Time once again to enter deep into the realm of the spooky supernatural. Or wait, let's just kick back and watch it enter into ours, via the April - May 1953 issue of Frankenstein #24. Nice artwork from (possibly) Simon and Kirby penciller / inker, Marvin Stein, who I believe is finally making his THOIA debut.
7 comments:
I don't know why, but this story feels like it was lifted from an old time radio program.
For those who had ever listened to radio programs such as The Mysterious Traveler, The Hermit's Cave, The Sealed Book, etc. this story just seems to fit that type of storytelling.
No over-the-top spirit out for bloody revenge, just a spirit who haunts in the background, with no way to tell if the spirit has really come back or if the wife imagined it and the partner saw it through guilt or auto-suggestion.
There is room for all kinds of horror comic tales, over-the-top, slow burn, subtle horror waiting for the chance to pounce, horror humor and everything in between.
As always, thanks Karswell for rescuing these horror tales from oblivion, and allowing htem to haunt the earth once more.
Maybe because I've read too many pre-code horror comics to begin with like this, I thought maybe Lester caused that plane crash to begin with to take over the entire company. Anyway, I like this one. The wife has been true to her husband and his spirit actually advises her to marry again as he just wants her to be happy. I like panel 6 of the second page when Richard suddenly appears in front of Lana. Also, if you're a double-crossing partner trying to forge a will to take over his property when he passes, do keep the balcony window shut. Chances are he may cause you to trip and fall out of it to your death. Also, I don't know if it's intentional, but Richard's closing remark to Lester in the end that he's clearly going to hell is hilarious.Stay classy, Richard.
She was a lucky lady to have a hubby so devoted he came back to help! Or he just disliked his old partner enough.
NERODART
A nice tasteful revenge story Thanks
These stories always make me think about the future of this cosmos ... what happens when Lana dies? She's got two husbands in the afterlife now -- did Richard just give her up forever? Or are they going to be a trio? There's a lot of un-answered questions that ghosts bring up!
And like that Lester suddenly reappears as a ghost, is all pissed off, and then Richard calmly drops the hell bomb on him!
BTW, last panel, why is a transparent ghost having the shadows of the flame cast on him? And why am I that picky about the art?
This is pretty neat art. Kind of like fashion illustration, long and gestural. I'm not sure I've ever seen Marvin Stein's stuff before--at least outside of inking. Must have been another of those guys who ended up at National/DC doing work I never really read. Thanks for bringing him up here. Page two is especially nice, and I like all the times the ghosts are reversed out of the key art for that spectral effect. I do have to say that all the men look an awful lot alike--page four panel two is practically a crisis of the multiverse--but looking at other work online I see that Marvin's stuff isn't always like that.
I thought I might be the only one, but I'm not so big on the hell part.
At the end of the comedy TOPPER RETURNS, the villain gets killed and becomes a ghost, and the female ghost just "kids" him about being in the same boat she's in, and I think the story leaves it at that. I prefer an ending like that for a story like this.
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