Sunday, February 10, 2019
A Shriek in the Night / Easy Dies It
The superbly terrorific Weird Mysteries #1 one-shot, was a black 'n white magazine from Pastime Publications, (March 1959), and featured an all-star collaboration of art legends: Carl Burgos (who illustrated both of today's stories), Paul Reinman, Joe Orlando, Angelo Torres, and the great George Tuska, who illustrated quite of a number of the stories, as well as concocting that incredibly beautiful cover. At 68 pages, it contained well over a dozen tales of brisk, quick-witted, precode inspired horror, and also highlighted by a very humorous, exceptionally well written horror host; plus other fun strips, like faux greeting cards, etc. I'll definitely be posting more from this one throughout 2019, but for now it's two weird love tales (and a bonus gag) that frightfully fit into our month-long Valentine's theme. xXx
Love sucks. Happy Valentines Day.
ReplyDeleteThat horror host is hilarious--especially at the end of the second story scolding us for throwing up on his nice clean floor. XD!
ReplyDeleteThe stories are fun, however, I have a bit of a feeling that they've been done before with slightly different skins. The first story, I think was done earlier in one of the Atlas horror comics--but I can't quite recall which one or the title. I'm not entirely certain if the couple in question were also cheating on their spouses too (although I think that was the case), but it basically ends the same way. The couple has rotted away while everything else around them in the carnival remains the same.
The second story is a well-loved premise with the script done usually by the same writer--Carl Wessler. (Although I'm uncertain if he's behind this one too) that I actually first experienced through this exact story. However, there's also the 1953 issue of Atlas' Suspense #27 that features the story "If" (featured previously on your blog) in which the girl in question and her mother are vampires with a werewolf stepfather--but our hero never meets her because he gets run over by a truck. A year after, a variant of this tale was done in EC's Haunt of Fear #25 in which the family are ghouls in "Out Cold!" Finally, there was a variant in Atlas Wold of Fantasy #2 in 1956 also called "If!" except that due to the comics code by that point, the girl and her family are aliens rather than monsters, and the main character still ends up meeting her in the end rather than the rather amusing death accident ending--which make me laugh every time no matter what variant of the story. My source:http://seductionofdainnocent.blogspot.com/2016/02/tell-tale-of-terror-thrice-suspense-if.html
You beat me to the punch, Glowworm2. I was digging through THOIA archives to find the tale "IF"
ReplyDeleteHere is the web address-
https://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2008/08/if.html
It seems publishers/writers/artists would borrow/copy/swipe from one another with a few cosmetic changes here and there to fill the pages for monster kids to buy.
If nothing else, going through THOIA archives makes me appreciate all, and I do mean ALL Karswell has done to make this the top horror blog on the web.
Thank you Karswell!
Nice art Carl Burgos!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen Carl Burgos do the CrafTint thing before. This stuff is super. And a Werewolf Sunday tale to boot! I think the best work here is that first page of a Shriek in the Night. That page is so good it would seem right at home in any EC Picto-Fiction mag.
ReplyDeleteFor me, these two scream "Mad Magazine". Is it just the black and white tones? The lettering? Favorite bit is the look on Mabel's face page three panel five. Fun fun fun! Thank you Mr. K.
ReplyDeleteEverybody has already gone over the lifts here, so let's focus on the art.
ReplyDeleteI love that cover, though the composition is a bit bizarre. It's super pulpy (who knows if it was lifted itself) and I like the mask and monster face. The whole thing has a great look regardless of the space of the figures.
For the MAD look -- it looks more like Cracked to me but yeah, I see it too.
I like our horror host! For the comic panel, I love the monster, especially the way it's posed.
Not much in the form of monsters and gore in these tales, but I really like the last couple panels in the werewolf tale. Well paced.
Also, if a women doesn't want to see you after dark and then finally invites you into her home and it's the Munster's house? Leave. Immediately!
'I love that cover, though the composition is a bit bizarre. It's super pulpy (who knows if it was lifted itself)....'
ReplyDeleteThough not based off a still, it's a swipe from an iconic moment in the 1925 'Phantom Of The Opera'.