We saw some super fine Frank Springer art just a few posts ago over at AEET HERE, and now he springs forth yet again here with a familiar old, urban legend-style, spook story set-up, via the June 1966 issue of Dell's Ghost Stories #14. And yes friends, it all takes place on New Years Eve! But first, let's see what the great cover illustration of our previous post was about as we once again return to the April 1952 issue of Suspense #17. Hmmm, have I really not posted a Werner Roth story since 2019?! For shame! I'll see what I can do about that in the coming year. And speaking of, while some of you will likely be out and about, having a party packed evening of festive fun, other's will be experiencing quite the opposite. In fact, you might even call tonight a "Night of Horror!" Yeah, that's the way we do things around here at THOIA, anyway. And if the drunken car crashes and hellarious graveyard hazing antics don't finally do you in, then be sure to come back here next year and see what other terrors ominously await! Happy New Year, everyone-- we did it! 13... 13... 13... 13... 13... 13... 13... 13... 13... 13... 13... 13...
5 comments:
You are right, Karswell, these two tales would have made great urban legends, or maybe they are the reworking of previous tales. Night of Horror reminds me of the tale where someone drives a dagger/sword/wooden stake into the grave of sinister character at midnight, and The Stranger is a version of the ghostly hitch hiker, only it is the ghost offering the ride.
These tales were a great way to say goodbye to 2025 and hello to the new year.
Since the upcoming Chinese New Year will be the year of the horse, we fans of horror comics look forward to new night-mares here on THOIA.
Hoppy New Ear!
Bottom right panel, second last page, I'm sure Greg's supposed to be getting in Amos Barr's face, but the perspective shows he's in the background and apparently demanding help from the wall. Which, come to think of it, would justify Amos thinking he's crazy.
I wonder how many weird stories start with fraternity hazings, or at least hazings of some kind?
It isn't exactly as big as a PSA, but people don't usually expect ANY kind of drunk driving message in a story as early as "The Stranger," but it does have a couple of lines about that subject.
It isn't a big deal, but why does Amos go into that "This guy must be crazy!" mode when Greg is the third person with a story about meeting Josh? You'd think he'd be blase about it by now.
So I don't ramble on to much, I'll stick with Night of Horror :)
Great art. Good character face design, Happy really looks like a super angry fiend from panel 2 (he's freaked out on the splash) and our hero looks like a guy who cares and will solve a mystery. That seems like a small thing for a 5 page horror comic, but it's really important to clue in the readers for the short time we live with the characters.
Page 2, panel 4, that's great staging.
Nice ending I didn't get the gravestone gag until the last panel and I feel I should have. That's good story writing or a failure on my end!
Another fun things about this story is it leaves you with some thoughts -- what happens AFTER Happy falls into the grave? What tortures await him?
Happy New Year everybody!
I like that honest-to-god Zip-A-Tone shadow on the splash of the first story. Feels like that's pretty rare to see in precode horror--and especially rare for Atlas. All the art in that story is nice. I'm with everyone on Roth's command of character's faces (I love the spaghetti-eating panel), and I dig all those frames where he does graveyard silhouettes like a Scooby-Doo cartoon, too. Lastly, I have a special appreciation for the color on page two. something about a lot of purple punctuated by bright green feels like pure sci-fi horror to me. While that's not the vibe of this story, it's always welcome.
And in the second story, Springer demonstrates an ability with faces himself. And Us cars. I think the fourth panel of page three is fantastic. So is that Tin Lizzy and all the 1970s Detroit Steel. You can tell the man had a preference for muscle cars. The Beetle, by comparison, is a little bit wonky.
Happy New Year!
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