One of the creepiest Al Eadeh / Atlas era monstrosities ever highlights this terrifyin' tale of horror from under the Earth. In our story, the creature is referred to as the "Cardiff Monster", not to be confused with the classic Cardiff Giant archeological hoax of the 1800's (CLICK HERE to read about it.) Still, it's a fun, fast paced and moody story, complete with a totally non-related, but none the less excellent, accompanying Bill Everett cover image. And apologies to those who notice how I completely bailed about half way through my own color-correcting process of this overly faded / yellow post too... from the February 1953 issue of Marvel Tales #111.
5 comments:
The title deliberately (?) mixes Cardiff in Wales with a famous hoax called "The Cardiff Giant," which happened in Cardiff, New York.
Maybe many people saw the ending coming even if I didn't, but either way, it's interesting to see Dorothy go from being a crime story femme fatale to being the monster herself.
So I read this as Dorothy is not killing Owen, just eating Lloyd, and then Owen and Dorothy are going to go back living together, and that this is the same arrangement as what happened to Lloyd.
Even the at the end kind of hints at that -- maybe -- as his continued life will be the nightmare.
That's a great transformation set of panels, BTW. I'm not a big fan of the yellow/green at the end, but it works, and that's a nitpick.
I really like this one for how the story seems to have alternate endings. The author could just mean that she's going to eat both of them but why? It makes little sense and I'm pretty sure Lloyd knew. This is always seems a lot better deal than horror stories make it. You've got a monster on your side (until the next guy comes around) and she's pretty when you want that. Win-win!
Man, I super love all those gnarly alien rocks at the top of page two. Actually, every panel on page two is kind of mutated and creepy looking. Eadah was such a gift to horror.
I like Mr. Barnes' take on this story's conclusion. I like to think it makes this into a Let the Right One In kind of narrative, in which we are seeing the way this monsters switches out her manservants. Menservant? Actually, I'd also like to think her evil psionic ESP powers of suggestion are what svengalied this poor sap into murdering his old friend in cold blood just one week after meeting the dude's wife. I'd like to think this was her plan all along.
I also really like Barnes’ theory on the ending of this one. It would explain why Owen doesn’t want to talk about the monster around his “wife”. I really love the yellow and black and white shading on the first page to depict the haunting atmosphere. Also love the green shading on the last panel of page 3. Suddenly all the warmth of the rest of the panels on that page just vanishes in a single panel. I also love the return of the yellow panels on the last page when “Dorothy and Lloyd set off to place Owen’s body in the mine shaft. The transformation panel is great too. I’ll admit, I thought the story was going to revolve more around the miners and the dreaded mine shaft and its monster than around adultery and murder. I did see the plot twist coming as soon as Owen told Lloyd not to mention the monster in front of Dorothy despite her not minding.
It's funny to think that there was a weird story involving Welsh coal miners BEFORE "The Sixth Finger" on THE OUTER LIMITS.
But for all I know, maybe there are many others.
Post a Comment