Film history has shown us that on this day, April 21st, in 1880, the 6 founding fathers of Antonio Bay, California deliberately wrecked a clipper ship off the coast so that its wealthy, leprosy-afflicted owner could not establish a leper colony nearby. All crew and passengers were killed, and the sunken ship was eventually salvaged of its treasures by the same men responsible for this senseless tragedy. I'm sure many of you that follow this blog know the rest of John Carpenter's classic, gory, ghost story. So as long as we have the SSS collection handy (see our previous post too), let's take a look at a terrific terror tale possessing quite a few similarities, via the July 1969 issue of Strange Suspense Stories #8. Spectral ship, vengeful spirit, a lonely lighthouse, lots of fog, and a care-free couple suddenly caught up in the clutches of a screaming supernatural spook. Joe Gill script, Vince Coletta illustrations, and Jim Aparo cover art, too!
Vince Colletta’s own art was as uninteresting and uninspired as his inking over Jack Kirby’s pencils. The story was awkwardly paced at times where there seemed to be no real mystery afoot, such as the discovery of the lighthouse keeper’s diary which had no relevant information. Then there’s the ghost of Captain Coffered… He goes through walls, but he’s physical enough to take a tumble and have his hair yanked(!) and is too easily defeated. This solution to the mystery comes from nowhere, though it makes sense, it comes across as a baseless hunch. At least there’s a happier resolution here than in Carpenter’s film…
ReplyDeleteThis is a real odd story. The art is great but the story is weird. It looks as though a page or two of essential detail was removed during is making because of space concerns.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to stay positive on this one and pick out the things I like. There's some really beautiful ship art, the Samantha B is well rendered.
ReplyDeleteThe ghost has a fun look, and action at the top of page 6 is really good (it's harder than you think to make fights understandable.) The ghost coming through the door and the mad look on his face on the next page is all nice pieces of work.
I wonder what this would have been with Aparo doing the entire job?
I seem to be sentimental about every Charlton story before even reading it, and I'm fond of this one AFTER reading it.
ReplyDeleteIn Panel 1 of Page 7, Captain Cofferd somehow looks like some crazy Terry Jones character in a Monty Python routine.
I am a fan of John Carpenter's seaside horror film, partly because the characters act the way most people would react in real life if something mysterious was happening to them in real time. Not over the top acting, but reacting to strange events unfolding in real time. I bought a copy of the film on VHS though it has gone missing.
ReplyDeleteAny mysterious or supernatural tale involving the sea or the ocean carries a bit more of a punch than land based mysterious tales, since the seas, the oceans, the waters of the world hold mysteries that mankind has not yet solved, if they ever will be solved.
For this Charlton tale, the plusses and minuses have been raised, but I still hold onto my belief that it is better to have a grade B horror than no horror. I view this as one more Charlton Campfire ghost story, not as great as the horror comics of the fifties, but good enough for 12¢ and a reread on a rainy night along the shoreline.
Thanks as always for the posts, Karswell.
I really like this one too-- not really sure why all the downer comments... oh well, Lou Cameron up next, stick around
ReplyDeleteDid Coletta do the pencils here? GCD has a question mark, crediting him with inks. And I agree, it totally looks like his inking. But the illustration style doesn't match up all that well with work I know he drew from scratch. That said, all the Coletta pencils I can easily find are from the fifties, and a decade can have plenty of effect on even the most predicable talents. And Vince was way more unpredictable than those people.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think the work here does a lot of the heavy lifting to communicate a dreary mood and harsh maritime forces--but then it's hamstrung a bit by an overbright color job. This art is always going to be scratchy and deeply accented by sixties commercial art vernacular, but I don't see anything wrong with it otherwise. I dig the groovy, Tim Burton-esque way the staircase spirals to infinity above the action at the top of page six.
If I was going to pile on, I'd be bitching about the insufferable gender dynamics on display here, which feel premeditatedly retrograde even compared to the forties stuff I've been reading lately. Steadfast dude explains it all to his daft little wife--but let's just ignore who forgot to gas up the boat.
The Fog is such a wonderful movie. But three pages into this, the story seemed to be veering more into Tower of Evil territory. That would have been a real hoot! Especially with these cheery, sixties "plucky kids on an adventure" art stylings.