Another terror tale from the June 1953 issue of Worlds of Fear #10 (see previous post) and from the same scan source as well, thank you whoever you were!-- and this time, Bob McCarty is on art duties and delivers his creepy carnival-esque spin variation of the infamous 'ol classic siamese twin twisteroo that EC so clearly, and influentially first unleashed. Grab some cotton candy and step right up, folks, it's time for--
Page 3, 4, and 5 *all* end with a creepy sometimes close up of our carnival barker, and it's really effective, especially page 4. It's obvious our barker is evil from the first panel you see him (I'm surprised they didn't turn him into the devil at the end, frankly) and it's great to see him exude menace all over this thing.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great piece of work, it has that kind of run-a-way train type pacing where everything past the intro just pulls you towards the end.
I would have thought two heads would be more effective.
ReplyDeleteSweet art for sure. I love it all (especially the killer splash) and deeply appreciate the yellow-forward color job, which I feel actually evokes a carnival, somehow. I also dig how this stuff looks a bit more like art for a crime comic than what I would typically expect in a horror joint. This carnival isn't overly tarted-up with gothic ornament, curdled Ghastly-style grotesques, or even netherworld portent. The usual freaks here seem kind of like regular bystanders, the scenes brightly lit, the world un-fetishized. It kind of makes the creep factor ring a bit harsher for me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I take things too literally, but I usually hate it when "shallow" people (like the one who becomes the "little man" in the sideshow) get in a lot of trouble for it.
ReplyDeleteI don't even like it in that TWILIGHT ZONE episode "The Masks," and those shallow people are genuinely bad! So it's even more true of a character like that one, whose vanity doesn't sound so awful.