If you enjoyed our horrible holiday double feature over at AEET HERE yesterday, it's now time for another right here at THOIA! And this year we're looking at the age old Ghost Stories for Christmas, and with nobody telling a spookier tale than Charles Dickens himself! Well actually, let's have golden age fan favorite, Lee Elias tell it-- the way it could've happened, or did it?! --via the March / April 1976 issue of Ghosts #46. But first up, it's another doomed-out variation on the Dicken's lit classic drama-rama, from the March 1953 issue of Marvel Tales #112, and highlighted by some spectacularly illustrated Larry Woromay specters! I guess you can't really celebrate anything anymore either unless we get a nice Bill Everett cover as well! Yes, this post has everything-- including a well wish for everyone to have a wonderful, happy holiday!
3 comments:
That, boys and ghouls, is how you DO IT (in reference to the Elvira tale.) "The Third Ghost" is how you take a well know story about a man rediscovering his empathy and humanity and turn it into a pitch black comedy for a more modern age.
I love how Elias is evil through and through, even as a kid, and always scheming. The ghost are just baffled and in the end, completely defeated.
Dickens is a tale of redemption; this is a more realistic tale of the rich always getting what they want, supernatural or not. Every bit of the art is great, and the absolutely disgusted ghosts at the end is a great final panel.
I love the ghost on the last page, panel 2, hanging outside the window like Spider-man.
I love this thing, it's great. And Happy Holidays to everybody!
The real downbeat ending for "The Third Ghost" is the fact that the world is still filled with Elias Hodges, if not worse.
Maybe a trip to down below might have had the desired effect, or showing Elias that in the hereafter he would be the one doing work non-stop while everyone he mistreated enjoyed paradise.
The second tale could be called "based on a 'true' story" or as true as a horror comic story can be.
I liked the spooky tree at the end, perfect for a Krampus Christmas.
Happy Horrordays all!
Zowie, that Larry Woromay art is super. All the characters--alive or dead--are grotesque and compelling, the staging and sequential storytelling are top notch, and the splash is pure horror comic gold, with all the elegant gnarliness of a Davis or Maneely. Regarding that second thing, the sequential storytelling, I think page three is pretty masterful, kicking-off the haunting episodes staged in a series of three-panel riffs throughout the rest of the story. In many cases the colorist helps things along by coding these riffs using an internally-consistent palette. It's pretty remarkable. Also remarkable, and my favorite panel of the story, is the top corner of page one. I don't think most illustrators would have dared to front-load a completely oblique slice of the main character heading into frame like that. But it works like a charm; it's so animated and amazing.
I'm not sure I have much familiarity with Elias's work for DC in the seventies. I don't know that I'd have recognized it without being told. I have to say, this stuff is quite stunning, and it's interesting to see that first page looking so DC and so seventies both--what with the thwarted panel borders and puffy special lettering--and yet still obviously flow from the mature and sophisticated hand of a golden age master.
Lastly, thanks for that spectre-tacular Christmas tree by Jeanne Bieruma Oosting! It's a beaut. It's my first time running across this woman's art, and I'm flabbergasted how great her Poe illustrations are.
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