The bloodthirsty brides of death continue to invade THOIA this month with another awesome Ace Magazines terror tale, this time fueled by the hand of Ken Rice and from the ominous October 1953 issue of The Hand of Fate #20. There are some really fine, visually frightening moments in this one...
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I was sure at first that Opha was the hostess of the story. She even seems to be glancing at the reader. And even though I'm a bore about this, she's the second un-bearded "hag" in a row, which is original.
The final panel of Page 4 has a nice "atmospheric" look. It also has a little more cleavage (?) than you expect in one of these comics.
Page 3, panel 1, now there's a strange juxtaposition!
You know, I think the story had one too many narrators. You have Voris winking at the camera half the time, then fate, then death, all of them are crowding around and screaming at the reader!
"Mort Deces?" Death isn't all that clever, is he?
OK there's a lot to like about this. The ending is pretty grisly, the way death is drawn all scratchy is great, and the way he's always just looming around is fun. The spirits at the end are pretty chilling. Aside from everybody and their undread brother pushing and shoving that tell me something, this is a really fun and spooky tale.
These Fate stories are kind of like Rod Serling narrating an episode of The Twilight Zone from the middle of the protagonist's living room. No one in the story can actually see him as he constantly tells the main character how doomed she is. (Although there are a few exceptions where Fate does interact and constantly warn the main character, but the silly sods never seem to listen.) I love the second panel of Opha's face one the first page. Also, I kind of love Death's glitter robe here. Looking good, Death!There's another nice panel of Opha's face in panel 6 of the third page. Some of Voris' lines are unintentionally funny, such as the one about shopping for some nice poison for Henry's morning coffee or what a shame it is that Henry can't see how lovely she looks in her chic and expensive morning wardrobe. Also love the "good girl" (Bad girl?) art in the bottom panels of page 4. I love the panel of Voris in the palm of Opha's hand on page 6. Also, that frenzied tango of undead husbands on the last page all in red is great. PS. Should have brushed up on your French, Voris.
The green fire on the road was interesting. Was it because the fire was supposed to be magical, or because the colourist assumed something on the road would be grass, I wonder.
Wow, yeah, the art here is so inventive and interesting that it's just silly for me to try and catalog every effective, attractive panel that delighted me (like I'd usually do). Ken Rice was tossing it all in the kitty--concentric crazy rays, floating heads, spectral composites, cosmic white-out dry-brushing--to wring a lot of graphic storytelling out of every panel. Top notch! I'll stick with two notes:
One, I love the the two noirish introspection panels with Voris (page three panel 3, and that last panel of page four, which has also been noted above). I love them both for being shadowy and well-colored, especially the latter, which relies on the kind of razor's edge registration (that comics can't really provide) to cut down on the green line between yellow and blue. The reason it really stands out is because industry professionals avoided this kind of discrete color effect like the plague most of the time.
Two: That penultimate pink panel of Voris getting her just deserts is straight out of the "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" bit from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, right? Out the very same year. And that strikes me more as really clever pop-culture commentary than something from the swipe drawer.
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