And now for something completely different! Yes, it's time to adjust those peepers of yours for a 3-D horror story-- but with the annoying 3-D effect removed! Heck, we lost the goggles for this issue anyway, so whatevz! From St. John's House of Terror #1 (October 1953, debut one-shot), this is some seriously excellent examples of joltin' Joe Kubert's awesome artwork (cover and story), plus inks by Les Zakarin. And FYI: I posted a colorized / updated variation of Kubert's cursed ghost story from this issue way back --over 15 years ago-- in December of 2008 HERE! --just for those of you who haven't been hangin' around here like a picture of evil for very long!
7 comments:
The 3 D glasses effect made me think of Count Floyd's Monster Chiller Horror Theatre and the 3 D flicks he advertised (like 3D house of Pancakes!)
RIP Joe Flaherty, you were one of the best horror hosts, fictional or not.
The story itself checks all of the key horror tropes- nagging wife, pact with the devil, doomed fate, and the trap is reset for the next unlucky customer.
The story itself didn't need the 3D treatment, but since it was the fad of the era the publishers went with what would sell more magazines.
Its great to see the art without the 3D imagery, especially since I lost my 3D glasses I bought from Count Floyd!
Ah, the Henpecked Husband Horror genre. I always wonder why those men married those women in the first place. Were they pretty, friendly, and meek to begin with but for some inexplicable reason turned swollen with bitter hatred (and fat) over the years, or were the hubbies deaf, dumb, and blind?
I wonder how many of your readers have 3d glasses? I'm pretty sure I have some ... somewhere. Maybe if I summon Satan he can tell me where they are? No, that seems like a bad bargain!
I wouldn't mind a 3D scan here or there, it would be interesting to see how well the effect works.
I love the absolutely out of nowhere sexy dancing girl on the last page. I guess Satan just has one at the ready at all times.
I'd be interested to see at least the 3D effect on the first page if you want to add it to the story. Then I'll have to find those damn glasses, first!
I sometimes think it was part of the mass "get back into the kitchen, ladies!" push that happened post-WWII.
I remember this particular comic book from my childhood in the early 1950s, and its 3-D images were disappointing. NONE of its pictures showed objects projected outward from page level; the 3-D effect showed only recession into the image background.
The only 1950s 3-D comics displaying dramatic "in your face" images were those published by the Harvey Comics Group.
Well, it's more because of movies than comics, but I have a couple of anaglyph 3D glasses right here in my desk drawer for just such an occasion as something springing up online. Course, they are red/blue style RGB glasses, so they aren't perfect for magenta/cyan CMYK comic books, though the process of scanning and presenting printed pages on my computer screen mitigates some of the mismatch. So 3D images posted online typically work out as well as they ever did, or nearly.
The art here strikes me as way too cluttered to have ever resolved well in anaglyph 3D, though, even under the best possible conditions. It doesn't seem all that likely this art was produced with the effect in mind. Many--most?--of the panels here are drawn in vertical frames, sometimes with isolated foregrounds and sometimes surrounded by surreal background elements, all patterned with linear detail like hatching and clothing folds. All of these are poor choices for conversion into stereoscopic line art. So I figure the gimmick was pulled after the fact, and Kubert was as surprised as anybody.
I'd love to see an example of the original printing, but I'm glad we got to see it this way first.
I may post another story from this issue in the coming months, and if / when I do, I'll leave it in 3D... the pages are very yellow and faded though, and this may interfere with the overall 3D effect.
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