February is the month associated with pitchin' woo and hugs 'n kisses and all that lovey dovey junk --thanks as always to the voracious appetites of Valentines Day! So in usual / unusual THOIA fashion, all this month we'll be taking a lurid look at all romantically doomed things gone oh so horribly wrong. And we'll start it all off with a phone call from beyond the grave, via the July '44 issue of Terrific Comics #4.
5 comments:
I like the art in this -- the heavy inking, the dense panels, and I like how Dorothy is never (except for one panel) draw as crazy or nuts; she's smiling and happy and just waiting out her eventual ticket to the afterlife.
And it doesn't overuse captions!
Though I have to say the afterlife works in mysterious ways; saving her from the explosion and then basically ... killing? maybe? ... her to take her away (how else could she go with him.). Yet her earthly form disappears?
I might have to write into Terrific Comics for an explanation!
All this, at 1944, a pretty fully formed Ripley's or Karloff tale from the 60s.
I couldn't help but notice that the narrative introduction names Dorothy's fiancé as Joe Matthews--but his name is Bob in the actual story! Wonder how Dorothy got the wedding dress at the sanitarium. Couldn't stop laughing at the reveal at the end that the doctor heard the organ playing the Wedding March at midnight! That's kind of cute!
@Glowworm: I thought of the wedding dress, but realised that Dotty would probably have packed her wedding dress along with her other things because she was expecting Joe Bob to come marry her. What kept him, anyway? Was he building a ghost house for them both somewhere?
She may not have been drawn crazy, but she did seem mad all the time. I mean, the top half of page four, she looks angrier in panel three, when she's happy, than she does in panel one, when she's irked.
This story was a little baffling, but I did like the haunted phone calls. I'm a big fan of spooky gadgetry stories, what I assume are a side-effect of technophobia. I just love the dark side of modernism. Though my favorite vector for horror/thrillers is the television set, a telephone also makes for excellent spirit media. Mediums?
Really enjoyed this one. The vibe was eerie and familiar. Thank you Karswell it hit the spot.
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