We're keepin' it green as Friday Frights at AEET reminds you that since it's still spring, it's time to get back to the horrific awfulness that can only be described as ::shudder:: yard work. I can only think of one thing more mind numbing than yard work, and that would be if someone made me go fishing. Please. Just kill me first. So here's a terrifying tale that combines two loathsome themes into one-- why, even 'ol Karswell himself breaks out into a cold sweat just thinking about it! From the February 1952 issue of Marvel Tales #105, with jolting artwork by the late, great, Joe Sinnot... and you Creepshow fans might also find yourselves dipped in shit to discover this classic creeper to be right up yer own overgrown, weed infested alleyways!
I'm with you on fishing, that's right at the bottom of my leisure activities I'd like to do, just a little below tending to my plant-based ex-humans and wondering if a more personal ending ("you've been turned into a plant") is worse than an impersonal one ("the entire world will be covered with this plant.")
ReplyDeleteHow many warnings does a guy get that something horrible is up, BTW?
I love the final plant transformation panels, and plant guy with the ax is a pretty creepy image!
Yeah Friday Frights!
A couple of thoughts on this one-
ReplyDeleteIs the Old Man in this tale a relative of Lovecraft's Terrible Old Man?
Striker's fate is worse than Jordy Verrill's from Creepshow, at least Jordy/King looked like a walking lawn rather than a terror tree.
Great tale of terror, Karswell!
Sorry I missed the intro mentioning Creepshow, Sometimes I just dive into the story and art when you post comics.
ReplyDeleteI like how, after a story full of second-person storytelling, it suddenly switches to first-person right there at the end. It's like Stan(?) couldn't quite bring himself to tell all the Korean War G.I.s reading this that they ("You!") had been eternally shrubbed by some creepy little Igor--so suddenly Willis Striker suddenly becomes somebody else again, warning me ("You!") away from the Catskills at all costs. How kind!
ReplyDeleteLove the art here, of course; and mostly the coloring, too. Especially in the splash. There may be a daylit lack of gothic mood when this story starts, but the witchy subjectivity of the color (out of space, perhaps?) really amps up a feeling of spooky fantasia.
TGIF. Or at least that it was.
Great comments, thanks everyone... also, no one responded to my question about an all Atlas month so I'm just gonna stick with that plan for the rest of May. Stay tombed...
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