Tuesday, February 18, 2020
The Vampire Fog
Earlier this month marked the 40th anniversary release of one of my all time favorite John Carpenter films, The Fog (1980.) I'm sure I don't need to recap the movie here as it's quite the supernatural classic, so instead enjoy this similarly themed tale of foggy fright on the high seas of horror, from the June 1952 debut issue of St. Johns Weird Horrors #1.
Nice one! Really reads more like an adventure story with supernatural elements, though the creepy ex-captain is a real menacing figure in the story. It reminds me a bit of the movie that scared the living daylights out of me as a kid, Satan's Triangle, and not to trust survivors (whatever form they might take!)
ReplyDeleteThe solution is believable though a little convenient, and the art is over all good aside from a couple overly bright coloring choices. I love the ex-captain on page 4, and the last two pages have a lot of good action and some interesting camera angles.
Can't remember one this good and spooky in a long time! Plus, I like it when everybody isn't doomed to a horrible death. A+!
ReplyDeleteI don't know that many of them first-hand, but it feels like some W.H. Hodgson story, where the "monster" isn't entirely a living thing.
ReplyDeleteI know what Brian Barnes means about Satan's Triangle, and what Todd means about the happy ending (at least, for most of the second crew).
I think our Brian nailed it: It's an adventure story,with...scary smoke added? Nothing wrong with that!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of John Carpenter's The Fog, the original of course.
ReplyDeleteThere's two no nos that occur in this horror adventure tale. First, Captain Jamison wants to investigate the spooky fog--even though it smells like decaying flesh and came out of nowhere. Then Captain Burns takes in the ex-captain--despite him having glowing red eyes. Granted, we wouldn't have had much of a story if such mistakes weren't made--but the second I saw Captain Jamison still on board his deserted ship, all I could think at that moment was "NOPE! Run while you still have a chance!"
ReplyDeleteThank you Mr.K. for this horror movie feeling story. I especially liked page six panel four. So very well done. This could easily be a tv anthology episode. I like this artists faces but his waves not so much.
ReplyDeleteI think the scratchy effect of the fog, contrasted with the well-detailed shipboard details when there is no fog, is probably a great effect that has been somewhat muted by time and cheap plastic printing plates. It's still very spooky and moody as is, but I would love to see the original art boards on this one.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I can imagine not being suspicious of a ghost ship's lone survivor. Every dead body was right where it fell, for god's sake. All the Cap had done for days was hang out with the cadavers. Even if that's all on the up-and-up, totally kosher, the captain's an off-putting weirdo. Certainly nobody I'm gonna put in charge of my own ship while I take post-"finding my dead friend" catnap. Perhaps that vampire fog has the ability to cloud men's minds?
What the story reminded me of is limnic eruptions. That links to Wikipedia, so I won't get tiresome about it. But everything's right there: The storm of disrupted water, the column of smelly cloud. The terrible death toll. Certainly the writer was inspired by this natural phenomenon.