Tuesday, August 4, 2020
The Lonely Dungeon
OMG. Another kookball investigation into the legend of Frankenstein?!! And this one even more awesomely cockamamie than the last?!! Yes. Yes it is. And I guess if we're not careful, THOIA could become the new Frankensteinia, (I sure miss that blog!) --so with this post we also say a fond adieu to Mary Shelley's monster and then move on to other scary subjects coming up next-- but for now, enjoy one last mysterious trip down into the mad science lab, from the March 1954 issue of Mystery Tales #18.
It's pretty silly but I love it when somebody comes up with a concept and just lets it rip. Add a Igor-like character, a foolish victim, some shark-toothed monsters and a gotcha ending and we are off to the races!
ReplyDeleteOf course, there's a million and one questions with little answers!
GCD say Tony DiPreta and another nice job. I love the splash with our jagged-toothed Universal Frankenstein with wolf man hands. It's nice framing, with the title being part of the artwork.
I love our creepy mad "scientist" and I actually kind of enjoy how this flips the script and all the "it's name is Frankenstein's monster" debates.
FYI Atlas stories are always linked here to the Atlas Tales site, just click on the series title in every post intro for the info
ReplyDeleteSuper. I too love that art brut splash, and the bottom of page three is literally everything I really want in a precode horror story--orange and blue action panels with baroque monster details jammed everywhere into the frame. Very often when I see stories like this I like to try figuring out just what was going on with the colorist. I use my understanding of the time, the effect they wanted to achieve, and the mechanical process available to them, and I contrive some sort of theory as to why things shook out just the way they did. I don't mind telling you that page two totally stymied me. What the heck is this madness? How can there be a beautiful sunset in Austria and New York at the same time? Or is it stained glass windows? LSD? The whole page is like the cover of a mid-sixties surf zine--so pretty ahead of its time, frankly.
ReplyDeleteThis is the most nuts of anything here in a while. I like how trusting our newspaper man friend is.
ReplyDelete