Thursday, April 27, 2017
Stand-In For Death
As promised, here's the final story in L. Miller's black and white, lo-fi Mystic #30 reprint from 1963, which is actually a complete reprint of This Magazine is Haunted #1 from October 1951. So come on creeps, hop aboard this hellish ferry of the dead for a ride into the unknown! Art by George Evans.
Even though the art took a beating (not as bad as the previous entry) it's still gorgeous, and full of great and interesting camera angles.
ReplyDeletePage 4/Panel 5 and Page 5/Panel 1 are excellent.
The story is also good, a relatively unique take on the train/ship/plane/car to the underworld yarn.
That said, the B&W rendering of the final panel is a horrible coincidence that makes it look like a really awful racial caricature art from the 40s.
"No one knows when I, Doctor Death...may strike!"
ReplyDeleteActually, I believe I saw him on the bus the other day.
Love the '50's NYC vibe in this one.
The art was less than could be desired, though it reminded me of watching old horror movies on UHF during bad weather, dark, blurry, smudged, and the movie itself tended to be in less than stellar condition to begin with. (I remember the bow tie antenna needed to pull in UHF back in the old days when shlocky horror flicks along with tacky horror hosts on TV were the norm.)
ReplyDeleteWhile black, white and shades of grey tend to add to power of a horror comic, it didn't do any good as far as this version of the story was concerned.
Still thanks for the post, Karswell, I will take my horror any way I can get it, perfect or less than stellar.
Thanks for these. Been loving these B&W horror tales. Got any more of these L. Miller & Son reprints?
ReplyDeleteThis is the only L Miller reprint I have. There's two more stories in this issue, unfortunately they're more crime comic based and not very interesting. I do have another black and white story coming up next though, it's a different change of pace around here but I think you guys will get a kick out of it! Stay tombed...
ReplyDelete