Some wild posts this month so far, eh? Why just this past week we've seen spiders, rosy shades, and now we're taking a bloody boat ride?! It must be summer finally-- but how exactly do vampires fit into this season, you ask? As surely as their teeth will fit into your lovely, pulsating necks, I assure you they do! And macabre Marty Elkins will now show you exactly how, just don't forget the Dracumine-- errr, I mean the Dramamine! From the July 1954 issue of Horrific #12.
5 comments:
People always see gay meanings in a vampire story with a male vampire and a male victim (or a female vampire and a female victim), and sometimes that's a lot of just plain "reaching."
But I don't think this is one of those times.
I really don't see the logic of why he couldn't expose the vampire the moment they were picked up. And isn't his wife a vampire now, too?
This is a .... weird one. I get where Grant is coming from and it's a possible explanation but it also seems more like a strange origin story for a horror host? The plot is so absolutely straight (ha) forward ... there's no twist, nobody actually dies as far as I can tell, and it ends on, what? A happy ending?
By the way, this is another tale that says it's ok to kill drug addicts and "hobos." Ah, the 50s!
This would make a good coming out parable but at the same time it kind of reinforces what it's trying to convey; especially as our hero is ... a killer? Again, this is not make exactly clear. And then he embarks on this *because* he loves his wife so much which ... honestly, this one is just kind of a jumble.
I like art, it's realistic and cartoony at the same time, and there's some really good boat drawings in this (as if there was reference.)
This was, an odd one to say the least. The normal vampire lore was ignored in this one, no requirement for a coffin and sunlight didn't affect the drowning vampire at all. What's more, the rescued vampire and John/Victor could control their thirst for blood, something rarely seen in horror tales.
All in all, this was a unique portrayal of vampires in the realm of horror comics.
The idea that Lance would use John's shame about his nocturnal vampire action to keep him from tipping the seamen definitely strikes me as mature psychological storytelling--and makes it hard to argue against the vampirism being anything but an allegory here. Even the ramifications of contracting the bug from this paranormal activity is presented as some kind of social disease. There can't really any suspicion why Jane's exempt from the monstrous effects--Ultimately John Doe just doesn't want to eat her. Screw around with vampires and you'll have no more need for your wife; you'll be hunting up action in dive bar bathroom stalls and the like.
That's pretty excellent. If there's much in the way of fifties stigma filtering through here, it's that all the boys at the monster bar there at the end are kind of fops. But I do like the man's prissy little Porco Rosso moustaches for sure.
Man, the Don Heck cover on this issue is unlike anything I remember seeing from the man before.
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