Monday, September 19, 2016
Horror Without a Head
One of my all time favorite precode Harvey stories is "Headless Horror" from the May 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #8-- click HERE to read it in our THOIA Archive! It's surprisingly gory and superbly atmospheric, and seriously, I like it so much I put it in the "Scarifying Mr. Karswell Issue" of Haunted Horror #14! So again today we have an Eerie Pub remake/redraw, retitled "Horror Without a Head", and as usual we see an updated Harvey classic (this time with Nestor Olivera art) that is visually moody and cinematic, though I will say the 50's original is probably more effectively violent because we get to see all that glorious gore in FULL COLOR! Another interesting choice in the remake is to take the fabulous panel from page 6 of the original story and rework it a bit for the new splash. Like our previous posts this month, today's tale is also from the September 1981 issue of of Terrors of Dracula Vol. 3 #2. Anybody getting tired of these Eerie Pub remakes yet?
It looks like the Eerie Publications people missed the misuse of "ancestor" for "descendant" in the script too.
ReplyDeleteI think the original version is more chilling in this case. The black and white reprint is fairly atmospheric but the original is far more effective due to the use of color to represent the ghost when she takes off her head. Also, I actually think the reprint detracts a bit from the horror by making the ghost a bit too sexy for someone who's head's been lopped off and literally stabbed in the back. Lavinia's facial expressions in the remake aren't nearly as expressive either due to being made younger and prettier. She looks more sleepy than scared.
ReplyDeleteglowworm2 beat me to it. The biggest problem with the Eerie remake is how sexy they make the ghost. In the original, the stark-white wide open eyes and coloring make a better ghost (even though one panel mis-colors her with a skin tone.)
ReplyDeleteHere the ghost looks more like the walking dead (not counting the pass-through sword.) Also fine, but doesn't fit the story.
Also, the opening word balloon, which is spoken by our TV reporter, points to the ghost in the splash. That's just weird. Some editing might have helped there. Same thing with some panel layout, which was a bit harder to follow.
I still love it; it's just hard to not nit-pick because of the (this time) far superior original version.
Another story with vengeance dealt to descendants (not the band,) that always seemed a bit unfair.
I'm not one to complain about sexy upgrades to any aspect of anything in life, but yeah, this time the original version leaves the Eerie remake choking pitifully in the dust.
ReplyDeleteMore goodies on the way, just got back from a much needed mini vacation and reviving the scanner as we speak-- stay tombed!!