Friday, June 16, 2023

The Hotel

Another two-page quickie, this time from the January - February 1973 issue of Weird Mystery #4, art by Jim Starlin. Another Silver Age favorite "Jim" did the artwork for the front cover of this issue, but you'll have to visit GCD to see it because I didn't wanna spoil the ending of our story! I'll have something a bit longer coming up next, I promise! Arf! Arf!

8 comments:

  1. The whole quickie hinges on how good you can make the monster or at least what parts you can show for the imagination, and Starlin was really good with goopy aliens throughout his career so we've got that covered!

    I really like the clerk's finger on the door on the last panel. That's a really cool touch.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's a great contrast between the cramped layout of the first page and the reverse of that on the second. I was going to say I hoped they printed them to preserve the effect, but then I checked the cover... still, maybe they hid how fast the denouement was coming?

    Nothing wrong with short, by the way. Sergio Aragonés did great stuff for the DC mystery mags and other Mad guys Don Martin and Spy vs. Spy's Antonio Prohías drew some pretty horrific scenarios. I like Nick Cuti's Weirdlings over at Charlton as well, which also had lots of straight ahead horror one-pagers, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is what the TV Tropes site calls Fluffy The Terrible.

    Very well done for such a short tale.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't know what Poochy is, but he's apparently bilingual.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The killer's crime is the same crime committed by Landou/Bobby Darrin from The Night Gallery episode "Dead Weight". Technically, both killers end up suffering the same fate, food for someone's pet.

    Maybe this tale would have flowed better as a three pager, but as a two pager it still gets the job done.

    Thanks as always Karswell!

    ReplyDelete
  6. This guy's got the sort of wizardry that I always like to call "sees the past." I don't know if he can tell your fortune or not, but he already knows what you did. Oh and he apparently keeps a closetful of giant scorpion butts or man-eating Christmas cacti or something. Bonus.

    ReplyDelete
  7. FYI I have a Weirdlings post from a few years ago over at AEET here:

    https://andeverythingelsetoo.blogspot.com/2020/10/the-weirdlings.html

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the info. There were some I hadn't seen before. I liked the Garbage Man joke and--though I've seen it before--I really like that gnarled Ahab. I like me art that has character!

      Delete