lost his gold fiddle in the fiddling contest, so maybe he is still sore over that and avoids that state.
There were some interesting monsters and horrors in this tale, they added to the scare factor. Even though Charlton was low end they could sometimes turn out a real gem among their cubic zirconias.
Well, I liked the way this played out. Dr. Graves uses his intellect to get Satan's minions to rebel against him. And I can imagine some kids in the Bible Belt really getting scared reading this one, too!
ReplyDeleteDynamic art by Sutton. Two childhood favourites of mine of his were the "Whispering Box" and "Out of the Deep" from Baron Weirwulf’s Haunted Library. My only quibble with this one is that I wish he'd have spent a little more time on some of the drawings, as they do occasionally get a little too rushed and sometimes look like quick dashed-off sketches rather than finished comic book art -- and then the anatomy goes too far out the window. The first panel on page 12 of the first part of the story last post made me cringe!
But overall, this made for a really fun couple of entries on THIOA! Thanks for posting.
Any Sutton is good Sutton, but this does look a little more rushed than part 1. We've got some fun creature designs, some fun a strange angles, and a take on the "walking away from an explosion without looking back ending."
ReplyDeleteA fun yarn, and a good adventure story, though the vampire lady pretty much turned out to be a superfluous character with little impact on the story.
The ad? Anybody my age remembers that ad, it was burned into our consciousness. It striking and made you desire the book, probably for all the wrong reasons.
I noticed that about her too. Because of her doubts in the last few pages, I almost expected her to do that famous bit from GOLDFINGER and so many other spy stories, and side with Dr. Graves. So seeing her become just one more member of the angry mob was a little disappointing.
ReplyDeleteI may be annoying, but after Graves made a summary of Part 1 and I saw Nicholas and Lucinda at the Sabbath I was impressed by the similarities with the comic "Zora la Vampira": a blonde vamp helps Satan (depicted in a very similar way) in his schemes. Similar premise, less violence, no sex.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of Lucinda being Lilith is cool, but in this case i sympathize with her, who didn't want to be "less" than Adam.
So Satan-Shaitan is indeed Angra Mainyu - Ahriman and is the "Prince of Lies" (not entirely correct I think, but who cares), a supernatural Richard Nixon who can only lie to his minions, and it's easy for Graves to turn them against him once those dolts realize he's just a phoney bully who tricks them with trashy slogans but won't keep any of his promises.
We definitely need a Dr. Graves here. Now.
And didn't Procol Harum say "The Devil came from Kansas"?
Oh, I was forgetting the ad. Cool, if the book truly gives dignity to those people, and a proper appreciation for their inner strenght.
I definitely agree with Brian's comment about that book ad. As far as I know, many of those books are very dignified (like their chapters on the Elephant Man, to use an obvious example), but I'm still glad I never got one, because in my case, it WOULD'VE been for the wrong reasons, in a way.
ReplyDeleteMore horror on the way in a few... thanks for the comments!
ReplyDeleteThank you again good Mr. Karswell for posting this wonderful story...
ReplyDelete