Truly terroriffic Tom Sutton artwork highlights the July 1974 cover of Haunted #17, not to mention his story illustrations within are pretty darn visually demented as well-- why, a few of the more nightmarish panels in particular could possibly even give Rob Bottin a run for his monstrous money!
My favorite part about Tom Sutton's art was how dang inhuman his creepy old men characters could look--even if there was nothing specifically supernatural about them, such as old Doc Mordred here with his deeply sunken in eyes and cadaver-like face. I love the panel on page 5 of those skill like plant blossoms! Miss Fairweather, in stark contrast, is extremely lovely.
ReplyDeleteI really like the paneling on this! The story is relatively stock, but it's a great excuse to draw tons of ghastly things, and the long, streching panels, especially on page 5, really sell the story.
ReplyDeleteIn panel 1, we have basically a flow of the monster plant heads, all coming to take a bite, but panel 3 sells the next page as we see the plants looming over our good doctor, which the moon + lantern central lighting in the panel. It's an incredible panel. Crazy good composition.
Even Sutton's "attractive" figures, like Miss Fairweather, can be weirdly elongated, like page 2, panel 2. It gives everything a dream like quality.
Page 2, panel 4 is also a favorite. There's so much to like in the art here.
Gosh, that cover really is amazing. I would love to see the whole story painted like that. As a matter of fact, I would really dig this as a prose story, with three or five full page illustrations. I feel like Sutton's work is better without the parameter of panels and incremental storytelling.
ReplyDeleteI do really like the last panel on page two, though. The faces lit from below, the thick black shadow, the orange background. That's way more Halloweeny than pumpkin spice.
When I started collecting the Dark Horse HC collections of Creepy and Eerie, Tom Sutton was one of the artists whose work I fell in love with. It's fun to see something he did for Charlton. Thank you for posting this.
ReplyDeleteUnless I'm missing something, it's strange that Dr. Mordred "only" feeds accident victims to the plants, unlike countless similar scientists in these stories. Even Dr. Fairweather - who's about to expose him - seems to be an accident as far as the actual feeding goes.
ReplyDeleteThe ending really seems to be setting up a sequel. Did "Haunted" have any sequels or recurring chaacters?
Not sure of a sequel, but we will be sticking with Charlton for a few more posts. Thanks for the comments!
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