Friday, March 19, 2010
The Phantom of Lonesome Swamp!
Aka: Redneck Hillbillies in the Haunted Bayou! Time for a wild Lou Cameron classic, and some of you may have noticed that I've now posted the entire Feb. '52 issue of Mysterious Adventures #6 (the last 3 posts, plus check the archives for Terror of the Burning Witch.) And if you're wondering about the cover blurb story "Ghostly Terror in the Cave" well, search me... I reckon somebody goofed.
I don't know what's more creepy... pretty boy's effeminate scarf, or the fact that he appears to be naked and hairless under those overalls.
ReplyDeletePage 5 is outstanding...look how much ground is covered in a single page.
ReplyDeleteWhen this story was published and through my childhood, Confederate money could be had pretty cheaply. Not only was the state that had issued it defunct, but they had financed the war largely through inflation (as also had the Union).
ReplyDeleteBut the US government has been increasing the money supply, collector interest in Confederate money has grown, and some of the stock that existed in '52 has been destroyed. A Confederate dollar bill is now more valuable that a modern US dollar bill. If anyone found a chest of Confederate money, it would be better than finding the same nominal amount of US dollars.
Betch'all didn't know we had us some swamp down here in Alabammy.
ReplyDelete...No, really, there are swamps down here. I know, I grew up in one. Seriously.
Now, may I see a show of hands from those who didn't see the "treasure consists of worthless Confederate money" twist coming from the second page on?
...Thought not.
That father telling his son that money is worthless has no foresight. If someone were to find a trunk full of Confederate money these days, they would sell it on Ebay and make something.
ReplyDelete"THE PHANTOM OF THE LONESOME SWAMP WILL SCARE YOU...lavender!"
ReplyDeleteOkay, we've talked about the Confederate money, now what do we think about the art here? Does this look like the Cameron style we're all familiar with? The amazing lay-outs and attention to detail are there, but something seems a little more scratchy and loose to me in the inks than some of the other Lou stuff I've posted, although this is of course a story coming from a different publisher, pretty sure everything else I've ever shown has come from his work at Ace. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteYes, Emby. I saw it coming, too. I am in Georgia.
ReplyDeleteI grew up with idiots like the Rickey brothers. They usually end up removing themselves from the gene pool like that, too.
The artist? I am at a complete loss, although it is reminiscent of Dell's Ghost Stories a dozen years later...
That's a terrifc cover, followed by a beautiful splash.
ReplyDeleteThe story ain't so shabby either.
Them thar Rickey brothers got what's comin' to them...and good! My favorite part was ol' Reb emerging from the quicksand, which helped diminish my slight cynicism for the story because of the rather silly, extra large skeletal ghost of the captain. The snake bite in the neck was also...shall we say...biting in its depiction.
ReplyDelete8thRay's comment had me cracking up!
Thanks for the great posts, Karswell.
Oh, what an awfully nice splash page! I especially love the little details, like the snake swallowing the frog.
ReplyDeleteI'm no expert when it comes to Lou Cameron's art, but I really dug his drawings here. I thought the "scratchy" style suited this vicious little gem of a story quite well. The panel where Cap'n Walter's ghost bursts out of the treasure chest is beyond awesome!
Thanks a lot for posting this, Karswell! If I were to make a "Best of THOIA 2010" list, I'm pretty sure 'The Phantom of Lonesome Swamp' would be among the top contenders.
THIS HAS BEEN ONE OF MY FAVORITE POSTS LATELY AS WELL. OF COURSE ANY TIME YOU GIVE US A LOU CAMERON POST IS LIKE XMAS MORNING! HIS ART DOES LOOK A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT THAN USUAL, MAYBE HE HAD A ANOTHER INKER? THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK KARS!!!
ReplyDeleteHowdy,
ReplyDeleteAccording to people more knowledgeable than me, it is Lou Cameron. What I found amazing is the number of novels he wrote after leaving comics, some under a woman's name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lou_Cameron
rian James Riedel
Cameron's art, as always, is a knock-out! I love the cottonmouth biting Shorty (in the neck!) on page 5. Like my Mom said to me and my wife last year when we went out snake catching in NC... "they are agREYSive". We still mock her every day about that!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the artist who redrew this one for Eerie Pubs evidently liked Cameron's art as well... it's copied panel for panel.
Loved the splash page. Agreed about the snake eating the frog. Small detail but sort of foreshadows what's going to happen. Decent art but a little messier than I like.
ReplyDeleteYes, great, Confederate money is now worth something, but it wasn't then. It's sort of like making fun of Bible stories for their lack of cell phones.
ReplyDeleteKarswell, you're right. This is nice stuff, but it doesn't quite seem up to Cameron's usually high standards. Perhaps it's reprinted from earlier in his career when he wasn't quite so polished? That's just a guess, but I see what you're saying.
This is early in Lou Cameron's career, where he's not as slick as his best work, which appears in the last couple of years of Ace's horror titles. But his unique style and imagination are already well in evidence. He grew artistcally at an amazing rate in just a couple of years.
ReplyDeleteThis story is similar to Slow Death in Quicksand in many ways. A snake killing the first baddie, the ghost pulling the last one into quicksand and even the second one to go is dragged underwater. Only it's one of the ghosts rather that an alligator who does that in the other story. The trio of baddies were related in both. Three brothers and a father and his young son and daughter respectively.
ReplyDeleteThe similarities are outstanding to me