Time for another cursed entry in the superbly spooky "Ghost Gallery" series from Fiction House. If you remember the weirdly macabre Drew Murdoch adventure from a few posts ago HERE (yeah, I think Drew's gonna be our featured Character of the Month here in April), well, he's back and really has his hands full with an alluring apparition (illustrated by none other than joltin' Jack Kamen), --a super sexy spook that's even stolen the haunted, haggard heart of 'ol Mr. Karswell! Why, I almost actually shed a tear when: "For one brief second her tortured face writhed in the flames... then faded..." From the Sept. 1951 issue of Jumbo Comics #151.
7 comments:
This would have been right before Kamen went exclusive with EC; Gaines always said one of Kamen's strength (and you can tell by all the femme fatale stories they gave him) was drawing beautiful women, and he doesn't disappoint here. Even the maid is sexy!
I like the dripping ghost; that's a really good image and there is some good menace to this story, and the last two pages are pretty thrilling, and the evil fire destruction is great, and this is Kamen probably about a year from his peak at EC.
Couple notes: If your ex is evil, *always* burn her stuff. This is horror 101.
If you plan on being an evil ghost, learn how to aim from 4 feet away!
The logic of possessed Wife No 2 missing making Drew realise Ghost Wife No 1 lived in the doll escapes me.
What I like about this story is the way the narration lets the reader discover facts for him/herself little by little. Unlike today's comics, which always get expositional to start with, and where each character mentions the other's name in BOLD LETTERS so the reader knows it. Here just how Wife No 1 died and why she hates Doofus, er, Rufus is only explained bit by bit through the story. That's good.
That image of the ghostly face in the fireplace, that is some impressive artwork.
When the comic mentioned a ghost dripping water, I thought this tale would end the same way 'The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall' would end, with a ghost icicle (ghostcicle?) kept in an ice house.
>When the comic mentioned a ghost dripping water, I thought this tale would end the same way 'The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall'
Ahhh, somebody's paying attention around here, haha! Either that or you just have a great memory! https://andeverythingelsetoo.blogspot.com/2011/03/water-ghost-of-harrowby-hall.html
I don't know "The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall," but this feels like a handful of movies, like Bert I. Gordon's TORMENTED and Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA.
Speaking of those stories, even though you never find this out, it kind of feels like Rufus could've murdered Ethel, making him more of a villain than she is.
The one little thing that bothers me is the kind of sexist line "instead of babies!"
But countless people who say they AREN'T sexist talk like that about women who don't want to have kids, now as much as ever before!
I've always loved Kamen's chunky, weighty figure drawing. We don't see the E.C. greats very often around here, and it's really nice when one pops up. There's such a sense of dimensionality to this work--these folks take up real space, seem to have measurable heft. Even the ghost does! I think page three is just superb, but then page five is nearly overwhelming. Ghostly water paneling! Feels so ahead of its time. Like Jack Kamen was breaking rules that had only just been cemented, creating a comics look that will flourish almost two decades later.
LISTEN!
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