Thursday, July 30, 2020

The Monster

If anyone ever does a collection of Paul Reinman horror stories, I hope this murderous monster of Frankenstein spectacular from the April 1952 issue of Marvel Tales #106 is in it. I mean, aside from just being a flat out great story in nearly all pre-code comic aspects, it truly contains some of Paul's most panel packin' awesome work. The row o'four in the middle of page 5 for example should be hanging in an art museum, --or deadfinitely in a dungeon somewhere! I hope you all enjoy it, and I hope you all dug this full month of "The Atlas" tales, haha. Lots more on the way, stay tombed...











5 comments:

Mr. Cavin said...

Wow that really was a super good-looking story. Excellent, muscular lines and contrast detail everywhere I looked. Pretty fresh and modern paneling, too. And I'm always delighted when the colorist has really embraced the purples.

It's fun to see how people think movies are made.

Brian Barnes said...

A beautiful piece of work, to be sure. A lot of "fine" art touches here, all the shading work (inking this must have been crazy) -- last panel of page 3 is full of interesting tones and styles. The lab scenes are just as great, and of course the monster panel (and the reveal of the victim) are all well done.

Even with all the horror, it retains that Atlas comical ending, and it's a great fun-but-dark punch.

The last page is laid out very nicely, the producer flips around between the first and fourth panel, and it flips again for the last panel, adding a bit of eye line action.

And let's not forget that splash, with the interesting choices of shading.

BTX said...

I should point out the camera is still intact... it didn't go into to the quicksand.... So Ralph Murdock's final picture may still be a masterpiece....

JMR777 said...

This was the gold standard of horror comic stories- the art, the coloring, the storytelling, the mood, it all just works perfectly.

I wonder if this comic was somehow the inspiration for the film 'Frankenstein 1970', both the comic and the movie share a few similar details.

Grant said...

I don't know how many there are, but I like stories with the twist that the story's being narrated DURING the ending.

Two stories of the kind I mean are ones I know as reprints, "The Hiding Place" (in Vault of Evil # 2) and "Where Monsters Dwell" (in Crypt of Shadows # 1).