Legendary John Severin was mentioned in the comments of a recent post, which got me thinking that it's been a minute since we saw any of his mastery around here. And paired-up with another master, Boris Vallejo, and one of his all-time hottest cover paintings ever, well, I'd say we have ourselves one helluva way to kick off our macabrely weird weekend! Not only that, but how about a peek at the awesome original Boris painting too! Quite a difference in the two, eh? And say, don't forget the model glue now, cuz you'll be sniffin' up a sad storm of Aurora monster kit kiddo memories before it's all over! This is one truly packed, and utterly perfect post... from the March 1975 issue of Weird Tales of the Macabre #2.
6 comments:
I like this a lot. It works better black and white than it would coloured in the blue always real looking shades of the era. The art is good, the story not great but not bad, and the only real quibble I have is the existence if a "department of the occult". What are good old strange antique shops for?
Evil, nasty relatives taking care of sickly children are a dime a dozen in horror comics but Raymond gets a pretty big prize for being an absolute asshole to his poor lonely nephew. I didn't realize the tarantula was a toy at first. I thought maybe Adam was keeping one as a pet. Then again, if his uncle won't even let him play with monster kits, why would he let him have one of those? Also, the image of the voodoo doll lying disemboweled on the floor was awesome. I love how chill the occult studies professor is. Keeps a dangerous voodoo doll lying around his office and trusts Raymond to borrow it along with the magic words to unleash it! 🤣🤣I love his theory on how Raymond died and assuring the lady sent from the orphanage that the monster kits are perfectly safe for Adam to play with. They definitely are as long as nobody tries to harm him.
If only the models come to life had included the Vampirella one. Raymond could've made a deal with Adam -
"You can have your models, but show me how you bring them to life, and let me borrow that one."
Let's talk about John Severin for a bit. Like most people my age who just read the comics of the day, Severin was one of the great artist at Cracked doing movie and tv parodies. Something I always looked forward to. I knew he did some Marvel work, and all of that was great.
It wasn't until later I discovered his western and war work, the place where he absolutely shined.
And my dark lord was he good at drawing anything. The bottom of page 6 should win every art award imaginable. Every monster is beautifully rendered and looks likes a tv or movie version, and, of course, Dracula gets in there first.
One thing that happens off panel in this story is the voodoo doll getting it. I can't image what that poor thing was thinking "ah, the spell has been cast, now I can kill again.... wait, what are all these other dolls doing here? UH OH!"
Supposedly Severin refused to draw horror at EC on moral reasons. I guess he changed his mind later! That might be a myth, but as far as I can remember and check the checklist, Severin never did a horror story for EC.
Just a few friendly intended replies to my fellow commentators here on THOIA-
To Glowworm, I think one of the earliest tales of a sickly orphan's guardian getting their just desserts is Saki's Sredni Vashtar, though all of us cheer on when the arrogant and mean spirited get what they deserve.
To Grant, the only drawback to introducing a real life Vampirella to Raymond is if she happens to be hungry when they meet. That would turn into a real pain in the neck.
The only unsolved mystery of this tale is as follows- did Adam bring the models to life or did the models have the power to become to life on their own? Was the hobby store secretly selling accursed models to those dabbling in the black arts and these models were sent to Adam in error?
The last twist to this story would be if Dr. Heimer became the new guardian of Adam and they both ended up studying Voodoo and the like. I have a feeling Adam would be a real natural in the studies of forbidden knowledge, especially with Hepzibah as his tutor.
That wordless, soundless panel at the bottom of six really is a stunner. One of several, actually: I also really dig the milk spill at the bottom of three, all the occult artifacts in Heimer's office a page later, and Cobbs mangled bod at the top of page seven.
Speaking a little to Brian's point, I have a lot of trouble disengaging an ingrained expectation of satire when I see Severin's distinct style. I mean, I've been reading the stuff since I was born, basically. That savor of comedy still works well with horror, in a gallows kind of a way, but it always made his serious war stuff hard for me to parse correctly. I'd just spend the whole story expecting the joke.
Oddly, I never had that problem with Jack Davis. I guess because I came to him later? Brains are funky.
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