Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Fire Dance
An apology awaits as I know it's been awhile since our last post, but sinister scanner issues (as well as my teenage son who's now on summer vacation and creating his own video game) have allowed me very little time on my own damn computer! But now, finally, we'll leap forward a bit into the silver age of horror comics for another weirdly mysterious tale, this time about the mother of all moths, from the June 1975 issue of Weird Mystery Tales #19, highlighted by a spooky Luiz Dominguez cover, and eerie interior art by Abe Ocampo. Today's special post is also dedicated to another ravishingly lovely moth I know ;) enjoy-- lots more on the way this summer, I promise!
Page 6, top panel: I like the way Ocampo rather deftly hints at a sexual dream considering that this is a still-under-Code comic.
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to read this tale for quite some time. Like a moth to a flame, I've been drawn to that cover for quite some time--it's fantastic. There's some lovely art especially of the close up of our "protagonist's" face on page 2, panel 3. I also love the panels of the queen moth dancing in the pale moonlight.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, gorgeous lush art, blah story. Ocampo really knocks it out of the park on this one. His facial expressions are perfect, page 7 flows across the top panels (a really nice art trick.) It's just great.
ReplyDeleteThe story? It's really deck-stacked and kind of silly, and while explanations in horror stories isn't a requirement, there's one too many unexplained things happening. It's OK to start with one and build on that, but my belief just crumbles on this one.
This isn't a complaint, BTW, I enjoy these stories, and marvel at the art. I'd love to see more! Just the nature of the beast of 70s DC horror comics.
Compact, but enjoyable, little spooker. I like that such a ripped ranger/stalker has issues with moths and, boy, is he good at recognizing individual bugs!
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ReplyDelete"..another one from the seemingly endless parade of terrific Filipino artists from the 70's".
ReplyDeleteAlso as cool (imo!) are Filipino film posters from the same era. Their 1-sheets for Euro-westerns & the Bond series are fantastic.
Pretty sure it was Carl Linnaeus himself who originally described the queen moth as being, and I quote, "elusive as a pale nightmare." That was back in seventeen something and I still haven't ever seen one.
ReplyDeleteSounds like somebody needs a new computer for his birthday. And somebody else needs a rickety old hand-me-down computer for his own teen birthday.
"Sounds like somebody needs a new computer for his birthday."
ReplyDeleteI can relate. At the moment, I start my 7 year-old laptop with a bent paper clip. ;)
As a fan of the much lamented and trashed Peter Cushing film THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR, I approve of this story. Nice art. A "little spooker" as Guy says very well.
ReplyDeleteI think I will watch THE BLOOD BEAST TERROR tonight. Right around midnight as it should be watched.
Lesson: if you have a moth colony, call entomologists and tell them about it. They'll be interested, since they never heard of moth colonies,poor idiots. Don't try to murder the moth colony or the queen moth will be mad. You wouldn't like the queen moth when she is mad.
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