Featuring special guest host, John Scoleri! |
The EC Reign Month by Month 1950-1956
16: November, 1951
Wood |
"Drawn and Quartered!" ★★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Davis
"The Borrowed Body!" ★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Howard Larsen
"Indian Burial Mound" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by George Roussos
"Political Pull!" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Graham Ingels
Sweating out the last of his savings and sanity in the humid sprawl of Port-au-Prince, American artist Max Moor curses the futility of his craft. Back in the States, his work was deemed unremarkable by critic Fenton Breedly, unsellable by dealer Arthur Green, and unworthy of any price over a pittance by collector Lawrence Diltant. Thus Moor is taken for quite the surprise when he runs into an old pal from home at a seedy bar who reports that Max’s paintings are selling for beaucoup bucks in the U. S., none of which Max will be seeing anytime soon. Desperate for revenge, the artist invades a voodoo ceremony and buys his way into a consultation with the witch doctor. The old magic man has Moor dip the hand he paints with into a pot whose steaming potion incredibly leaves him unscathed. Moor doesn’t see the full effects of his purchase until he tears a picture of a vase he idly sketched to pieces only for the real-life subject to shatter on the ground. It soon occurs to him that his painting hand is now infused with black magic, anything or anyone he renders upon the canvas or page fit for his punishment. This applies to Max’s recently completed self-portrait and so, hustling back to America, the artist makes short work of stowing the picture away in a safe and then cutting, scraping, and ripping the portraits of his betrayers. Hands are lopped off, eyes burned out with acid; even Max’s old landlord gets the legs he kicked his tenant out with swept out from under him when a truck runs over his lower torso. Having moved his self-portrait from the suffocating safe to a windowed closet, Max makes his way to Diltant to see that he gets properly remunerated personally. Just then, a sign-painter knocks over a can of turpentine that goes crashing through the skylight in Max’s closet, rendering the self-portrait a ghastly, gory mess. Meanwhile, Max has just slipped from a subway platform…
Rest in masterpiece. ("Drawn and Quartered!") |
With “Drawn and Quartered!” we see Jack Davis confidently taking stride in the horror mode. His opening splash displays the ghoulish gallery of monsters that would routinely show up in his lead stories for Tales from the Crypt, a kind of Saturday morning cartoon cavalcade from Hell. Feldstein subtly inverts a time-honored formula, voodoo revenge, and creates something that, if not wholly original, is still mightily entertaining, as he had previously done with “The Gorilla’s Paw” (HoF #9). The final shot is certainly enough to give Dorian Gray’s picture a run for its money, a great, goopy mummy that cleverly sidesteps the restrictions of depicting the violent scene in flesh and blood.
"The Borrowed Body!" |
“Indian Burial Mound” has a slightly better story but artwork that will thrill precisely no one. A young buck entrepreneur buys up the plentiful land of an old farmer with an eye toward converting the property into an airport and flying school. The only thing that stands in his way is a mighty mound that the farmer says was used by the Native Americans of old to store their dead and is now cursed to strike back at anyone who dares defile it. The young buck responds with “Phooey!”, tries to bulldoze the mound, fails, finds a skull, and is later called on by an unseen visitor that night who takes off with his scalp. Roussos has good days and bad days--sometimes in the same story--and all that “Indian Burial Mound” can muster at the end of the day is a shrug.
"Political Pull" |
Tom Baker in The Vault of Horror (1973). |
I knew him, Horatio. ("Indian Burial Mound") |
Jack: I was pleasantly surprised by Howard Larsen's art in "The Borrowed Body!" It's not New Trend, by any means, but it's very good, nonetheless, and would stand up to some of the better quality Golden Age art any day. Roussos's dull art sinks "Indian Burial Mound," which plods along to a disappointing payoff. Ghastly gives it his all in "Political Pull!" but it remains a routine story of revenge with yet another disappointing finish--the best parts are the splash page and the last panel, both of which feature the Old Witch. Feldstein and Davis keep the issue from being a complete letdown with "Drawn and Quartered!" and it's interesting that the damage to the victims of voodoo requires an active cause rather than just appearing out of nowhere. The last panel is the best thing in the issue, showing us the horribly disfigured painting and allowing us to use our imagination as to what the real man looks like.
