I originally had this story planned for THOIA later this month, and then suddenly thought that maybe it would play better over here at AEET. I actually do think about this type of thing when planning out my monthly posts, just so you all know that not everything Mr. Karswell does is the equivalent to flying by the seat of his bad boy britches. Anyway, this is a rather epic little mystery tale with plenty of cinematic style horror overtones, eerie atmosphere, and some really nice illustrative touches from the ever great, George Evans. Good writing too, even though the plotting is a bit on the familiar side of thangs. Yep, if more romance comics were like this I would absolutely be a bigger fan of the genre, --so see what you think. From the August 1950 issue of Love Mystery #2, a very short-lived attempt from Fawcett to do something a little different.
If this was made into a movie back in the 40's or 50's it would have been a B Plus thriller, a must see for fans of horror drama.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was lifted from a movie and reworked into a comic, I myself am not a film buff so I wouldn't know.
Fifteen pages to tell the tale, thats quite long for a comic story.
Not really, if you look at the Fawcett posts on THOIA, you'll see a majority of their stories typically ran 10+ pages... this was a new attempt at dividing a 30 page comic into two full length tales, --in the same way Marvel would do later with Tales of Suspense or Tales to Astonish for example.
ReplyDeleteThey did more than just make it fifteen pages, though. There's a lot of meat here--a dedication to overheated prose, character building, a sense of complication through sometimes (seemingly?) extraneous detail--that gives the story some unusual gothic heft. Not only was it lengthy, but it felt much bigger than its length to me. And I hope that doesn't sound critical. I like to see creators working to over-deliver. I did chuckle here and there at the narration, but I just consider that added value.
ReplyDeleteThe art is a mixed bag, but often very good and never bad. I would not be surprised if Evans kind of broke it down and lovingly finished the characters and sometimes left the sets and backgrounds for the last minute (or maybe someone else). The people and the portrayal of their emotions is great. I love the character of the worthless son, who looks like Mr. Bean and in retrospect seems to handle the loss of his inheritance rather well. It's tough to be the red herring.
Neat stuff. How's the other full-length picture novelette from this issue?
Margaret has absolutely NO agency in this story. I mean, 0%! She's adopted, she's given money, she's lead hand and foot by big lug Marc, she's fooled by the old skeleton gag and faints when using the phone, she doesn't even deal with the red herring and big lug randomly shows up at the exact same place she escaped to where he slugs the story out of existence.
ReplyDeleteAh, women in romance comics!
Evans turns in some good art here, but its earlier and doesn't quite feel like his heart is in it.
Oh whatev, this is great work by Evans… I don’t even know what you could possibly be referring to with that comment.
ReplyDeleteThe other story in this issue is ok
At least the no good other son turned out to not be the villain. That's a pleasant change.
ReplyDelete