Wednesday, December 20, 2017
HAUNTED HORROR #31 / IF...
HAUNTED HORROR #31 is in stores TODAY, and it's full of hairy 'n scary 'n scaly terrors, plus a couple of oddly titled classics that have been featured here at THOIA in the past, (but you know you love revisiting the most revolting of 'em again anyway!) --and we have both featured here today as part of our Double December xmas posts, aka an encore presentation for you long time, lifelong regulars. So pick up the current issue NOW for all of the other deadly details and deceaseries, and decompositions, and downright death riddled... derrrrrrr... sorry, I ran out of kooky Karswell korn.
I wonder what the deal was with these two stories? Obviously one is a remake of the other. If the noose is first and the coffin is second, then that's a good thing because coffin fixes a lot of problems noose had. If the other way around, that's a bad thing!
ReplyDeleteThat said, noose leaves a little mystery (not counting the mystery of the panel reading order on some pages!) and coffin spells it right out. Honestly, death can't be so bad if reapers are such lookers!
I loved the art and coloring on the second version of the story. The characters and dialog were excellent in that version too. Looking back at the original posts, I see that coffin version was certainly published first, at least. And obviously, it is the more polished story of the two. But some part of me finds the ominously growing noose to be the creepier icon--even while I wouldn't want to change the far chillier sleepy-time ending of the coffin story for anything.
ReplyDeleteHappy Christmas, everyone!
Thanks for the comments, hope everyone enjoys the new issue of HAUNTED HORROR too!
ReplyDeleteThis like when punk rock went against the prog rock and bands like Steely Dan. That piece by Pallete, (is pallet John L'Agostino?) The coffin story is better in a bunch of ways. The art is elegant. The story is good with surreal touches like his friend Mike that lives in his basement. (!!)
ReplyDeleteThe second story which is most likely a rip-off actually has more of a punch even though it isn't as artful.
It starts off rebellious and mischievous in the first panel. I think that black triangle on her crotch looks intentional. Do others notice that? I read that Wally Wood and his co-horts used to ink the drawings nude sometimes as a joke. They were young guys often. I picture little boys in the fifties finding that drawing exciting. It seems like a silly thing to mention but my adult eyes can't stop seeing it. The shade shouldn't actually do that...
The rip-off story has clumsy mistakes. At one point the writer writes the wrong name for a character.
the woman is not drawn as stylistically but she's more real. She laughs at him as he swings on the rope.
She starts feeling like a shadow of some real woman in the artists' personal experience.
I'm back to these stories. I think I see what you mean by the problems of the second story but the story becomes more surreal because of it. Why would anyone want two little coffins to commemorate a funeral of a loved one? The motivations are too bizarre to be inept. Instead I read it as a dream-like narrative.
ReplyDeleteThe coffin piece by Pallette/ D'Agostino was published in 1951, and the hanging rope story was from 1952 so the rope one was the rip-off. It's more logically effective than the coffin piece but the coffin piece has a quiet beauty to it. It's the one I go back to.
If they were movies, the coffin piece is like the Lynch version and the rope one is like a grind house B movie version. It would be more punny if the rope story was the Lynch version though.
Speaking of movies. Has anyone seen the Killing of a Sacred Deer?
That's the perfect movie comparison for the coffin story.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer is just like a fifties horror comic comeuppance story but it has this slow moving arthouse aesthetic that would disappoint most horror fans.