If you can remember that far back, February around here usually meant a month of rancid, rotten romance tales. We even had a term for it-- THOIA Valentine's Massacres! So let's keep that 'ol tremblin' tradition alive and kickin'... and screamin' and clawin'... and gaspin', etc., with a creepy cruel two-fer from the July 1952 issue of Amazing Detective Cases #13! Fred Kida really knocks it out of the park with his vicious vine story, highlighted by a great use of lightening washing the color right out of panels and creating a truly dynamic masterpiece of mood. But first up, let's take a little honeymoon into the realm of the sick 'n twisted supernatural with one of Atlas Comics most notoriously mean-spirited tales of all time! So okay now, if you're happy that THOIA has returned from the dead, be sure to tell your friends, families, and even your enemies, cuz to be honest-- we're happy to be back too! Stay tombed for lots more!
Honeymoon of Horror: mean-"spirited" is correct in more ways than one! No artist on GCD, but like most of us, I know I've seen that art before. The clinging vine is the real art prize here, but there's a good bit to love in honeymoon. The skeletal ghost is a great image; some of the lightning is rough but effective, and there's some clever bits with the repeated webs.
ReplyDeleteIt's a workman like job, but has some amateur edges. It works great for the story; and the large number of panels dedicated to just how horrible he's going to make her death is a great setup for him getting it in the end, and it's a really grisly, but deserved, fate!
Clinging Vine: I can't believe we haven't seen more stories like this. There's really no reason for the lightning, the storm does play a small part in the story, but it's really a stylist choice, and a great one. It never lets up the entire story, which compresses the timeline. The flashing yellow/green (her dress) is really striking.
And it's not just the colors, the shadows are excellent, and switch with the lightning. It's really going above and beyond. Fantastic.
Astounding bravura from Kida. The story might be a little slight, but Fred turned it into a work of frightening and sustained tone, the likes of which I'm not sure I've seen before.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to admit that my head was turned by the first story. This unknown guy churns out cranky and unsophisticated illustration. Deep black and emotionally edgy marking with fidgety this and that cluttering up the frames. Ungraceful, savage, ugly-sexy. Art that was raised by wolves. I like this figure drawing, with twisted details and deep crevasses. I dig the way he returns to the fanciful web motif from the splash. There's a great energy going on throughout page three, with the protagonist gloating over the trussed woman. I just love the two panels at the top of page four, with the surprisingly anatomical candle flame. I suspect this guy is also really tired of hearing about the candle being used as a phallic symbol.
Great stuff! Happy Valentine's Month!
I'm honestly going to toss all logic out the window with the twist reveal in the first story (The most obvious question being how the heck Clara kept her mortal body in such good condition for 6 months without it looking like a complete zombie.)and say that the plot twist was not something I saw coming. Love the design of Clara's ghost and the last page of panel 4 with the closeup of her face. Also love the panel of her putting out the candle on the same page. It's a unique twist that the ghost is actually still possessing her own mortal body rather than pretending to still be alive by taking a human form. The second story makes great use of the lightning storm throughout it and there are some spectacular noir-esque images due to it. I especially love the fourth panel in page 2, the third and fifth panels of page 3,and I love panel 5 on the last page a lot of Jenny struggling within the clutches of the vines. That second to last panel does look rather risque though with that facial expression.
ReplyDeleteWelcome back!
ReplyDeleteI like these. I like how in Honeymoon of Horror! there's absolutely no sympathetic angle to Gordon. He's a scam artist, murderer, arsonist, whatever you need! And Clara's not so stupid after all.
My favorite part of The Clinging Vine is all the shadows. To me, the story is secondary to the spooky lighting.