Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Backstage Horror!

Ogden Whitney Day Three: Such a wonderful splash and title treatment. Yes, it's another typical sort of Atlas style story but this time graced with the Whitney visual infusion, propelling it to greater, much more memorable heights than if say Manny Stallman had worked on it instead (no offense to Manny.) Whitney obviously loved monsters with two giant fangs jutting up from the lower jaw… I could probably do an entire week of Ogden posts centered on that toothy theme alone.

From the spring 1952 issue of Suspense #16







+++++++++++++++++++++++

Stan Winston R.I.P.By now we’ve all heard the crummy news about Stan Winston… and while I’m not really sure what else I can possibly add that somebody else hasn’t already mentioned, I will say that I was one of the fortunates lucky enough to actually stand in the presence of this legend, so here’s my tiny tale: This was either at G-Con or Fangoria in 2003 or 2004 (I’ve been to waaaay too many cons.) Wherever, it was in Burbank CA, and Stan was coming out the front door as the con was ending... I quickly snapped this pic of him giving someone an autograph... he walked by me... I shook his hand... he said hello as he got into his limo... and that was pretty much that.

But those 5 or 6 seconds of my life are ones I will cherish forever. R.I.P.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a very heartfelt tribute,and a great experience.i remember when he hosted AMC's fx feature back when that was still a good channel,i always wanted to meet him,now it's too late. As for the story,yeah Whitney's execution of the material saves it but its still a fun script,reminds me of this movie about a guy who gets caught in the blitz and thinks he's his character,but i forgot the name of it.i also wonder if Lugosi ever felt like this when he played his roles,his characters in THE DEVIL BAT,THE RAVEN & BRIDE OF THE MONSTER had lots in common with him,especially DEVIL BAT where he plays a guy cheated out of his money,just like he got screwed by studios.

Mr. Cavin said...

Ah, the 1950's--a time of change, when reactionary society expressed its fears of shifting common mores with rampant monstrosity! This story is such a beautiful reminder of a time almost forgotten between the more ballyhooed giant ants of the "Atomic Scare" and the theremin invasions of the "Red Scare": the fanged perils of the Method Acting Menace!

silvano said...

I totally agree ; Great splash p
page !
Thanks

Pappy said...

What's said about Whitney, true or not, was that he drank. I've never read an actual interview with him, or any kinds of direct quotes, just some of those third hand comments, "Well, he was supposed to have been a drinker." Anyway, maybe these fangful creatures came out of his imagination, or if tales of his drinking are true, maybe delirium tremens!

Nice picture of Winston, too. It's always good to have a camera handy for candid moments like this.

Mr. Karswell said...

>What's said about Whitney, true or not, was that he drank.

Wait, what's that Pappy? A cartoonist that drank? Alcohol? No! Say it isn't so...

Anonymous said...

I'M ENJOYING THIS WEEK OF POSTS JUST AS MUCH AS THE COLE STUFF! WOW! WHAT ELSE TO DAY, THIS IS A MUCH DESERVED EXAMINATION. YOUR PROBABLY BUILDING A WHOLE SLEW OF NEW WHITNEY FANS THIS WEEK.
YOU DEFINITELY CONVINCED ME!

Anonymous said...

I MEANT WHAT ELSE TO SAY........GRRRRR

COOL PIC OF STAN TOO. AT FIRST I THOUGHT SOMEONE WAS GETTING A SATNA HAT SIGNED AND THEN I CLICKED THE PIC.

The Vicar of VHS said...

Oh man, that splash has it all: a hunchbacked beast-man, a despairing ghost, a cackling evil dude, and a woman inexplicably wearing a BELT OF BEES! Too bad they didn't bring out that aspect more in the tale...

A pretty cool story, I thought--the whole Death by Method Acting idea is one I hadn't seen. Makes you wonder how many corpses are in Brando's closet...or if in the back yard somewhere he's buried the mutated corpses of some half-man/half-pig monster! Because that would rule, obviously.

What's with the face in the background of the left-center panel on page 3? Is that Death? If so, isn't he supposed to be at his elbow?

Like everyone's said, little can be added to what's already been said about Mr. Winston. I'll just say that Pumpkinhead is one of my favorites--the cool dark fairy-tale aspects of it, the great direction by Stan, and of course that iconic monster. Pity the sequels seemed determined to ruin everything the first one did so well. :S Speaking of which, a wide-screen, loaded SE dvd of Pumpkinhead is long overdue.

RIP Stan

Mr. Karswell said...

>loaded SE dvd of Pumpkinhead is long overdue.

Totally.

Anonymous said...

You mentioned having some ACG stories by Whitney too, are you going to post any of them or just stick with the Atlas tales?

Mr. Karswell said...

>ACG stories by Whitney too, are you going to post any of them or just stick with the Atlas tales?

I'm gonna go ahead and post one ACG story tomorrow even though I have an extra Atlas tale scanned. I guess Friday will be a double header of Ogden then... sound good?

Also, anyone know what happened to Zombie Elf?

T. R Xands said...

Ah, I haven't been here in so long~ pah to real life.

Great to see more beautiful work still rolling (glad the fundraising went well). I've got some serious catching up to do this week if I get a damn break.