Saturday, June 18, 2016
The Morning Ghost
One more tale from DC's supernatural 70's, this time from the October - November 1970 issue of House of Secrets #88. And like our last story, it's a bit predictable in story and climax, but still spooky and fun none the less, and the spectacular art from Dick Dillin on pencils, and Frank Giacoia on inks makes for a really interesting, visually striking chiller. I also recently stumbled onto a cool Virgil Finley illustration that I had never seen before and thought it kind of fit this story, so I tacked it onto the end-- enjoy! More petrifying pre code horrors coming up next!
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7 comments:
I think this is the first story I've seen here that used double-page spreads. Uses them well, too!
I posted a story called Slime World a few years back that had a two page title spread, but I lazily forgot to piece it together
http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2013/12/slime-world.html?m=1
Ah, one of those stories that is only a surprise if you forget to count the ghosts. I kept wondering what became of the guy Casandra wanted to marry. Yet the comic doesn't exactly make it clear whether the Rich who is helping Casandra run away from her ghostly family is actually the same one she was in love with. If he was, why didn't she recognize him?
There's a bit of Herb Temple is this art! The facial expressions are really good, I especially like the maniacal look of the ghosts.
The plot? Well, it was obvious that one or both was a ghost, and this story hinges on the horror comic cliche that nobody can say anything specific. "Casandra, you died to. You need to come with us." That would have helped! Or boyfriend ghost (I'm going to assume) just going "Hey, you're a ghost. We both died."
The big panel inside the house, with the tilted camera angle, is really well done and creepy.
That lovely girl that smiled at me might or might not be a corpse? I think "lovely" is about all I need to know, I can work with the rest!
You know I don't usually dig on the seventies stuff very hard (especially DC's output, for whatever reason)--possibly because it was what I grew up reading, or the crippling nature of the comics code, or maybe that most creative talent was being funneled into the superheroics and the horror titles were becoming kind of an afterthought. And yeah, usually I don't love some of the experimentation going on with paneling and other aspects of the sequential story art of the time.
But this suffers from none of those subjective, personal drawbacks. And that two-page spread is flipping glorious. I know when I'm licked.
I was thinking the same thing as Brian Barnes about the girl. Maybe it's just one more social barrier to ignore.
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