It's been a while since my fellow horror host chum, Mister Mystery stopped by with one of his own terrible old terror tales to tell! So let's set sail on a nightmarish sea of screams, errr dreams, and find out what awaits in this creepy coffin... from the November 1951 issue of Mister Mystery #2.
It's An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge, transported a hubdred years in time and to medicine!
ReplyDeleteGood catch Bill, I had thought of this as an early version of Twilight Zone's "Perchance to Dream"
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if the copyright to Mister Mystery has expired? This is a narrator who deserves a reboot.
Did a drunk opossum line up these color plates? Yeesh!
ReplyDeleteI always like the Mister Mystery character. A lot of ghouls and whatnot hosts are very snarky about the fate of the people in their tales, but Mister Mystery seems to take extra pleasure in watching the worm squirm on the hook. I think it's because he is, at least by look, a completely human character. You'd expect that kind of behavior from a freak living in a crypt, but this guy is well dressed and seems "normal." It really works!
Fun little tale. I might have edited it a bit in places, but it works and I think a 4 page quicky works well with the plotting. You do really get a sense of foreboding with the coffin.
I love the way this comic looks.
ReplyDeleteScrolling back though the Montellaro archive (or at least some of it--we've seen quite a bunch), only the Mr. Mystery stuff looks like this to me. Most of his other stuff is defined by sly caricature and a million fine textural details. But this and other stories from MM are dominated by big (sometimes huge) bold abstracted marks and more sedate character design. Tony shows great facility with both styles. I love the look of today's story. This title often went all in on the dense color schemes. All that purple, red, brown! Every other page is just loaded with ink. I wonder if that inspired Montellaro to keep the lines so thick and shapes so defined? It certainly helps contain the color registration on most of these pages (only the first page feels egregious to me). His usual fine-lined work would have showcased these print slippages much more glaringly.
Like Brian Barnes, I'd like to see different colors, if only because of Paul's pretty out-there pajamas. They need stranger colors than they get.
ReplyDeleteI too like the colors here, but then Grant mentioned the PJs and I think instead of that rusty fleur de lis pattern, someone should make the shapes green, (also add a few more leaves to each), and thus, turn those pajamas into pa-ganjas!
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