Stumbled upon a beautiful page of original Sanho Kim art over at Comicartfans HERE, and immediately had to dig up the full story, originally featured in the January 1973 issue of The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #36. And even with the familiar old "night in a haunted house inheritance" set-up, and rather abrupt ending, it's still full of chilling specters, and highly atmospheric moments.
The art on this is just gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteBeing a WWbN fan, a lot of issues worked the title into the opening splash -- obviously lifted from the Spirit -- this doesn't go as far, but I really appreciate the time taken on the title font. that's a great bit work that people would really barely notice on read through.
The giant house and the very "chilling sounds of the haunted house" look is awesome, even with the weird mixed architecture which makes it more spooky!
Constantly filling the house with mist and mixing it with the ghosts is great. That said, the figures on their own -- especially the faces -- are sometimes rough but it fits the whole tone.
... and the ending. I like it! It's un-announced, so points off, but it's an interesting way to get around the fact that greedy people get it. I like this one a lot!
The Curshaw Curse - written cursorily in cursive by the curmudgeonly Coleman - curtly refused to explain why it was laid in the first place. Presumably some cur of an heir was the reason? At least unlike most of these curses the ghost recognised a good cause when he was told of one (I'll bet Coleman would have been a real pushover for 419 scammers pretending to be the daughters of late African businessmen in refugee camps in Burkina Faso).
ReplyDeleteProbably my favorite thing about late-sixties through late seventies genre comics are the great title treatments, and this is surely one of the best examples. I never quite know who is responsible for them? The sound effects--also a great horror font in this one--are usually created by the letterer, right? I guess the main titles can go either way. Too bad the second panel of this story wasn't enlarged to fill the rest of the page, though. Why the artist felt the need to subordinate that spooky-doo to fit yet another mist-crossed image of the house--one that is repeated in the very next frame, even--is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteEvery panel of page three would make a great book illustration. I really love the top two.
Love 'em or hate 'em, Charlton gave many comic book artists a chance to break into the business. The artists had a chance to work freely and independently, and Charlton gave readers a chance to see the work of different artists and their unique styles.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Sanho Kim's work can be considered a very early introduction of Manga to mainstream Western comic readers.
Speaking of their motives, it's a famous thing for someone who wants a huge amount of money to start talking about donating most of it to charity, even if it isn't true and even if they manage to convince THEMSELVES. I wonder if anyone in a story like this (someone who doesn't mean it, unlike Lew) has tried to convince an actual ghost of that?
ReplyDeleteX amount of stories would make Nancy a kind of "Pandora," but this one makes it clear that she doesn't actually want to open that door.