Friday, January 27, 2017
HAUNTED HORROR #26 / The Gossips!
HAUNTED HORROR #26 will be in stores on February 1st, and here's a FULL STORY PREVIEW of the nauseating tale that kicks off said issue! To decap--errrr-- recap: this is the second in a series of three "HORRORS OF IT ALL SPECIALS", each story chosen by me, so you know that guarantees it to be stamped with the highest retched gag rating possible! There's another great new illustration of Mr. Karswell as well by Happy Undertaker mastermind, Drazen Kozjan too! A serious, bonifide, DON'T MISS collection of creepers and jeepers for sure! But back to today's post, this is a disturbingly infamous Mortellaro story originally featured in the September 1953 issue of Mister Mystery #13 --it's been featured here at THOIA a few times as well over the years, (remember the archive?) I'll have another sample story for you in our next post too, so stay tombed!
This is truly one of the great stories in pre-code outside of EC and Atlas. It's clever, it's witty, and the art strays into the cartoonish but it works (as I mentioned before, the over-sized heads are a weird idea, but the content of the story almost calls out for them.)
ReplyDeleteThree victims, three zombies, three gossips, the three monkeys. You could hardly pick a better story for your collection!
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ReplyDeleteThis proves EC didn't have a complete lock on clever, effective stories..heh,heh,..
ReplyDeleteThe art, what with everyone looking like '70's T-shirt iron-ons, lets it down a tad, but it still works a treat.
The last page appeared on the endpapers of the Encyclopedia of Horror. So that's where it originally came from!
ReplyDeleteThis is the third time I've read this here at THOIA and I love it more each time I see it (soon again in print form, no less). The art and especially the coloring is just so excellent all the way though--and I am delighted to yet again see those Craftint fifty percent line screens in use here and there, a holdover from the forties.
ReplyDeleteMostly though, what I love about this is the syncretic relationship that is built between the Japanese Three Wise Monkeys maxim and Little Red Riding Hood's conversation with the wolf-in-grandmother's-clothing, all wrapped in a patina of Macbeth's three crones. That's a pretty damn heady blend if you ask this armchair folklorist.
Yeah, it took over 2 dozen issues for this one to finally get reprinted in HH, but I hope the wait was worth it-- actually, I was saving it for my special THOIA series cuz its one of my all time faves too... so now ya'll know! ;)
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