Wednesday, July 1, 2020
The End!
We ended June on an evil Atlas note, and now we kick things off in July just the same, with one helluva Russ Heath horror tale from the April 1952 issue of Spellbound #2. And while it may say "The End!" there in that mind-blowing splash panel below, Mr. Karswell would like to let everyone know that this is actually... only... the... beginning...
This is another one where the ending becomes relatively obvious half way through but the story never winds down because the "inevitable" takes over. Then it's just waiting for the ending as the tension ratchets up. It's like playing that old 70s game "Hot Potato."
ReplyDeleteThe splash is excellent, I like the "more to less" decay of the heads and the impossible smoke on the fires.
The 3 illustrated Poe stories on page 3 are top notch, with great staging.
The real winner of this story is the last 2 pages, though, with the sudden tight and growing number of panels (only breaking for an action panel.) That's a really great use of paneling to push the tension forward.
I'll bet this story exists because a bunch of writers were arguing Poe among themselves!
If it means anything, I didn't guess the ending at all.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see this story used in an anthology film or on an anthology show, like "The Man Who Collected Poe" in the movie TORTURE GARDEN. In spite of that one having a similar ending, I still didn't guess this one's ending.
I didn't guess it either on my first read, mainly because not only does the guy not look like Poe, he doesn't look like how Poe would look as an old man either. I realize that Heath probably didn't wanna give it all away, or draw the face hidden in shadows throughout the whole story routine again. So what happened then? He came back in another body? Reincarnated?
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the man does not resemble Poe in the least can be explained by the fact that it was a comic published in the pre internet era where immediate image searches weren't possible, and that it was aimed at youngsters who probably had no idea what Poe looked like. It's even possible that the artist wasn't too sure what Poe looked like.
ReplyDeleteSo you're saying that images of people didn't exist before the internet? I could swear there are these things called books or libraries or something that had endless reference material, but maybe I'm mistaken.
ReplyDeletePhotos, daguerreotypes, engravings, and paintings of Edgar Allan Poe have been in circulation since the 1800's. Almost a decade ago I posted a Classic Illustrated Poe story from 1944 that actually contains an illustration of him in the bio:
https://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2009/01/murders-in-rue-morgue-morella.html
I'm fairly certain a professional like Russ Heath knew what Poe looked like by 1952.
It's funny to see a story based on Poe "critiquing" him the way this one does, with lines like "That was Poe's weakest story!"
ReplyDeleteI could imagine this version of The Pit and The Pendulum used as a way to bump off actors/actresses in a remake of Theatre of Blood, with Poe's stories substituting Shakespeares.
ReplyDeleteSheesh. How about a spoiler alert next time, okay Atlas? Guess I can just throw away that Poe collection I been meaning to get around to.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding. The center of page three is astounding. I kind of want to see Russ illustrate one-panel spoilers for every story in the literary canon now. No plot--just frame after frame of grand finales. Jane Eyre, M.R. James, Bertie and Wooster, Sherlock Holmes. Everything! I also agree with Brian about those last two pages. I love all the incremental story telling. The final two thirds of each page was paced so much like Watchmen. I like being able to sort of measure the passage of time by the steady beat of uniform panels.