Tuesday, December 22, 2015
"To Sneak... Perchance to Scream!"
Got another one from the same issue of Marvel's Giant-Size Chillers (as seen in our last post), this one a request from "Greg from the Grave" who had this issue as a kid and wanted to revisit the story about "the haunted house that tells the story." Well, this is the one my friend, and it's by Tom Sutton, deliverin' his usual awesome art, as well as a little bit of Harvey Kurtzman-esque humor tossed into the mix. I like these types of tales told from an inanimate object point of view-- for another example check the archive for "I, The Coffin" (the second story after you click the link.)
Hah! This one was presented here in a pocket book as a sequel for "Mr. Craven buys his Scream House" [from Chamber of Darkness 1]
ReplyDeleteTom Sutton's lines in page in 1 were changed into: "Let's see what happened to that haunted house we saw in 'Mr. Craven buys his Scream House'...".
Obviously, that story was in the same book. That was in 1972. Only now I know those were two DIFFERENT houses.
Fun little story, with a "happy" ending for the house. Sutton's mastery of crazy angles and architecture really shine through here. The cut-away of the house and the weapon is a nice piece of work, and the evil spy/scientist is just the right mix of cartoon-y and realistic.
ReplyDeleteWhy anybody would build a top secret plant next to a hill with an abandoned house on it I don't know. Doesn't seem to wise!
I wonder if that "hypnotize with any T.V. set" instruction booklet has been reproduced anywhere on the net? It'd be interesting to see what they claim it was. I only ask that because I'm curious, not because I want to hypnotize women in mini-skirts to walk around like zombies.
It's a little brave to come out with an early ' 70s story about Russian spies, considering how many stories were MAKING FUN of the Cold War - I mean BOTH sides of it - by then. Including plenty of horror stories, I imagine. No wonder he made it so tongue-in-cheek.
ReplyDelete"Step lively, chaps" - maybe anyone who speaks English can use those two expressions, but is the story somehow suggesting that the people paying for the sabotage are the British?
Nice! Love the mad science guy's vertigo glasses and his henchman's subtly derogatory attitude.
ReplyDeleteI always thought this would've been a fun story for Maxwell Smart or even Mr.s Peel to stumble upon in a nifty TV version... glad you guys enjoyed it as well! :)
ReplyDelete