Time for a Double Dip of Dick-- Ayers that is, --by anonymous request! What's up with all of you anonymous people lately?! Oh, and since Brian Barnacles snarkily screamed at me for "more Atlas!", it's now time to kill two kooky bird brains with one post! First up, from the June 1952 issue of Astonishing #14, it's a weird and (shhhh! mostly) wordless tale of terror, followed by a ghastly graveyard ghoul-o-rama from the August 1952 issue of Astonishing #16. I've even rounded it all out with an excellently eerie cover by legendary Bill Everett! We're sort of spiraling out of control here at THOIA, so stay tombed for more as 2023 slowly winds down... down... dowwwwwn...
The first story is fun. Not a word of dialogue until the very end for the payoff and it works perfectly. Although I'd like to know, did Death go on a killing spree or was he simply cleaning up after some sort of apocalypse? The second story has a really fun design for that ghoul. That last panel of the ghoul's face on page 2 is great and so is the one of our unnamed patsy on the last panel of page 3. Oh, but the best image in this one that has me grinning from ear to ear is the one on the last page of the ghoul looming over the dying man. Why? His getup to blend in with everyone else. He's even got an earring. The earring is the crowning moment of funny for me here.
ReplyDeleteI like this mode for Ayers. It's looser and more grotesque--more caricature-driven--than the heroic western stuff he was doing elsewhere. It's almost like he was aiming to rhyme with Maneely and Sinnott, making for a mature Atlas style. It's definitely just as effective as work by those Joes. Silence is a real showstopper, art-wise. That has to be one of the grabbingest splashes I've seen--then immediately outdone by the rest of page one. Same goes for page three of Ghoul (at least the second half), which also makes use of some really fun color effects.
ReplyDeleteMan, if I'd known anonymous requests netted such dividends, I'da been doing it all this time. Coincidentally, a passing stranger in this haunted bus station just leaned over and asked to see some more Len Streeter sometime. I could definitely smell mummy dust puffin; out from under his cigar-and-bourbon breath. I sure wish my bus would show up soon.
Ghost metropolis
ReplyDeleteGreat, my joke launches two fun tales and I'm late to the party!
ReplyDeleteLet's hit ghoul quickly because as good as it is -- the first story is the real winner. I like the comically huge hunchback, and the monk like features. It makes for some great facial expressions, and that really sells the tale and winds up at the ending.
But Silence is something really special, but it's not just for the clever usage of no text but how Ayers makes the whole thing work with expressions; it starts with the Atlas 4 panel strip, awash in sickly yellows, and then continues on panel after panel after panel, until the only way it can end, which is with a skeleton.
There's twos really interesting panels here: page 3, panel 2, and panel 4. The first is: who cut the line? It's not dead, it's cut. And second, why did everybody stop and exit their cars? That's two really creepy panels!
>a passing stranger in this haunted bus station just leaned over and asked to see some more Len Streeter sometime
ReplyDeleteI will most definitely get some Lin Streeter up later this month (January) --stay tuned and thanks for the suggrestion!