THOIA is officially at war with the vampires, and here swoops yet another black-winged, blood suckin' undead babe, complete with her creepy castle full of flesh-hungry, ghastly ghouls! Our American troops already had their hands full during Weird War 2-- now this! From the Nov. '52 issue of Web of Mystery #15, and while it is of course always great to archive yet another Lin Streeter screamer around these parts, just wait until you see the next couple of bat shit crazy WW2 vampire tales on deck! Beware-- they're coming!
9 comments:
The ending is a bit unsatisfying on this one. I know a stock ending is the last survivor is found wandering alone with a "crazy story" but Andy was the only guy in this to not only keep his wits but single handedly destroy and entire castle of ghouls and vampires! He should have got the "going back to the base but I'll keep this a secret as nobody will believe me" ending!
Somebody did poor old Andy a great wrong!
Another fun one. The art is big and bold; it lacks detail but makes up for it in an almost colorform 3D way, the big heavy outlines really make the figures pop and frames the action well. It's a really cool job for a he-man action adventure.
I know a subtext of all these stories is "if you see a hot lady and think about sex then you will die" as if this is some kind of 50s VD scare film, but boy at these army guys absolute dopes. She's wearing the same clothes (though they strangely turn from dress to pants??) as when she attached them as a vampire and literally the only change is she just got a little more bat like (which is a cool image.). Same hair, same build, same rocking vampire body come on guys! They would have been fooled if she was followed around by a giant neon sign that said "vampire" with an arrow pointed at her!
I do have to call out one thing, though, the art did not announce the spear. If they would have drawn it being held by a suit of armor in the room that would have been better, It comes off as a bit unfair.
>the art did not announce the spear
The spear is literally leaning against the wall behind the coffin in the first panel on the same page.
Its not often we see a vampire get knocked out with a punch.
This comic reminds me of a Euro-horror movie or two I have seen in the past, where unexpected guests arrive in a town or castle and don't realize they will soon be invited to dinner- as the main course, of course.
Interesting detail- Schlagholz is a specialized woodworking and flooring tool used to tap laminate, parquet, or click-vinyl planks tightly together without damaging their edges. It seems the writer consulted a dictionary for a word that began with schl to give the castle a name, while schloss means a castle, palace, or stately home, or a physical lock.
Even though it's all right with me, I kind of agree with Brian Barnes about the ending.
It could've had a "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" sort of ending, where some shred of evidence is waiting to be discovered.
Alright, I certainly missed that, but that's another problem. I thought that was some kind of umbrella and it's the same color as all the other junk in the corner. That said, I have to withdraw my previous grievance! :)
REQUEST DENIED
That is interesting— and kind of funny too haha
Just be extra careful when you agree with Brian —he’s known to withdraw his previous commentary grievances
Just excellent Lin Streeter art. That splash with its devilish red vamp is a gem, and for once I really wish I could have it clean, without the dialog balloons. I also love all the panels on page two. Such bold and brutal figure work, with Streeter's patented long thin stripes of environmental detail. It really makes me want to see what he would have done with a golden age Batwoman strip.
I like the symbiotic relationship between vampires and their ghoul henchmen being spelled out here. Feels like a partnership that would be more effective then it's been presented in this story. What with all the army guys these monsters have been eating, I would have expected them to outgun a single marine for one thing. I also wish this comic hadn't backed off from the expected showdown between slayer Andy and the vampire Harley. But I can imagine having uniformed US military men staking and biting one another for one thin dime was asking a little too much back then.
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