Hard to believe we haven't seen a Cal Massey story around here in half a decade, so let's fix that grave error with a grave error terror entry from the December 1952 issue of Uncanny Tales #4! Cough! Cough! Don't open that coffin! (Classic over art by super Sol Brodsky.)
I thought he was going to drop dead of a heart attack hacking his way to the diamonds.
ReplyDeleteI really like this one. It's silly, for sure, the amount of coincidences that pile up to make this work are super lengthy but it also has that kind of black humor that a lot of Atlas stories have, and everything that happens is worth it.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes it even better is the amount of work poor ol' Blackie has to put in. He even brought a torch! And there's a clever bit of setup as Blackie mentions he doesn't "follow the news."
BTW I swear they use the name "Blackie" a lot for thieves.
I also like the coloring. It's bright, the yellows really stick out, but I think it works really well for this kind of tale, though I'm not sold on the last panel that might be a bit to garnish but it sells the ending.
Absolutely gorgeous facial expression work from Massey.
And, of course, title before the story for the cover artist who gives us a completely different take!
That closeup of Blackie's eager face on the last panel of page two when he hears about the rich widow about to be buried is fantastic. This one's got a doozy of an ending to it. I love Blackie's remark about how the girl in question looks more like an ancient mummy. The things some people will go to for wealth. Love that he just so happened to have a little torch on him!
ReplyDeleteThank you Karswell. This one was an outstanding production. The unforeseen ending, the fantastic use of colors, the terrific penciling/inking. Wonderful work!
ReplyDeleteA really good one. And an important reminder that ignorance of reality can be really harmful.
ReplyDeleteOne of the stock characters in grave robbing stories is the graveyard caretaker. And it seems like that character is always either getting killed or he's armed and DOING the killing. But either way, he's there. So it's funny that a story with about the noisiest grave robbing in the world, that character is nowhere to be seen!
ReplyDeleteBut, it's original too.
So… since Blackie opened up a sealed grave that carried an unknown highly contagious disease… and it’s a VERY windy day … he just unleashed an apocalyptic pandemic on the world….
ReplyDelete> he just unleashed an apocalyptic pandemic on the world
ReplyDeleteThe real horror started after that though, when science arrived with a remedy to stop the spread of the disease— but the ignorant half of civilization wouldn’t get the vaccine or wear a mask and so even more people died needlessly.
Worse than that, Doctor Franken-Kennedy Jr. is in charge of public health.
DeleteA fifties horror comic witchdoctor has a better grasp of healing the sick than the current head of The HHS.
As for the story, it of course could have gone in so many different directions-
-Emma could have been a vampire, but the family chose to entomb her so she couldn't seek any victims. That was the origin of Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows.
-Anyone who opened her grave would lose their life essence restoring Emma to life while leaving Blackie to take Emma's place in the tomb.
-The tomb contained a deadly gas which would be released by any tomb robber.
One thing Grant touched on, the graveyard caretaker, suppose the story had Blackie as the graveyard caretaker by day and grave robber by night? Talk about double dipping!
All in all this was a fearful for pager, thanks for digging this one up for us.
Now that's what I call a cursed tomb! The bit where the pretty young heiress is revealed to have been reduced to a wizened twist of saddle leather by the ravages of her disease was a pretty clever but of narrative that might have made a neat little "aha" moment if it had been shown and not told. But that sort of thing is easier in a but roomier story, and this plays pretty well as is, too.
ReplyDeleteThat splash is a doozy. Love the composition of the art, the scratchy lines, the desiccated remains. And that unsubtle lighting, too, of course. Man, if the heiress' plague didn't get this guy, that radioactive skeleton sure woulda.