From the August 1973 debut issue of Vampire Tales #1, with a script by Gardner Fox.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Revenge of the Unliving!
If you thought in our last post that Frank Robbins drew sexy vampires, wait'll you see how Jordi Bernet delivers them unto us in this one! I had a few people write in applauding the black and white 70's mag posts, so I thought we'd do a few more before getting back into the golden color moldies. Bernet is one of my all time favorite illustrators, anyone unfamiliar with his Torpedo series should take some notes to check it out ASAP.
From the August 1973 debut issue of Vampire Tales #1, with a script by Gardner Fox.
From the August 1973 debut issue of Vampire Tales #1, with a script by Gardner Fox.
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8 comments:
James Gordon? And bats? This Gardner Fox fellow wasn't by any chance a former Batman writer was he?
The story, eh, enjoyable but a bit convenient (especially her strength) to get the plot points it needs to.
The art? This is why so many of us love B&W art. When in color, it's a lot harder to do all the spot black like in this one. It shows real menace and real darkness. Page 2, Panel 1 and the zombie on Page 7, Panel 5 are things you couldn't do well in a color magazine.
Last page, panel 2 is great -- the way her hair mixes with the wind and frames the roof zombie.
"Was there really a dead guy on the roof? I guess we will never know" except you just got attacked by a vampire, I think you can believe the roof zombie.
BTW, "I loved you too much so I'll just bound you for eternity, and if you get out, then I'll kill you." Yikes, thanks! That's real love!
Great art. Reminds me of newspaper strip art, sort of like Ken Bald on Dark Shadows, but with a Gene Colan flair.
The vampiress looks like she might have been modeled on Barbara Steele. Wonder if she was?
The lines from Melissa about her physical strength comment make me wonder, has that ever been played very often with female vampires (as opposed to males like Christopher Lee's Dracula)? Of course, thanks to action movies an super hero ones, inordinately strong women have become a real cliché, but does that include many vampires (apart from "re-imagined" action film ones)?
When it comes to Mestiere's idea, I wish I had some true stories to contribute, but (with maybe one or two exceptions) I don't.
Look on the bright side, Mesterie, at least you have interesting tales to tell. Maybe you could write a book about your family experiences (with names changed to protect the privacy of your family members). We all like a good ghost story/strange tale/unexplained yarn, and you might as well get a few bucks out of it to share with your family.
As for the vampire tale, it was a good tale, though sometimes too much of a good thing ends up being a bad thing. The first page is a bit too black in the panels, maybe a bit more grey than black would have helped. This is just my humble opinion, no knock against the tale or Karswell, it was a good tale overall.
It's a damn good thing the first victim she came across wore a cape. Otherwise she would have turned into a rat, I guess, and it would have taken her a heck of a lot more time to dig up hip young jive-talkin' Jim Gordon.
I thought the Cardinals hat joke was hilarious! Cor, the thin skin on folks. Look, Mestiere, I thought the story itself was pretty cool, too. It's funny, though, that all those miniature old-world fairy-type peeps--from garden gnomes to friggin Papa Smurf--all have red hats on. What gives? My mother has a very similar story today's tale herself. Sounds to me like classic sleep paralysis (check the wiki page, it's pretty awesome how closely your description fits) and pavor nocturnus. Note that there is evidence to indicate that parasomnia is congenital. Sweet dreams.
This was actually my first encounter (in 1975) with Bernet's great art in an italian horror magazine printing miscellaneous stories from various Marvel mags ('twas called the "Corriere della Paura" = the "Fear Gazette" or the "Fright Herald", or something ).
As an 8 years old boy, I was struck by the "dark" beauty of this lovely vampress. I thought she only wanted to stay with her man, not turning him into a vampire, and her death made me sad. To me, page 1 has "Barbara Steele" written all over it.
I think Bernet's evolution as an artist has been amazing, he has achieved a great synthesis, though I'm not mad for some of his latter works like "Clara de noche" (only a matter of taste I guess).He's a master of black and white surely.
I still have this mag somewhere (after a while it became "La tomba di Dracula", italian version of TOD, still in big mag size and B/W) but I wish to thank you for bringing back memories.
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