Time to ring in the new month with a clingy classic about a corpse that just can't stop hangin' around! This is a real nice quickie crime corker filler from Mort Meskin, and can be found in the back-up pages of the Feb - March 1954 issue of Frankenstein #29. Lots more on the way too as THOIA is about to enter its 19th year of ominous existence on the 'ol weird wide web! Can ya believe it?!! NINETEEN! And yeah, I'm counting that one busted year when Blogger went bonkers. But unholy cows, we're still alive 'n still clingin' around yer necks somehow-- I'm just as surprised as you, TBH!
4 comments:
Happy horrific birthday month, THOIA! Sweet Sixteen was so three years ago…I’m wishing you a Nightmarish Nineteen now. What an achievement in macabre bloggery — you’re to be commended, Karswell!
Thank you, DD! ;)
So this is a great little crime story (nothing supernatural happens, as we get a rational explanation -- rigor mortis.)
It also has the thing that makes a good crime comic -- grit. Dense panels, there's only 2 panels with solid backgrounds and those panels are full of figures. Everything else is mud, dark skies, light rays, full faces of grime. The whole thing feels like if you read it in comic form your hands would be covered in dirt (and not printer ink!)
It also has a great snap ending with a reverse of "a dead man can't kill." This is really a tight, tense crime comic.
Super moody narrative voice in this one. I think the slight plot is just great, just enough, but for me the tone of the narration really elevates it. And does a great job of accounting for the fact that no witnesses survive this story by qualifying most of it as what might have happened. Clever four pager.
Meskin's art is really great, too, of course. Love the wuthering environment and lowering skies. The brisk and gestural way he draws here feels urgent and energetic rather than hurried, especially in light of all the panel detail Mr. Barnes mentions. The last page is a knockout.
I hope the 20th Anniversary tees include "Macabre Bloggery" as a blurb.
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