Some of you may have pondered: "When did Mr. Karswell first get hooked on Satan?" And the answer comes via the very first time I read a DC horror comic yarn illustrated by the ever fearsome, Frank Thorne! More precisely, the August 1976 issue of House of Mystery #244. This wildly wicked story is overloaded with great Kashdan moments: a sinister brainwashing ceremony, half-nude cult cuties, a kick ass kung-fu fight in a steam bath, and a final page with more clever twists than a pentagram shaped pretzel! If you've never read this one, you're in for a treat. And a very special "Kronos--Zagros--Eborak" to those of you lovin' that diabolically demonic Luiz Dominguez cover below, too!
4 comments:
OK I'm joining a coven just for the robes those rock!
Story in this is great, because it breaks your suspension of disbelief only to fix it. When Hal gets the kill command, Gina just happens to be around and just happens to lock him in the same place with Walt. When you read this, you think "what a convenient coincidence, that's bad writing" but it's only convenient, because it was planned all along. That's a clever bit of misdirection.
Another story that tells you to never trust the pretty woman!
The art is great, too, the messes scratchy lines really draws you in and all the acid-y type tripping sequences work really well. Coloring is excellent, also!
This is a great bit of DC post but around the late 70s the comic code was really lightened so the post stuff was getting a lot better. Man, house of mystery was on issue #244!
I looked Gina from the first page right lower panel where she's grinning at Boss Man's door. I however took it for granted that she'd be the formulaic female amateur sleuth who would tail the "hero" and save him from the villains. That was a good twist.
Why become a member of a coven, Brian, when you can start one of your own?
Why be the apprentice to an inner circle when you can be the high priest of said circle?
Take a page from Aleister Crowley's and Anton LaVey's playbook and be the head and not the tail, and let the acolytes buy you the robes and wine.
As to this devilish good story and art-
One thing that stood out to me is the dress Gina is wearing, it made me think of the dress the secretary Marie was wearing in "Horror Story" posted here on August 20, 2020. Of course, they are not the same outfit, but both secretaries have excellent taste in attractive office wear. And both are pin up beauties in their own right, though Gina offers us a slice of cheesecake (or is that devils food cake?) in the final panel.
Even though it is a DC comic, Uncle Walter in the steam room looks a little bit like Tony Stark, or maybe its his hairstyle and moustache giving him a Tony stark lookalike appearance.
The plot itself is another twist on the devil's cult theme so prevalent in the seventies. There were several movies, made for TV movies and stories of forbidden cults during that decade, with all of the interest in the occult, it unfortunately led to the satanic panic of the eighties. The straight laced types were and are scared of their own shadows, and are quick to blame someone else for being dark and shadowy. Sadly, the Salem Witch Trials never really went away, they just became mainstream with false accusations and online trolling.
This was a great blast from the past of a simpler time for those of us who were youngsters during the seventies.
Eko Eko Azarak
Iko Iko un day
(hey hey)
Jock-a-mo fee-no ai na-ne
Jocomo fee na nay
I like Thorne in this mode better than his usual barbarian thing. Here he kind of reminds me of Philippe Druillet, both in the jagged ornament of his line and the fact that almost every single thing comes off as some kind of colorful special effect. Even Harold's blue suit and tiger-striped tie on page two. He looks like a character from a Brendan McCarthy comic.
But wow was he so angry all the time. Yelling at everybody, spittle flying all over the office. And some kind of a hades wino besides. I definitely had no problem seeing him get his in the end.
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