Like our previous post, today's fateful story is also from the October 1952 issue of The Hand of Fate #12, and it's nicely illustrated by Chic Stone who always seems to totally crush it here at THOIA. So what do you all think? Could you deliver on what 'ol Fate has offered to this poor, doomed idiot? I've also rounded out the post with a graverobbin' one-pager-- a Sy Grudko "True Tales of the Supernatural" quickie from the July 1954 issue of The Beyond #27. One more post to go for the month of July, and FYI: I plan to correct a rather foolish bit of Atlas oversight on my part... I do hope you can forgive me!
7 comments:
Kids, remember to ask for ππππππ π‘ππππ‘πππ πΆππππ₯ at your favorite local newsstand!
I would not have guessed the first story was done by Chic Stone if you had not mentioned it.
Kim Lampson was just begging for it, hoisting that stone so high up in the air, and not having an assistant, he was lucky he survived childhood and adulthood with such a disregard for safety and common sense. Most likely he was a Darwin Award candidate the day he was born.
The second story could have been stretched out to three pages but works OK as a one pager. The only problem with this tale is who is the narrator? If the grave digger/grave robber and the devil both went down below, who was the witness to these events to relay them to the reader? A wise old owl? A spirit haunting the graveyard? I guess that is one more mystery in the tales of the supernatural.
"satan must have his whimsy,too!" I would think he gets plenty of amusement at the follies of mankind as it is.
While July is almost over, All Hallows will be here soon enough. In fact, right now, Halloween decorations are for sale at my local arts and crafts chain store.
I love Halloween as much as the next follower of THOIA, but holidays lose some of their thrill and mystique when the decorations are available so many months ahead of schedule.
Anyway, these were two more satisfying tales of 50's comics horror to add to the Karswell Kreepy Kollection. Thanks.
The real problem is that Halloween has become so freakin popular that ALL stores (major vs mom n pop) are now competing with one another for sales instead of just a small handful of speciality shops, and everyone’s trying to sell big before October even rolls around, because by the first week of Oct, everybody’s already got all their decorations bought and displayed. This goes for antique malls as well as chain stores, so yeah, it just gets earlier and earlier every year.
The one nitpick I have about The Hand of Fate series is that the narrator never seems to stop talking. Yes, we clearly see that Kim is making a foolish bargain with Death, we don’t need you to gloat about his mistake every single page! You’re not even actively chatting with him! π€£Aside from the overused narration, the story itself is fun. Death agrees with the bargain to make it seem like Kim actually has a choice here. I like the twist that all the victims were already long dead to begin with. My favorite panel is the one of the freaked out driver falling off the ledge.π€£ I also love how the last three panels still show Kim’s legs under his own grave marker like the Wicked Witch of the East under Dorothy’s house.
I always get a kick out of dueling embodiments of forces -- here it's Fate and Death. When Fate first shows up, obviously Kim can't see him; but he stands right next to Death and bosses him around, and Death doesn't even think to mention to Kim that Fate is about to really beat the metaphysic stuffings out of him.
All these spirits coming back -- Death is commanding them but it's Fate that told Death to do it. What a hassle for Death! Fate is like the most micromanaging boss ever!
The hobo looks like Torgo from Manos: Hands of Fate!
I like the one page, but it's more like a straight up horror story then a "true tale" for reasons already mentioned. That said, Pietro is the bravest man around -- this old man suddenly appears and disappears while you are robbing graves, you see him in a grave and you reach right in? Yeah, no!
That makes sense, I didn't consider the goal to squeeze every last cent of a holiday before it even arrived.
I just love the the work on the bottom two-thirds of page six. The art here feels like a rush job compared to Stone's work on other pages--the forms are spare, the blacks sparse, and the shapes mostly devoid of all but the most necessary detail--but the compositions are great, work well together, and the Easter basket of pastel color selections makes for a really beautiful grid.
Strange story, though. Everybody keeps saying they've made some kind of a deal, but really this is about Fate and Death playing what's a lot more like a practical joke on the newbie: "We'll let you liiive if you bring us the left-handed monkey wreench (tee-heee)!" I'm also into the revelation that this punk will do blithe harm to random strangers just to save his own skin. Dude fully intends to murder as many people as possible; he even thinks he's already done it! The fact that this amorality is demonstrated without any actual victims hardly exonerates him. This would have made a great FBI-style sting to fill the devil's jerk quota. But then Kim Lampson's ultimate comeuppance isn't even about morals at all. It's just about "ha ha, you're a dupe."
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