Boy, if you thought the supernatural end game motivations of our last story were unfocused and lacked definition, wait'll you get a load of this one! A fine example of Iger Shop art and unintentionally hilarious dialog, as THOIA's February Freak-A-Thon shifts gears a bit again into even more bonkers bridal terror-tory! From the July 1952 issue of Voodoo #2.
I think we can give this story focus if we just imagine the zombie overlord was ... really bored. "Let's do this and see what happens!" I mean, random acts can be deliberate too!
ReplyDeleteIger Shop can draw a sexy zombie! Probably not something to put on your resume, but here we are!
I just noticed that every page had a circle panel, almost as if it was requested. The story definitely feels like a rush job that was started without a clear plan and just changed as it went on, but, honestly, I like it. It's wacky. It follows no real logic but events do follow previous events, so it has a logical consistency, at least.
Yeah, the motives of the zombie master are lost on me here. I mean, he initially wants Lily to join his undead buddies and even shows Joe his wife again and spares his life with warning that this will be the last time. Yet in the end, he actually does spare his life by preventing Lily from killing him and offers (note, not force) to make him a zombie in order to be reunited with his wife. Then he just lets them loose into the jungle to wander off! The art looks nice at least and Lily's dialogue to Joe as a zombie is hilarious. Also, I love how the police believe in zombies around here, but not Joe. Usually it's the other way around!
ReplyDeleteThis one is quite all right if you take it as an inadvertent comedy. Don't try to make sense of it as a horror story; think of it as an unintentionally funny play, like an amateur drama production.
ReplyDeleteThe art is good, at least.
Sure,the zombie master was sadistic and tactless (Here, old hag!) but he turned out to be a good egg with a romantic spirit.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, how many couples honeymoon in Haiti these days?
I don't feel like the story was half-baked at all. The idea was to explore what might happen when bona fide lovers are forced into a mystical relationship beyond the veil. Or at least how that might happen. I agree that there is some mystery to the motivations of the zombie priest and his witch doctor friend, but that's to be expected when our protagonist is so at sea himself. I hesitate to speculate, but the Master had weeks to enjoy Lily's zombie servitude. Perhaps by the time her romance with Joe had softened his heart, he'd already put her to the nefarious uses he'd intended? Why chalk up to inconsistency what can be explained by even greater horror. Horror is why we're here.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of that, I'd love to read a sequel.
The art here has a sensuous and narcotic groove, full of veiny and swirling detail. I love the panels at the bottom of page three--with all the draped walls and scenery it's right out of a traveling spookshow performance between reels. I also really dig the last panel on page seven, Joe's desperation set off by that uncanny, lava lamp shadow. It's the rare frame I really wish weren't compromised by captions and balloons.
A crazy fun Haitian vacation. I'll stay home thank you.
ReplyDeleteThis is the kookiest thing I can remember reading here, which is saying a lot.
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