Okay now, we've been doing "April Fools" around here since 2007, so at this point in the blahhguh game there's really no point anymore in me, errrr, I mean Mr. Karswell, trying to pull a fast one over you guys! Instead, we'll just take a look at another fun MAD magazine wannabe yarn featuring some silly supernatural spirits (including a funky Frankenstein's Monster, boney 'ol Death, a headless Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Horseman, and a super stoned Casper clone midget), doing their absolute worst at scarin' a buncha haunted house invadin', hip cat college kids and their fast yappin', jump ' n jive nonsense. It's kooks 'n spooks a'plenty, and it's from the Fall 1954 issue of Madhouse #4, with art likely by those krazy be-boppin' Iger Shop kool kats. Ya dig?
5 comments:
I always KNEW Casper was a little crook!
I really have to appreciate these comics for following all the trends at once! It has (1) MAD (2) Horror and (3) Teen comic roots!
I liked "The Wrestler" gag. The repeated gag with the portraits have a component outside was also pretty good.
I love the monsters! That's some create cartoon-ish art. The teens, not so much, but the monsters are awesome.
The cover is great because it shows that MAD influence without the same skill; the cat giving the ghost a hot foot (???) and then the rat biting the cat's tail ... it's charming but more space filling than funny, but that kind of shows why MAD survived and these others didn't.
I'm not embarrassed to say I know the movie GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW well, and this has a lot of the same feeling.
About four times as much trendy slang as that movie, but that's fine with me too.
So this was a fun and reasonably enjoyable Mad-esque romp (I really love that keyhole television--what a fabulous idea!) all the way up to that hammer blow of a finish. How sly to pivot, without much fanfare, to actual horror for the twist ending. This is maybe the bleakest old dark house-style screwball thriller of all time. The final mental image of each teen, desiccated and starved, bleeding from the feet, swaying morosely and then finally dropping dead on the dance floor, only to spring right back up as a freshly minted specter to then keep dancing away over the moldering carcasses of the group, well, that's uncut full-octane nightmare rocket engine gas right there.
Howdy all, The little Casper was a caricature of Peter Lorre. Not really Mad or EC but plop or cracked level of cartooning here for me. Cliched but fun. Thank you Mr. K!
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