Atlas liked to recycle story titles (see previous post), and who can blame 'em when it's a really good title! Take for example this wild and wooly weirdie from the April 1951 issue of Adventures into Terror #3, featuring art by Gene Colan! I guess we're doing Werewolf Wednesday a few days early...
Whenever an early Colan work comes up I probably say the same thing: I'd have no idea this was Colan. His style evolved so much in the next decade after this. Here he's good but it's a pretty standard style.
ReplyDeleteI like this one, and it's weird time loop without the time loop, and we've replaced the good girl snake girl with a good girl werewolf girl. One monster good girl is as good as the next, unless it's a zombie one. That might be a bit harder on the eyes!
This gets a lot done in 4 pages, and one page is mostly splash. The shadowed transformation panel would have made a great Atlas 4 panel, though. I love the sign as the "The End."
"But I never expected to find anyone like... like you." Pole dancing in the rain on the front porch of some shack! No wonder it was love at first sight. Your eyes are like deep pools of... of something yellow...
ReplyDeleteDig the art. The gnarly wooden splash is plenty great, and I especially like the wicked elfin faces at the bottom of pages two and four. Those are the times when this looks the most like Colan to me. I'm on the fence about the Panthro-style werewolves. I mean, they look like they might be quite superb if only they starred in the foregrounds of another panel or two. As it is, blink and you'll miss 'em. I understand the special effects budget over at Atlas wasn't huge, but hell's bells Goodman, we paid to see monsters.
These stories where the hero or heroine doesn't win OR get killed but becomes "part of the group" are interesting. Downbeat but interesting.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I always can see Colan's distinct style, even in his early years... those faces he draws are unlike any other.
ReplyDeletePlenty more monsters ands down beat endings coming up-- but first it's time to split your sides with a Dick Briefer Frankenstein funny. STAY TOMBED...
Hooray! He gets the girl after all!
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