Holy Hannah, it's October already! Time to get this haunted Halloween fright fest in macabre motion with a fun little tale from the May 1962 issue of Journey into Mystery #80, --and highlighted by some great art from precode horror hero, Don Heck no less! And after you finish this post, check out a golden age Atlas variation on this same spooky story located in the THOIA 2007 archive, by CLICKING HERE!
That's a great little post-code story, and, of course, it works in an advertisement for the magazine itself!
ReplyDeleteUnasked for Don Heck rant: Why doesn't he get the same kind of love a lot of other early Marvel artists get? His run on Avengers was great, as is a lot of other 60s-70s comics. He's not forgotten but he's really an essential artist for that period of Marvel, and a great one to boot. I guess it's hard to get mentioned next to Kirby, Ditko, Romita, Buscema, etc.
BTW: Great way to make friends in your new neighborhood is to call everybody squares and "living cubes" right off the bat!
Night of the Living Cubes! Solid work by Don Heck, here. Great splash page and interesting page layouts. There've been other stories that used this same basic premise; pretty sure Steve Ditko did more than one in which the haunted house in question is long gone "but still there!"...
ReplyDeleteMan, not sure many would want to follow that Maneely story. The art on the older version is top notch. Luckily, Heck is definitely up to the task. And while I don't feel like he had as much material to work with script-wise, he definitely turns in a respectable little number here. I especially like the long third panel on page four. I'm not usually a pushover for collage panels, but that one works really well. I also just love how Don drew sixties kids. The style is very of the times--these kids would look jut right in a Scouts handbook--for all the telltale observational artistry that elevates it.
ReplyDeleteHappy October.
Happy October! Thank you!!
ReplyDeleteFun little story, neat little twist.
ReplyDelete