It's hunting season, and THOIA just bagged a meaty little Atlas entree for ya, packed with savoy Carl Hubbell art, and simply overflowing with exquisite smokey flavor. Better take a Zantac first, cuz this one will definitely leave ya's burning! From the macabre March 1953 issue of Marvel Tales #112.
6 comments:
The shading to this one is fun, such as the opening panel where Jeff is shadowed in blue to focus us on him being shot.I also love the yellow surrounding Milton as he burns the body in the third panel on the first page. Also love panel 5 of page 2 surrounding Milton in white as he lights a fire in his lodge. The last panel of page 3 where he's freaking out while shaded in yellow light while the rest of the background is blue is perfect.I also love the second to last panel where he looks so damn calm while in hell. He really forgot that Hell was meant to be his eternal torment, didn't he?
HA! There's a lot of these "killer gets what is coming to him" stories but this one made me laugh. The setup is excellent and the ending isn't predictable but clever.
The art really makes this one -- because there's so much dark areas with fire (to make the smoke) there's a lot of chances for dark shadows, and Hubbell uses them to great effect. Even the opening splash, before the fire, is bathed in shadows.
The angry smoke face is absolutely sinister, and I love the twist where there is a killer that is happy to go to the chair (well, until, then oops!)
I love the bright red giant lettering "I'm waiting for you." It really makes it sound like it's incredible loud.
I also really like the color scheme here. My own favorite thing about this art is the way in which the foregrounds tend to mirror the sensuous curvature of the background elements--curly trees and wavy fire, wispy fog. Take the last panel on page one, for example. I dig the way Burt's coat mimics the shape of the fire; I like the way the trees back there open up a little space for his gas can. Hubbell likes to fit elements into those negative spaces decoratively, and I think it really works. The second and third panels on page three are excellent examples of this.
Except for the killer and victim, almost everyone in this story is frowning or mean looking. Only the officer lighting his pipe has a faint grin on his face, but that changes into a frown when the smoke spirit shows up. Maybe the artist was denied a vacation or pay raise and made the rest of the characters as grumpy as he was.
Great find as always Karswell, thanks!
There are more well-cooked Carl Hubbelll tales in the THOIA Archive, check 'em out if you weren't around the first time they were unleashed. I'm glad every one dug this one... we're on yet another hunting expedition in our next post for Werewolf Wednesday. Stay tombed...
I reread The Old Hag and The Horrible Hog.
I liked those tales in the past but seeing all three tales together raises my estimation of his art.
His work is so visually thought out you could not even know english and pretty well get everything about tales.
Even for this one with "I'm waiting for you!" you don't even have to understand what's being said because his art plainly shows us it's something menacing.
This is a visual medium but this level of visual storytelling is kind of rare.
Great stuff. He's also one of the artists where their work would look just as good or even better in black and white.
I look forward to seeing more of his work.
Post a Comment