We're still reeling from the Witches' Night aftershocks here at THOIA, and oh my, what a wonderfully wicked evening we had! Wine, women, dance, and song... witch reminds me, (I believe her name was Gillian) of one particularly popular concerto piece heard playing over and over throughout the late night party festivities. It really sent our lovin' coven into a wild frenzy! It was so popular amongst our Circle of 13, in fact, that there's even a magical story all about it, via the September 1953 issue of Beware #5. So go on, CRANK IT!
The plot to this tale is similar to the Mexihorror "The Man and the Monster/El hombre y el monstruo" from 1959. A certain tune turns a man into a monster, though in the movie the monster looks more cartoonish than menacing.
ReplyDeleteI know that one. I imagine that PLENTY of horror comic stories look like those films.
ReplyDeleteThose two funerals at the beginning and end remind me of that joke by Monty Python and others about "decomposing composers."
I love tales where the devil wins.
ReplyDeletesame
ReplyDeleteFinally, a devil that does away with the hot pants. You're the prince of evil, and obviously work out, I say let it blow in the dismal breeze of the otherworld!
ReplyDeleteSo these tales -- that are all about a normal guy going bonkers under the influence of evil -- put a lot of weight on the art. You really need to see a guy go from 0 to 100 for this to work. Rano is kind of already at 20-30, but the art really sells it.
Multiple swirling madness panels. Rano becoming a bit like a werewolf, and the attack on page 4 is great. The flying hair, the twisted pose, all great.
BTW the devil doesn't just win, he wins completely and utterly. 3 innocents are dead, a man is condemned and the cycle begins again. I love the laser eyes at the end!
Extra props to the letter. Another thing that really helps sell the madness.
Gillian would absolutely approve of this mischief
ReplyDeleteIt’s definitely been awhile since I’ve watched Man and the Monster. But “Bell, Book, and Candle” —that is another story! ;)
ReplyDeleteAw, Gerald Altman is always a welcome sight for me. It's fun to shuck all the aggravating sophistication we see in other people's work and get back to the basic, undiluted sui generis of this guy's nervy weirdness. Page two is amazing. It starts with an isometric interior (while ducking whatever challenges real three-point perspective might entail, Altman neatly conjures the then-futuristic look of many nineties video games) and ends with my favorite bug-eyed terror panel of the year (so far), where Walter's scream literally juts out the man's horrified maw. Not for nothing, sophisticated illustrators would have had Walter looking the other way there.
ReplyDeleteThe next page has that insane choking panel--with its own cursed medieval perspective (and rather shunga-looking action playing out under a couple of gamboling imps)--before getting around to my absolute favorites: A galactic spiral of whirling evil chuckles followed by an actual (accidental?) golden ratio spiral of honest-to-god painterly composition. It would probably seem out of place here if the rest of this stuff weren't already so mercurial.
Last favorite: I dearly love the second panel on page four, in which a rigid, woodcut-style city is mixed with Edvard Munch-style anxiety in a way that really evokes what it is to be oppressed by city life and also evil piano music.
Honorable mention: Mr. Barnes brought up the letterer, and I agree. This story was handled with verve throughout (see, for example, that starburst ARGHHH, also on page four), and does a yeoman's job of tricky perspective narration in the splash. So bravo!
Nice batch of comments this time around, and def yes, a closer examination of Altman is probably gonna happen here soonish (who could ever forget classics like Garcon, or the one about the stolen legs! Go now, check the THOIA Archive!)
ReplyDeleteThere's even more to Beware up next, stay tombed! ::shiver::