Saturday, October 28, 2017
Shweck's Bad Boy / The Night Caller
Getting back to the spellbinding spookery of 50's Atlas era horror with a deadly double header as we draw ever nearer to Halloween! Our first tale is from the June 1954 issue of Spellbound #23, it's a Chuck Winter classic with some really great moments-- followed by an eerie Bill Walton weirdie, from the April 1954 issue of Spellbound #21.
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The first story's title is a rather peculiar shout-out:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peck%27s_Bad_Boy
Like the first one quite a bit. Art is thick and nasty just like the characters.
Man, there's literally no part of the Night Caller that I do not love, especially that splash. It's marvelous! But the rest of the first page is pretty great, too. I love the sly way the narrator and the character converse with one another in those last two panels. Also, I love any time there's line art in a thought balloon--extra points from me if it happens in a story that isn't cartoony or some experiment with an arty, high-concept conceit (though I usually love both of those kinds of stories, too).
A vote for each story so far, thanks guys!
That's cool, Brandi-- thanks for hunting down that perfectly odd / relavant tidbit!
The little trivia helps, because I hated the name from the title and the store, added a comedic bent to me I thought was odd. But with the reference, I feel better.
Both great little tales, pretty creepy and definitely fun. Love the twist of the second one.
After reading ‘The Night Caller’ I recalled a similar story hidden in the archives of THOIA, and here it is-
http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2008/11/ghost-in-house.html
Even with the Herculean efforts of Nequam, I still had to do some digging to find Ghost in the House, and it’s never fun going deep into the archives, what with having to fend off the bats, rats and zombies that reside down there (Back! Back! Beat it! Shoo! Scram!) I’m just glad it’s the 50’s zombies I encounter and not the brain eating zombies, though the new breed of zombie would consider my brain a stale hors d'oeuvre and probably leave me alone.
Then again, it wouldn’t be much fun going down in the archives without a challenge so the bats, rats and zombies residing down there add to the thrill.
Haha, but you've returned (alive I presume) and you're here to tell the tale... some people venture into the archive and never make it back
The art of Shweck's Bad Boy is dripping and heavy and dark. It's really beautiful for the tale of a slimy character and his deserved end. This is a good example of how a twist ending (which you can see coming a mile away) isn't the whole of the story; the setup is. Sure, the family are vampires but they could have been werewolves or witches or about anything. Stacking the deck by making our boy a horribly evil character makes the ending more satisfying.
The Night Caller is also great, it's one of the many "but who's the ghost" tales you'd see in comics or other entertainment. Well drawn, though I don't think it's as effective as the first one.
I'd throw my vote towards the first, the art puts it over the top.
I just love the last panel of the first story--gotta love the vampire with a checklist on who to attack necks--er I mean next.
As for the second one--the old who's haunting who bit. You see it coming pretty quickly truthfully.
It seems like the ending of "Schweck's Bad Boy" has a slightly controversial quality, because it's like the time Barnabas bites Carolyn on DARK SHADOWS - after all, she's his relative, albeit a very distant one. And Johann is evidently an even more distant relative of the people biting HIM.
In a funny way, "Night Caller" is an extremely short answer to THE SIXTH SENSE!
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