A few posts ago, a comment mentioned having to "re-read the story a few times to understand what was actually going on", and (for me anyway), the same thing applies with today's wicked vampire encounter, via the November 1952 issue of Adventures into the Unknown #37. It's still a wonderfully weird story, and I love the snooty aggressive nature and looks of the vicious vamp here. But our hapless hero, Gary Owens (not to be confused with the legendary Laugh-In announcer) continually talks about something on the first few pages that artist Pete Riss inexplicably chose not to even bother adding into the visuals. What really makes all of this even more odd is that it's even the freakin' title of the story! Or maybe I've just read this story incorrectly and missed something, who knows? Anyway, let 'ol Karswell know what you think. There are a few more vampires fluttering our way over the next couple of posts as well, so stay toodily tombed...
3 comments:
Man, Gary really likes the sound of his own voice.
Script written by Ed Wood Jr., only he could have come up with such bizarre dialog. Maybe Gary was Ed Wood Jr. himself if he left the cashmere sweater at home. I suspect cashmere is unsuited for mountain climbing.
The vampiress never heard the saying "When you are winning, shut up" as in don't tell the guy what your weakness is or how you can be destroyed. An oversight so many horrors in comics fail to learn or never learned.
Its not often we see a barefoot vampire in a horror story, its an interesting detail. Barefoot Vampire In the Park, the Romanian/Transylvanian version of that play.
Thanks for this slightly surreal vampire tale, Karswell.
This has all the base components of a simple horror story; it telegraphs the blood stone (good), it has the trick of drinking it (which is obvious but fine), it has the sexy vampire chick, our kind of milquetoast hero, but it then needs to over-explain the blood stone.
The thing that sinks it is the other vampire; they need that to explain the blood stone but a simpler version might of been she was trapped with the blood stone attached to her, he removes it as he thinks it's valuable, and we just let comic logic do the rest. As a matter of fact, I bet this was the original story.
The artist refusing to draw a damn skeleton doesn't help, as Karswell already mentioned! And where was she hiding the wings in that burial shroud? Behind the push up bra?
Yeah, the story needed a couple more passes but weirdly enough the art is great! I love the weird skull pedestal, the vampire woman is great good girl art, and everything is drawn with a good skill.
It makes me think that maybe there were some changes in the script *after* the art was done. When he finds the other skeleton on page 2? That was him finding the stone. The poor artist probably got the blame for this one! If you remove all text about the second skeleton, change the title, have the vampire lady say the stone kept her in place, it will actually work and not be confusing.
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