Tuesday, February 10, 2015
HAUNTED HORROR #15
HAUNTED HORROR #15 is finally in stores next week, and featuring a ghastly assortment of demons, brutes, monsters, fiends, and oddball ordeals! PLUS this sickening swashbuckler from the Jan. '53 issue of Strange Mysteries #9! Hard to believe we've made it 15 issues already, Yoe ho ho! Check around the web for more previews!
Now that, boys and girls, is a splash panel!
ReplyDeleteFinding missing body parts somewhere unexpected is a time-worn staple but it's done to really great effect here.
The stab-through-the-neck panel probably isn't unique, but I don't remember where I've seen both entry and exit of a bladed weapon in a pre-code. You usually see it just going in.
The art's good but there's some paneling problems, the circle panels just tend to draw attention instead of adding anything and sometimes it's hard to follow the action (especially on the last page,) but those are minor complaints.
It'll be interesting to see how this looks on paper tomorrow as the printing is (sigh) a bit muddy.
I thought the first half was pretty brilliant. I haven't had a ton of pirate adventure, so maybe that's why the idea of scavenger hunting from buried map to buried map feels really fresh to me. Also, while I usually groan at the "rainbow coalition of white people" set-up in stories like this, it was used to pretty good effect here. All the characters felt, if not fully fleshed-out, at least distinct from one another. If the story then got a little more rote by the end, well, can't be helped. At least the art was still plenty gruesome, and that's good enough for me.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this issue of Strange Mysteries had a really freaky cover. Zooombie Circus Freeak Huumaan Seal Giiirl. OoooOoo.
A really nice prewiew Mr. Karswell...
ReplyDeleteI would have loved to read this story as a kid. And to relive it playing with a glo-in-the-dark Captain Kidd action figure from Matchbox' Fighting Furies.
I can't help liking that ending where they're so chummy. It's almost a "Topper" kind of ghost story ending!
ReplyDeleteI'll have another preview for you guys shortly, as discovered, this issue will be out on the 18th now instead, sorry about the confusion!
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