Sunday, May 12, 2019
High Voltage!
From the Oct '52 debut issue of Weird Mysteries #1, it's a highly charged Hy Fleishman classic about two brothers from the same mother (there's your THOIA Mother's Day connection) with a rather shocking relationship! Have a great horrorday, fiends-- and don't forget to give your mummy a big 'ol kiss!
A wonderful posting. Thank you Mr.K. Starts off with a little Bon Scott yell, and the art is great. The page one, three panels of drawing nearer caught my eye first and then the light bulb transformation echoed it. Then the bottom of page three drafts it similarly again. For me this cohesive strategy worked to make this tale stand out. This was a fun mystery. What is going on? Oh, a descent into madness. I wanted it to read "utterly.... completely.... MAD! The spittle was well done. Then, let's do the time warp again, jumping past the grisly fratricide to the electrifying conclusion. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteBill wasn't exactly the brightest bulb when it came to murdering his brother without thinking of the consequences. This story feels as if something's missing though. We know that Bill is afraid of electricity because of his brother, but we never get to find out exactly why. There are no flashbacks of Tom teasing Bill or playing any practical jokes or any malicious reason given for why Bill resents his brother so much for making him afraid of electricity. We merely see gentle teasing.
ReplyDeleteI do love the bottom panels of the second page of the light bulb turning into his brother's head though.
I also love the cop's reaction to it all. "Sorry to bother you, Mr. Ward, but the neighbors said they heard screams down here! And...it looks as if they did!"
That's a first - a werelamp!
ReplyDeleteI wish the furry spider in the splash had shown up a few more times.
The story is a bit too predictable but saved by the incredible art. I don't know if anybody pointed it out, but the bottom of each page echos each other. Each are multi-paneled close-up/transformations. That's really advanced for 1952, especially in a short horror story. That's Alan Moore level advanced stuff.
ReplyDeleteThere's absolutely nothing bad to say about the art from me. The coloring, the lettering, and the art itself is as great as it could be. You don't normally see stuff this impressive outside of EC/Atlas. What a great piece of work.
Though we finally get an origin for artist Bill Ward, and why he always drew women with enormous high heels -- he was keeping them away from shocking water!
I like the art detail here, too (I also notices that poodle spider in the splash), as well as the repeating progressions at the bottom of the pages; but my very favorite frame is the fourth on page two. There's a plucky, rainbow-colored magic trick catalogue look to that panel that I'd love to see framed on my wall.
ReplyDeleteI loved a lot of the facial close-ups - they reminded me of some of the panels from the old "Mad Comics."
ReplyDeleteSo what was he so eager to ask his brother, anyway?
ReplyDelete