Wednesday, September 9, 2020
R.I.P. Bob Fujitani (1921 - 2020)
The comic world loses yet another artist legend, Bob Fujitani passed away earlier this week, and today we honor his wonderful work with an encore presentation of two Atlas horror classics already found in the THOIA Archive. Our first selection is from the Spring 1952 issue of Suspense #16, and the second originally featured in the September 1952 issue of Mystic #12. R.I.P.
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9 comments:
Wow, what a great double-feature these stories make. You'd think ol' Bob had a particular interest in buryings. And these are both so well done. I love the slippery way Fujitani could shift his style. It made him a great mimic when working with--or for--other artists, but also gave him a hell of an arsenal when it came to matching the look of his illustration to the tone of a story. I really love the middle row on page three of My Coffin is Crowded, and the whole high-contrast look of Man in the Tomb has really helped it wear its aging well. Rest in peace Bob Fujitani.
(And the colorists also really knocked both of these out of the park. Stan Goldberg did both of them, I guess. His style was just as strategically mutable as Fuje's!)
The artwork is so great it almost negates the parsec wide logic holes in both tales. I'm not going to bother to point them out because they're obvious.
I don't see any problem with the logic in either story, especially when you consider this was the '50s and it's a comic. I really loved the twist at the end of story #1. These are potentially two of my favourite tales that you've ever posted, Mr. Karswell, thank you!
A rough week for fantasy fans as I just learned Diana Rigg passed away. "My Coffin is Crowded" has been a favorite since childhood when it was reprinted in Weird Wonder Tales or another of those 1970's Marvel reprint titles. Great reading it again and remembering Bob Fujitani. The man is gone, but the work lives on.
>I don't see any problem with the logic in either story, especially when you consider this was the '50s and it's a comic.
Agreed 100%.
>reprinted in Weird Wonder Tales or another of those 1970's Marvel reprint titles
It was Crypt of Shadows #15, Gary... click on the highlighted comic issues mentioned in my intros, they will always be linked to either the Grand Comics Database or for Marvel / Atlas stories to the Atlas Tales website, and there you will find information about where stories were originally printed, as well as where they were reprinted.
RIP Bob --and yes of course RIP to Mrs. Peel as well. :(
The same with me.
I can't think of the title, but the general idea of this story has been filmed at least once, as an episode of THE ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR. One thing that makes more sense in that version is that the other man is a doctor or at least a trustee in the clinic, which is how he's supposedly able to arrange things.
I mentioned the Hitchcock connection the first time I posted this story in 2008, in case anyone missed it:
https://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2008/01/my-coffin-is-crowded.html?m=0
The art in these two stories is pretty interesting. It goes from clean focus on the figures to very complicated backgrounds, sometimes page to page, and always correctly fits the mood. That's a pretty important ability in comics.
Both tales have great splashes, and I think the ending in "coffin" is much better, both have a good wind up to the twist.
The coloring is really good in coffin, I suspect Tomb might have been altered by the age of the paper, but it's also a good job.
Two very nicely drawn tales. RIP Bob!
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