Tuesday, February 16, 2016
The Isle of the Dead
Mardi Gras reared its drunken head last week, and with the overload abundance of boobs 'n booze on display, no one hardly noticed that just at the edge of town, the dead were having a dance celebration of their own in the local cemetery! Reminds me of a story I once read in the Nov '73 issue of Twilight Zone #53... featuring a much better intro by a typically off model Rod Serling illustration.
Kind of a weird ending if you ask me. I enjoyed the reporters little jokes while looking at the tombstones.
ReplyDeleteI kind of wish we'd gotten a few more pages. I loved the eerie build-up and that page five is jaw-dropping. But page six could use about two pages longer, I think, building some suspense for what they end up finding. I've woken up to the remains of the previous nights party, too. It's off-putting and weird at best. In a way, that second half of the story--that discovery of the dead and insane, the harsh light of day, probably a bunch of empty bottles and somebody left the damn front open again--is just as spooky as what happened the night before.
ReplyDeleteI love these Gold Key covers, of course! Happy Mardi Gras!
Yes, Pages 4-5 are absolutely great and the story is nice , though a little archetypical.
ReplyDeleteA great horror story, but I think these comics somehow lack the real "spirit" of the series, where the weird element was more cleverly built and often with an unexpected twist.
At least Paul and Max should have noticed that Marcel was closed in the tomb, but the door was too heavy to be opened by one man.
Anyone happens to know where the heck is Reznia Ayetsi supposed to be?
Gold Key Comics turned out some gems (or if you prefer, gold nuggets) in the horror department. Their stories ranged from campfire type scare tales to impressive horror, as this story certainly did.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this, its great to see Gold Key horrors from time to time on THOIA, Variety is the spice of life and it does enhance THOIA to feature horror from different decades.
I hate to say it, but due to what you're always told in this country about the French and Americans (and I'm sure they're told the same thing in that country too), it's somehow surprising to see a "buddy" story with men of those two countries.
ReplyDeleteEven though I only had a few of them early on, I also got really attached to Gold Key horror comics. As JMR777 says, they could go from pretty lightweight to pretty far out there, and both things have always been fine with me. The issue I'm always especially sentimental about is "Boris Karloff Presents" # 38, which has two stories that really spooked me.
That and # 36, which has a sort of arty-looking "other dimension" story.
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ReplyDeleteFirst time in a long time I missed a post! This is a fun little tale (the ending is a little threadbare) with some great art -- the dancing skeletons, and their moldering clothes telling them apart in a unique fashion -- is a highlight. It's more of a pre-code type of story than what you'd normally associate with the more cerebral type of Twilight Zone yarns.
ReplyDeleteThe dancing skeletons -- with attributes -- need to go up on Tumblr. Hopefully that'll drive some traffic!
Maybe it takes place in Poveglia?
ReplyDelete