The Charlton creeps are eruptin' from the deep today at THOIA, with a nice 'n icky drippy pair-up via the June 1975 issue of Ghostly Tales #106, as well as one from the November 1982 issue of Scary Tales #35 --and both illustrated by the terrifyingly terrific, Tom Sutton too! Things from the murky, lurky depths hold a special place in my heart-- maybe these slimy thingies will hold you in a special place-- in their stomaches! (2nd tale scans courtesy of Holden, thank you!)
7 comments:
I had seen the first story before, but not the cover from 1966. The squid on the cover is truly a Lovecraftian beastie.
In the second story, the Cthulu Frog looks kind of cute, in the way cartoonists soften the look of Frankenstein and Dracula, and make them more palatable to the youngsters.
Portraying the nightmarish creatures envisioned by H P Lovecraft is difficult, since each Lovecraft fan has their own idea of what the cosmic horrors look like. Sutton's interpretation of offspring of The Old Ones comes close to the spirit, if not the likeness, of mind-shattering horror of the outer regions.
So evidently the 2nd tale is a reprint and they are from the same time period but Sutton's art seems different between the two. First tale seems a bit cleaner (less lines) and the second one seems more complex. It's super interesting. Was Sutton changing style for the type of tales? It makes sense, the first one was real world, the second one was more of a tv type hillbillies.
Both are listed as also being inked by Sutton.
First story is a very Steven King-ish story, except the ending is a pretty big letdown. The number of horror stories where somebody gets killed on a fishing or hunting trip is in the high digits, in a world where this happens I think those are two sports to avoid!
The story in the second one is a little cliche but works a lot better. It really works well because you get invested in the kids who are believable, and I like the huge slimes, slogs, and glumps!
BTW the tentacle-y mouths (last page on second story) always work in comics but not as well in movies, i.e., Horror of Party Beach!
I know I'm always finding some movie or show as a comparison, but "Those Tentacles" feels like Bert I. Gordon's TORMENTED. Except that Hal letting Jake get killed it completely deliberate.
Also, you would expect to Edie to be in some kind of danger after what Hal learns about her, but the story just drops her instead. Maybe that could be called careless, but to me it's kind of original.
Probably a lot of crime stories have a psychiatrist or psychologist in the same fix as a priest when it comes to hearing a confession, but it's interesting to see it in this story -
"What you should see is a lawyer. Well, good night Hal."
The first story is an interesting mode for Sutton, by which I mean that he hasn't really engaged his usual moldy, foggy, molten horror, instead favoring just sort of telling the story straight out. I feel like the first couple of pages are pretty bland--especially the splash, which, beyond mistaking the ocean for swampland, is rife with loose, slapdash shapes inexplicably rattling around in the space of a full page. But he really seems to kick in on page five, and the rest of the story is aces, with sharp panel-to-panel storytelling and enough illustrative verve to convey the shifting mood. I think the last half is excellent work. I especially like the wavy tree shadow panels on the last page, the anxious psy-fi at the bottom of seven, and all the really claustrophobic stuff in the house on five and six.
Story two felt more comfortably within Sutton's norm, but with... ah... more disciplined paneling that sometimes. I think the character work is marvelous; both of the kids feel like real people. Mom too; though dad is a sorta standard horror comic caricature and it stands out in light of all the care put into the others. But really it's the creatures here that take a backseat to the people, and maybe that's a missed opportunity? Or maybe a little bit is enough to get the motor running on reader imagination? Either way, the coloring on this story is just great.
Obviously a few time, like Panel 5 of Page 5, "Mom" is awfully hot.
Especially for a story where that isn't any kind of plot point.
While looking at the first story again, it reminded me of the episode "Jar" from the TV anthology Monsters. That episode featured a squid like horror that would devour anyone who opened the jar it was kept in.
It seems Lovecraft's obsession with tentacled creatures still resonates decades later.
In a small way, that story is what I was thinking of.
I don't think I know the MONSTERS version or who played the part, but there's an ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR version of "The Jar," with the actress Collin Wilcox as a very attractive "hillbilly" girl.
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