As mentioned in my intro to the previous post, THOIA turns 19 in a few weeks (July 12th to be exact!), so let's spend the lead-up to that date with a few scary stories that made a huge impact on Mr. Karswell as a young 6 year old just discovering comics in the 70's. My grandmother had taken me antiquing in Farmington MO, and I found and purchased (with my own allowance!) a large stack of mind blowing, coverless horror comics. To say these changed my life would be a serious understatement, --because here I am a half century later still going gaga over them! And notably, a few of these comics that I found that day turned out to be Marvel titles like Crypt of Shadows and Vault of Evil, and these of course contained reprints of the amazing Atlas era precode stories of the 50's-- including this joltin' Gene Colan lead-off grinder from the August 1973 issue of Vault of Evil #4. My copy was not only missing that intense Frank Brunner cover, but also the first two pages of today's Colan story. But I still loved it, and re-read it countless times, over and over, giggling crazily about the funny, gruesome fate of Kurt Braun. More terror tales that shivered 'n shook my poor, pre-teen bones coming up next, so stay tombed! ("The Old Mill" originally appeared in the July 1952 issue of Strange Tales #8.)
Atlas Colan is always pretty cool but I don't think he reached his zenith until he hit the Marvel superhero scene. There's a lot of Colan's lithe and sometimes rubbery figures here (like page 4, panel 2) that he would use to great effect on titles like Daredevil.
ReplyDeleteThere's one weird thing about this tale I'd edit out -- it starts out as being narrated by the mill which it quickly abandons after the first page. That'd be an easy fix.
I like the repeating of the labelling of the bags. It makes the ending fair (if not a bit predictable) so it's a really good horror story for that.
Good Atlas 4 panel transition on page 4! Another solid Atlas entry.
Hah, wow, I was just barely learning to read at six. Pretty sure I wouldn't have been able to tackle this until age eight at least.
ReplyDeleteI can see how this would have made an impression, though. It's wicked and lively horror, even without the first two pages. It must have been a great day when you finally got to see that splash, though.
Looking forward to the slate of Karswell Kindertrauma you have in store for us.
I’m sure I was a year or two older, (was mainly going by the publication date of this issue)— I mean, this comic was already coverless and tossed onto a resale pile anyway… but it was definitely one of my firsts
ReplyDeleteI love how the "Germans" speak in stereotypical midcentury American.
ReplyDeleteBTW I should also point out that the first pre-code horror comic I saw was in the back of a Giant Sized Werewolf by Night. All the 70s monster mags filled the back with a couple old Atlas story to fill out page counts. That's where I first became associated with this. I still remember one of the stories vividly ... don't know if Kars has it in his collection or not but it'll be cool if it ever shows!
ReplyDeleteDid you purposefully not say the name of the story just to drive me insane?
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