Wednesday, August 2, 2023

The Secret One

Okay, time to get August 2023 goin', and let's kick it off with a weird Jack Katz monstrosity-- one that dines on the fresh flesh of the dead! I seriously hope you've all finished your breakfast. From the Oct '52 issue of Out of the Shadows #6.

5 comments:

  1. This is a good one -- I like the stories that hinge on our anti-hero basically being an idiot -- figure out how to get the dead flesh *first* before summoning up the demon -- then you can take your time and hopefully not get caught or find an alternate way to acquire it.

    I love the small detail that the daughter wants to invite him and is getting married before she is brutally killed (the wild eyed panel is also a little nuts, but I like it.) It makes it that much more evil.

    I wish the printing was a bit better, the secret one is a pretty cool little monster with all the clawed hands, but comes off a bit messy in places.

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  2. A multi-armed menace with dreadful eyes but no mouth, it obtains its sustenance by feeding through its fingers- he's the long-lost son of Cthulu! Don't tell me he isn't a child of the old ones!

    I really loved this one, the silent one should have had his own series featuring previous masters who thought they could control it but ended up as its dinner.

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  3. Speaking of that, I always like the little cliche of the character being sold the occult book or object for next to nothing, and not being suspicious enough of that. It seems to be a real Lovecraft Circle tradition.

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  4. The splash here is very great, but somehow my favorite handful of images are the nightwatchman and two cop panels there on the last page. There's something punky and edgy about those images that I really dig.

    Also loving the creature design just like everyone else. Pretty neat story. Here's one I'd really like to see get the Eerie Pubs treatment, though. Maybe one more page to let the horror breathe a little, with some greater graphic concentration on those polydextrous murders. I don't mean to slight what we have here, but I certainly would like to see more.

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  5. It's interesting to see that nightwatchman simply watching him till the police arrive.
    When it comes to grave-robbing stories, it seems like those cemetery caretakers are always either getting killed or actually doing the killing.

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