Everyone enjoyed the dynamically deadly Ditko story in our previous post, so how about another? Also from the June 1954 issue of The Thing #14, it's a batty tale of archeological ancient curses and double-crossin' switcheroonies! Ditko is also responsible for the amazing cover! Annnnd to top it all off, there's an extra little Tony Tallarico quickie from the February 1954 issue of The Thing #12, --containing an equal amount of ancient, ancestral atrociousness! You have most definitely been warned for like centuries now...
5 comments:
> Inheritance
So, the story, I'm not enchanted by. The reveal comes out of nowhere and is a bit unfair. The art, man, again, what a piece of work.
I love the face on the tablet (page 1, panel 3), the devil bat-ish monster is great (I love how thin it is) and every random piece of set dressing is distinctive and well drawn. Special props to page 3, panel 5 that's a great little piece of art, centered around the moon. It's really beautiful.
On the next page, a bit of love for the dancing woman; again, that's Ditko's strong sense of movement, the kind of thing that made a lanky Spider-man work so well.
I'm not sure if I like the monochromatic coloring of the monster more than the colorful one on the cover.
> Greed
OK that's a fun punch ending! I like how the witch is really trying to save this guys bacon, even though he outright threatens and then kills her. There's never a "ha ha now you have sealed your fate" but an actual warning -- while getting killed.
That's a pretty good witch!
I love the mutant ape, he's a lot of fun.
The first story does throw a sudden punch at the end that I didn't see coming at all. I feel sorry for Carl. He just wanted to save his friend but ironically enough, it turns out John was a real jerk. Not only was he the actual cursed one, seems somebody REALLY relished the idea of getting to turn into a monster on his 35th birthday.The third panel of the first page with the learing head of the Pharoah on the tablet is awesome. The second story made me do a little bit of sleuthing as it seemed familiar to me. There's an earlier (by a little less than a year) tale from Atlas' Uncanny Tales #7 called "The Witch of Landor Castle" (which was also posted on this blog back in 2018 in which a greedy nobleman seeks the hidden treasure of his ancestors by forcing a witch to conjure them up. In this story, however, the greedy nobleman in question just wants to find out his blood lineage here. The methods are similar though, with the witch warning each man not to meddle any further into the past, only for a gorilla to emerge! At least the witch in the earlier story lived, this one gets murdered despite her warning about the ancestor going a bit apeshit.
Early Ditko is such a treat to see. One can see the unique style that would set him apart from other artists, and touches that would appear in later work, such as the Pharaoh head mentioned by Brian and Glowworm. Do I detect a hint of The Green Goblin in the Pharaoh's toothy smile?
The red demon/monster is more European in appearance than what one would expect from ancient Egypt, a jackal headed horror would be more location appropriate, but that is a minor detail. Another odd detail is the mention of the great grandfathers, one being a slave the other the owner, when the first demon/monster attack took place millennia ago. Sticking with ancestors instead of great grandfathers would have made a bit more sense, but that is a minor detail.
The transformation from man to demon on the last page, middle center panel to left center panel, such a quick change would have made a wolfman or vampire proud.
In Greed, the original ancestor would have been even more impactful if it had been a Tyrannosaurus Rex, talk about a long, long bloodline.
I think it was a really great idea to give that curse demon cameltoe. I mean it's Egypt after all, right? What?
But actually I came here to gush about Ditko's character designs. Specifically the faces. Some of the paneling and composition in this one feels a bit rushed to me, but not so the portraiture. Holy cow, that last panel of page one, the fourth panel of page three, second-to-last on page four, all of them are just pitch-perfect studies of these folks. It's a master example of creating and maintaining a character model. And not for nothing, that frame on page four I'm talking about (and the third on on page five, too), have the most perfectly drawn teeth I've seen in a long while. Usually comics illustrators start with the nude form, and then add clothes over the underlying structure. It's clear that Ditko starts with the skeleton and goes from there.
As for the other story, well, I wouldn't want to be the one to pare a tightly paced Stan Lee and Larry Woromay four-pager down to half size. One of the things that gets lost is the rationale, apparently. Or maybe I just don't get how knowing one's farmer and cave man lineage really gives one a leg-up in the aristocracy. Honestly, I'd have swallowed this story easier if he was looking into the ancestry of a competitor. But I do dig the art here--that mutant ape is a poverty row dream--and the coloring has its heart in the right place too. Magical rainbow-colored flames add value to any room or panel.
"The Inheritance" threw me too. From the moment I saw Carl's face, I expected another "partner wanting to hog all the glory / treasure" story.
Those are entertaining, but this one gets weirder and weirder.
Post a Comment