Thursday, May 4, 2017
The Arm of Tatra Magis
Spooky zombie art by Ken Rice highlights this horror adventure yarn about an undead mongol army rising again-- plus an evil severed arm containing supernatural powers to boot! Hang onto your own limbs, this one is a frighteningly fun ride into darkness! From the August 1952 issue of Web of Mystery #12.
Good story. Very original with the Mongol angle and the withered arm. I like the moody coloring of it.
ReplyDeleteThat cover is pretty intense. It's Folk Art on a Golden Age horror comic cover. It's almost as if the publisher went out and found an authentic midway / sideshow banner artist to do the cover. Crude and very effective.
Reading this installment, I kept thinking of a 1950's horror comic great whose name now escapes me and it's driving me nuts! He had a real "folk art" style. Did a "Hand of Fate" story. Maybe somebody will know who I'm talking about...
Thanks for posting these, Karswell! Real vintage horror comic connoisseur stuff!
Matt Fox, that's who I am thinking of while reading this THOIA entry. And I meant to write Hand of GLORY.
ReplyDeleteGCD says this issue cover artist is John Chilly.
ReplyDeleteLots of Matt Fox in the archive too, check the artist tags in the sidebar!
"It sounds like an old folk legend!"
ReplyDeleteThanks, Cpt.Redundancy.
'Web Of Mystery' drinking game!: bend an elbow (whichever you have left) when ol' Tatra exclaims "....dog!!".
I have to say I don't like the cover. Very amateurish while the interior art is great. They had Lou Cameron and Chic Stone for the interior! Have one of them do the cover!
ReplyDeleteThe story is a lot of fun! A lot of elements in it, but they all work together, and that's usually something that weights down these stories. The art is crisp, the coloring works, the zombies are creepy. Nice one!
Kars, if you haven't already done it, I'm interested in "The Footlight Furies" from that issue after looking at the GCD. It seems like it'll be silly and entertaining!
Have to agree about the poor cover.
ReplyDeleteThough running from the gypsy hell-beast, the woman looks like she's having a great time...much better than the poor saps on the coaster!
No problem... I was thinking about just posting the rest of this issue anyway because it's all pretty insane, FYI Silver Bell of Doom is already in the archive
ReplyDelete"He's dead, with withered claw marks at his throat, as if a withered beast had killed him!"
ReplyDeleteOkay, okay, we get it. Tatra Magis maybe needs to hit the gym a little. Can't a guy put in 800 years of managing a zombie horde without all the body-shaming 'tude?
Count me with Morbid in liking the cover. It may be more interesting than polished, but that's usually my preference, anyway. I Like the art on the story too, digging the drawing maybe more than the sequential paneling, and certainly more than the boring coloring. I like the use of multiple line widths in those long topographical details (in faces and rocks and animals). It reminds me of technical pen work, like that of Sergio Toppi.
This one is fun, I like that Tatra is actually willing to play fair. He keeps his word on giving the astronomers their freedom after Les defeats his champion in combat, and he lets them go after Les threatens to destroy his arm. He only comes back to avenge himself on the one who broke his promise and stole his arm, which naturally happens to be the jerk on the expedition.
ReplyDeleteNice story,but all in all this sums up to a story about jealousy and not much more.
ReplyDelete