Here's another good terror tale from one of the early issues of Suspense, a rather lengthy, but still exceptionally well scripted, shivery, shrunken head horror adventure that's sure to leave you shrieking and shrinking in your skin with eerie exhaustion! And after you've finished this Atlas classic, via the May 1950 issue of Suspense #3, head off / on over to AEET HERE and get a load of another lost head that is now in the possession of macabre Mr. Karswell (WARNING: It is highly recommended that you wait an hour until after you've eaten!)
4 comments:
9 pages, and not one of them wasted. Usually I'm a little wary about pre-codes of this length, but it spends its time well stacking the deck. I lost count of how many guides he harassed and I have to say Napo is a much stronger individual then I, after all of that *still* trying to warn him away from the cave!
As far as I remember, the actual "recipe" for shrinking heads is close to the way they really did it, which is a nice bonus.
There's some disagreement on the pencils but it's great regardless, the whole head shrinking page is awesome. And, of course, "Mr. Lee!"
Apart from the arrogant main character, so much of the narration looks like it must be taken from some actual anthropology book (even if there's no such thing as a slimy snake).
Along with "Mr. Lee," is "Kirk Hudson" a movie actor joke?
Love the character work on this one. Feels like it fits in somewhere between Eisner and Toth, just really expressive and loose, with all those snaking cheekbone lines and sassy eyebrows. I'd love to read a Spirit-like series with this creepy, cocky anthropologist. There are lots of exotic adventure-type stories he could tell, redemonstrating each problematic narrative as extinct in this thankfully progressive age by his own flamboyant death at the end of every one. I'd love that.
It's difficult to overlook the heavy-handed clues in the splash, though. But I sure tried!
People like to think that entertainment never punished "entitled" white people in stories until halfway recently, especially ones who travel to other countries. This story is a huge exception to that.
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