Everyone following this blog (as well as THOIA) knows that Mr. Karswell is a collector of some highly unusual, very creepy things! But ooh boy, he's got nothing on the collection in this shiver inducing story from the December 1953 issue of Marvel Tales #119! Oh yeah, and happy Friday Frights, everyone-- need I even mention the attractive art by John Forte?!
8 comments:
Oh dear
That's a cute one.
Last page has some great expressions on it, panel 2 Zorna's expression is "jackpot" and then two panels later it's "so that's what the other side is like!"
I love the tight panels with the dog/truck/cat etc that are repeated twice in the story (that's a nice callback) and I love page 3, that's a great sequence and the page ends with one of the silliest panels -- she's leaving actually recognizable graves in her basement (!!!) but I guess that's OK when your house is full of demon sculptures.
Forte can't help but give us the butt shot on page 2!
This one has a lot of fun playing with that punchline. I laugh that Zorna has such a large cellar to bury all her fiances in. Also, how have the cops not questioned all these missing men at this point is beyond me. I like the shot of Zorna's posterior on page two, panel 7 as she buries George. Also, Dodsworth is such an odd and random name for a man.
Two comments about the bent-over shot, so in the immortal words of David Lee Roth, “I like the way the line runs up the back of the stockings…”
Chief: What do you have on the case so far?
Jenkins: Not much, Chief. A string of missing men last seen with Zorna Goldig. When
we searched her residence, all we found were a cavernous basement filled with
earthen mounds and a diamond ring collection owned by a woman with no visible
means of support.
Chief: Damnit, Jenkins! I want results, you hear?! Results!
I don't think I've ever seen (or noticed) Atlas splitting up their four-panel narrative trick like this before. The top of page two plays normally, but the callback on page five runs to two lines. I feel like that's not how it was regionally written to be, but I can't figure out how it might be changes, either.
Actually, this story is chock full of four-panel tricks: It starts with one; and page three has two in a row, making a kind of "set 'em up and knock 'em down" call-and-response cadence that is really swell. This is a very formal story.
I love that picture on the wall in the splash. Whatta room! I love it when comics artists draw fine art into their mise en scène.
Now that Brian Barnes has mentioned the demonic artwork in Zorna's home, I really really like that lamp on the first page in the splash panel.
We might keep it Atlas for the next few Friday Frights, unless anyone has objections... thanks for all the great comments too!
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