Continuing on our October journey into mysterious, supernatural madness, with a King Kirby classic from the February 1962 issue of Journey into Mystery #77... ever see a spookier splash page in your life?! A truly great cover team-up with dynamite Dick Ayers on inks too!
6 comments:
Kirby cover, Kirby interior work, Ditko and Heck? While the post-code stories (especially the giant monster ones) could become a bit repetitive, Atlas was firing on all cylinders with the art!
There's one thing I don't quite get in this story: are the ghost actually trying to scare people, or is it a coincidence? If they are trying to scare people, then that's a horrible after-life -- all they are going to do is lead to their own destruction, and our ghost helper guy (who is not assigned?!?!) is just delaying the tearing down of the house. Now *that* is a horror story!
The cover has killer composition. Ghost hand -> guy on trail -> mob sight line. Mastercraft stuff, though the cover is a bit bait and switch about how much horror is in the story, but that's post-code!
Honestly this strikes me as a little bare bones for Kirby work, and I wonder if he just did the layouts and figures. The backgrounds--when there even are any--don't seem to match up all that well with the foregrounds in every panel. Or maybe I'm imagining things.
That said, I do love that spooky second frame of page two. Its rare to see an interior without a character.
And yeah, that splash is pretty magical. It's so spooky it reminds me of Junji Ito stuff.
Nice to finally see this in colour….I have this story in one of the Alan Class comics we used to get over here of reprints, but they were always in black and white!
Back in the 50's- the ghost's concern that if people believed in ghosts, they would tear down all the haunted houses.
Today- the ghost would lament that if people believed in ghosts, they would seek out haunted houses to prove ghosts exist by capturing them on film or video, eliminating the mystery as to whether ghosts exist or not. Once people have proof ghosts exist, they would find ways to either drive them away or ask them questions non stop, leaving the poor spirits no peace on earth.
I agree that this is one of the best splash pages from a horror comic. Is it just me, or does the ghost in question look a bit like The Spectre?
I think we'll stick with these Journey into Mystery posts for a bit longer, --found a few other good ones-- so stay tombed... and thanks again for the comments!
Interesting twist here, where skepticism is used as a deceit.
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