Tuesday, December 23, 2008

A Night in Black Knoll

Time for another ghostly chiller, and like yesterday’s tale, it’s from one of my other favorite underrated ACG artists, Lin Streeter. So is everyone enjoying the theme this week? What do you want to see in 2009, and how should we kick off the New Year this time around? I’m taking requests now…

From the Oct – Nov 1950 issue of Adventures into the Unknown #13











TOMORROW: A tale that actually takes place on Christmas Eve...

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Mondo Xmas

For those of you in LA, The Cinefamily has a special “Mondo Xmas” program lined up for Dec 25th at 8pm that sounds like a lot of fun: xmas cartoons, aborted holiday specials, and the feature film Christmas Evil ('80), plus director Lewis Jackson in attendance with all kinds of crazy extras to astound you.

Click HERE for more info!

12 comments:

blackwalnut2001 said...

Wow, nice splash. I don't know about y'all, but there's something about the sight of a ghostly woman in a slinky dress emerging from a TOMB that just sets the blood to poundin' in my ears!

Even if she does look suspiciously like a drag queen when she pops up again on p. 5.

Seems like a better than average script on this one ("Whatever you find out there... IT WON'T BE PEOPLE!") with lots of classic comic-land imagery and figures of speech ("Brushing away the cobwebs that clung to me like tiny nets of fear..."; "features withered as a graveyard wreath"), and crisp artwork all around.

Very enjoyable. You've done it again, K.

Suggestions for next year? I'd suggest you're doing just FINE without too many suggestions.

AndyDecker said...

Now that was a very well written story, great balance between art and captions.

The not showing of the coffins content was a nice twist, as was the rational response of the hero.

Suggestions for next year? How about keeping everything like it is? :-)

Emby Quinn said...

Okay, this is just plain weird.

First, it was a great story, very atmospheric, with some classic dialog and a refreshingly satisfying ending.

Trouble is, I kept getting distracted while reading the story. Y'see, my mother's name was Letha.

Don't wait for a punchline. That's not a joke. Not only was her given name actually Letha, it's my middle name too.

Kars, you're freaking me out here. :B

Anonymous said...

SOME OF THESE ACG STORIES WOULD HAVE MADE REALLY GOOD MOVIES BACK IN THE DAY. AND THIS IS POSSIBLY THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER SEEN AN ENDING WHERE THE HORROR IS ACCIDENTLY KILLED! AND BY A FLOWER POT! I THINK I MIGHT HAVE LIKED TO SEEN HER DISINTEGRATE OR SOMETHING IN HER COFFIN BUT STILL A WINNER........LIN STREETER ROCKS.

sfdoomed said...

Great spooky atmosphere along the dark, swampy road. The shadowy figure opening the door for our hero was perfect pre-code horror. Letha, on the other hand, brought the story down a notch for me as she looked like something I'd see in a superhero comic.

I despise superhero comics and I'm obsessed with good horror. Should I assume other THOIA readers feel similarly? Don't want to offend anyone.

Karswell, my suggestion, like others have mentioned as well, is to just keep up the excellent job that you're already doing!

Prof. Grewbeard said...

i like superheroes AND horror, but no offense taken...

oh yeah, i like puppies too. and chocolate cake.

and death rays...

Kars, whatever happened to the Ghost Cop guy, i'd like to see him again...

Unknown said...

Our Hero sure got lucky having that wooden stake fall on Lady Letha. I really enjoyed this one but have to admit that I cracked up at that panel. It was so B horror!

Pappy said...

The story lost me when the census taker bedded down in a house with ashen-skinned dead people.

Did he enter Amos, Letha, et al., in his census report?

Zen Wizard said...

I wish the House Banking Committee was as dedicated as these census takers!

Anonymous said...

A real spooky story that started off better than it ended but I still enjoyed it alot. That was indeed a unique way for her to die though, I must admit.

Anonymous said...

That was an excellent story. I agree it would have made a good movie. Lin Streeter really is quite good, some comics artists like the Hernandez Bros. and C.C. Beck argue that too much details and backgrounds ruin a story, i agree to an extent, but only if the artist doesn't do a good job making the characters expressive and just uses detals to hide artistic flaws(ie. Image comics artists with the "if you can't draw it crosshatch the hell out of it" philosophy.). Streeter handles that beautifully, and the details help to create atmosphere, which is never a bad thing in a horror story, hell in ANY story. As for the superheroes debate, feh, i like both genres but i have to say my favorite characters(besides a few favorites, such as Spiderman and Sub-Mariner)in the hero genre are those with horror/sci-fi elements; The Demon, Morbius, Batman(when he's written correctly and not either a doofus or a psychopath, seems there's no middle ground.),Spectre, Dr. Strange, Hulk, The Spirit(no horror elements per se, and not really a SUPER-hero but Eisner used a lot of tricks horror fans would appreciate; Noir, Atmosphere and shock endings.). And that's as far as i'm going to go into that debate, as i've seen some threads about superhero comics on horror forums get ugly quick.

Mr. Karswell said...

Interesting thread that developed here today about heroes, personally I don't see what was so super hero-ish about Letha, (although maybe she does resemble Marvel's Satanna a little bit) but it was still fun to read you guys talking about it.

And sorry to scare you Emby, that was totally unintentional-- I swear!! Stranger things have indeed happened around here.

Tomorrow is xmas eve, we've got a story lined up that some of you may have actually already read online elsewhere this month (drat!), but I've added a cool bonus tale that comes directly to you from the Happiest Place on Earth. And yes, I mean EXACTLY what you think I mean.

See ya's in the mourn!