Another goofy artist determined to be creative in a haunted old witch house-- you'd think these people would learn their lessons, but nooooo. From the February 1953 issue of Weird Horrors #6, and possibly illustrated by Don Perlin who worked on some great supernatural Marvel titles later in his career, ie Werewolf By Night and Ghost Rider, but is probably most famous for having co-created Moon Knight. This is another oddball tale that the Eerie Pubs reworked / reprinted a few times in the early 70's as well.
I liked the shading on the faces drawn in this one, the shading added that extra touch of menace to the witch men.
ReplyDeleteI can see why this tale was reused so often, it is an eerie tale worth retelling.
The art is super interesting. Is it early Perlin? I'm terrible at artist spotting so I wouldn't know, but it has this real clean look to it, even though they are drawing evil, dark stuff. It's almost like an advertisement version of horror.
ReplyDeleteI love the appearance of the zombie on page 3, the shading on face, and the creepy darkness in the robes, but it's all done in a really clean lined manner! It gives it this really strange vibe, and really makes the tale in places. It's wild!
Our hero is pretty much responsible for his friend's death, bringing him there, and then is so completely unmoved by it ... I guess the mystery of the house is a bit more pressing!
Well I know I dwell on this, but I sure do love it when illustrators draw textiles and clothing patterns. So this one, with its plaid and polka dots, was a real winner for me. Missed opportunity: Surely Drew or Paul could have been wearing a herringbone suit? I mean, the story was already this close to perfect.
ReplyDeleteThere's something about these stories in which the characters fearfully intone all the information that is usually relegated to unnecessary captions instead. "Paul... Paul's sound effect! It's beside that atmospheric tree!" I always want to see the story redrawn as just a bunch of talking head panels, clear out all that extraneous illustration. It's all right there in the dialog! Let the balloons speak for themselves!
Wonderful weird cover on this ish. Straight up folk art.
Great panels of Hooded Horrors!!
ReplyDeleteGlad everyone enjoyed this tale, thanks for the comments! A weird vampire tale up next, as well as an update on the status of my new VAMPIRES BLOODSHOT ONE-SHOT for Asylum Press... stay tombed...
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