Someone actually suggested this as a post a few years ago, and the old me would absolutely not even entertain the thought of having Elvira featured on my blog --I swing forever eternally loyal to Vampira, for obvious reasons! But having little else really that great to offer here at AEET this year around, (I know, it occasionally even happens to the best of us!) --not to mention that I love what Frank Springer has delivered with the art-- I thought I'd go ahead and fill that ancient request, and give said thorny horror ho-hostess a little time to shine here on this horniest of horrorday seasons. It's a fun twist on the Dicken's classic, and as mentioned, the art is really well done, as is the super funny xmas tree horror back-up tale also featured in this same issue (love that appropriately timed political wish-list ending too!) So have yourself some merry lil titillating thrills 'n chills from the March 1987 issue of Elvira's Haunted Holidays Special #1, and be sure to visit THOIA tomorrow on Xmas Eve for an even more appropriate double-shot of Xmas evil...
OK so it's Elvira so I think I can complain about this. The story chickens out. If you are going to do a horror take on A Christmas Carol (which is my favorite piece of literature, something I usually re-read every year) then be bold.
ReplyDeleteHere we see Elvira doing black, evil things but at the end -- like the damn He-Man Christmas special with Skeletor learning to be good -- she still gets the Christmas spirit, in her own way.
Go all in. Be like Black Adder's Christmas Carol which itself chickens out but not in so bad a way. Have her learn to be *more* evil!
Art is great! I love Cain and Abel is carolers, and they get a nice fresh bat at the end. The art really captures Elvira, and there's a lot of nice architecture and characters in this. It's great work.
The Gulacy pin-up is something I see on Tumblr once a month. The inking is really lite, it's cool art but somewhat strange, but works great as a pin-up.
Yeah, I hope there's a killer tree, too, and I swear we saw another story like this on this blog :)
I have been trying to decide what to post, so here is what I came up with-
ReplyDeleteI wasn't into Elvira as a host in the horror comics, since by the time she was published in DC I had lost interest in buying comics. Interests change over time, or are sometimes set aside until later.
This version of Dicken's Christmas Carol was OK, but there isn't much you can do with his well worn tale by now, though THOIA's post "The Third Ghost" was an Atlas Bah-humbug take on the tale.
Elvira checking out Monster Chiller Horror Theatre to avoid Christmas was going to be a bad idea, since Count Floyd would most likely be stuck showing Santa Claus Conquers the Martians instead of Blood Sucking Monkeys From West Mifflin PA. Zacherly as Santa was a neat twist on Christmas 'spirit'.
For 'O Christmas Tree' whoever is in DC on capital hill or the white house or the supreme court, they deserve a 'killer' tree, no matter their politics.
Happy Horrordays all.
I really liked the art on both of these. The first story was full of neat little details: I love the Zacherly TV Guide cover, the crowd scenes in NY City, and the way Elvira kicks her shoes off in the first panel is spends the rest of the story barefoot. Maybe the story can't quite figure out what it's trying to say, but I thought some of the jokes were really smart, and that it handled the sober tone shift to Christmas Future quite well.
ReplyDeleteThe cartooning in story two is dynamite. Very loose and energetic. I really love the character design on the woman, especially. And the classic gross-out comedy shtick of making the subjects more and more grotesque the closer the POV gets to them.
Pretty good for the eighties.