The wicked 'ol witchery continues with another ACG tale of the supernatural, this time from the May 1954 issue of Adventures into the Unknown #55! You barely even have to glance down to see that this is one of those cool, but very short-lived "TrueVision" stories by Harry Lazarus. I've posted nearly a half dozen of these in the past, so if you're hungry for more of this "thrilling 3D process", CLICK HERE afterwards!
Nothing more fun than a hypocritical, perverted old witch hunter, huh? This dude even turns to witchcraft in the end to find what he's looking for.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Truevision will ever be used in comics again, it has an interesting look to it.
ReplyDeleteGosh he got off easy, too. I mean, I was all amped for whatever super-tortures a witchfinder general must endure when he's caught sampling the product--but instant death? After burning people alive in a snit? What kind of half-assed revenge is this? I mean, if I were Angela's dead parents I'd be pretty damn miffed she stole my righteous thunder.
ReplyDeleteThe art on these is always so fun. I like all the ways Lazarus methodically constructs his diorama-like panels. The foregrounds over thick black borders is flashy, but the converging floor lines and mid-range coloring the half-tone deep fields are probably more important to the look. I especially like all the environmental grandeur at the top of page three.
When I read this I thought, boy, Mr. Barnes is gonna have something to say about that spider! I mean look at him!
Yup, that spider is great! After so many stories with really well drawn animals we get the a spider straight out of mad scientist lab. All sorts of weird insect parts slapped together, but you know what these badly drawn spiders always have? A charm. They look so happy just to be whatever guess the artist had about what a spider looks like!
ReplyDeleteThere's also some weird anachronisms in here like Angela's clutch and jacket.
The construction of these panels is always interesting; so many panels deal with looking down a really long room so you can make the figures in the foreground pop. There's got to be a lot of planning in this.
And the most fun -- nobody that drew this would have ever expected The Horrors of It All -- when presented here, the page borders disappear and it looks like one long vertical comic!
Look on the bright side, Mr. Cavin, the witchfinder may have died a quick death, but what is his punishment in the hereafter?
ReplyDeleteAll of the innocents who perished due to his false claims of guilt will punish him for centuries - repeated drownings, burned at the stake repeatedly, drawn and quartered daily, etc.
They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, I think Angela's afterlife punishment will coin a new phrase- hell hath no fury like a woman's revenge.