John: “Drawn and Quartered!” is another example of a tale that, while predictable at a high level, manages to inject some original twists and turns along the way. I'll admit that for a minute I was expecting the can of turpentine to crush our poor artist's head directly. Taking a page out of the EC Infidelity playbook, “The Borrowed Body!” reminds us that the only way out of an unhappy marriage is murder. Why Al decided to cross that with the good old body switch story is beyond me. It made a mess of things that even Howard Larsen's nice art can't make up for. And while I don't mind when the writers start off with a basic horror story concept, it would be nice if they at least tried to do something original with it. "Political Pull!" is another by-the-numbers tale that tries (and fails) to save itself in the last two panels. If you're handing Ghastly the pencil, let him be Ghastly, fer chrissakes!
That hand is all you get. ("Political Pull") |
Craig |
"Hatchet Killer!" ★★★★
Story and Art by Johnny Craig
"Revenge!" ★★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"Phonies" ★★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Davis
"Horror Under the Big-Top!" ★★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Graham Ingels
There's a "Hatchet-Killer!" on the loose but Tom North has to go off to work for the day, leaving his frightened wife alone with the burly housekeeper, Hilda. The rain is pouring outside so the two women are stuck inside together, and newspaper headlines, TV news reports and radio broadcasts increase the tension, especially after Mrs. North learns that her friend was the killer's latest victim. As the day wears on, Mrs. North begins to suspect that Hilda is the killer, and when Hilda approaches with a hatchet to cut some firewood, Mrs. North snaps and stabs the maid to death. Mr. North arrives home from work with good news--the killer has been caught! It's too late for Hilda, though, and for Mrs. North, who realizes that she has killed an innocent woman.
Look at how perfectly Craig sets up the story. ("Hatchet Killer") |
Lila is a gorgeous gold-digger who meets a rich man named Willie on a cruise and marries him for his money. Life as his Texas trophy wife is fine until she meets a young hunk named Phil. An affair ensues and before you can say "James M. Cain," the couple are plotting hubby's murder. All does not go as planned, however, and Willie ends up paralyzed in a wheelchair, staring accusingly at Lila but unable to say a word. Phil is not thrilled at remaining her boy toy and one day he gives vent to his feelings in front of Willie. Drunk, Phil falls and hits his head on the fireplace hearth. Willie can't tell the truth and, when the servants testify about what they heard, Lila is locked up for murdering Phil.
Look at how Kamen makes us not care about the story. ("Revenge") |
Safecracker Frank Shantly reads in the paper that wealthy gambler Ed Adellis will be out of town, so that night he heads to the man's house to find some loot. Adellis sits waiting in the dark with a gun and, when Shantly boasts that he can open any safe in three minutes, Adellis offers him $1000 and his freedom if he succeeds. Shantly does the trick and walks off with his cash, but it turns out Adellis was really another crook named Leech Baker, who beat Shantly to the scene and now can walk off with all of the money from the safe. Too bad the bills are all "Phonies," as Treasury Department agents tell the high-living Baker not long after the robbery.
It it wasn't signed by Jack Davis, we'd have our doubts! ("Phonies") |
You know there's going to be "Horror Under the Big-Top!" when Carlo the human cannonball suspects his pretty wife Wanda of fooling around with Aldar, king of the flying trapeze. Of course, Carlo is right and Wanda and Aldar rig up the cannon to send Carlo flying to his death the next day. In front of all of the happy families at the circus, Carlo flies right through the roof of the tent and is killed, but he lands on Wanda and she dies too. Moments later, Aldar falls to his death from the flying trapeze, which Carlo had rigged to have a fatal accident.
It's too bad that Ingels did such beautiful work on this by the numbers revenge story. We even get a panel where he demonstrates that he can draw some fine female leg, and the circus setting is a sure winner, but the story is a big disappointment.--Jack
"Horror Under the Big-Top!" |
Jose: Sometimes working back from a story’s ending can reveal its initial genesis. Looking at the conclusion of “Horror Under the Big Top!” you can practically hear Al Feldstein’s jubilant pitch emanating from behind the door to Bill Gaines’s office. “So there’s this gal at the circus stepping out with the trapeze artist, see, and her husband performs as a human cannonball so—wait till you hear this one, Bill—her and loverboy decide to rig the cannon so that the jerk goes crashing into the midway!” The triple-death conclusion is all this one really has going for it, a veritable Shakespearean slaughter whose gooey aftermath Ingels leaves to our imagination. “Revenge!” shows a similar lack of original thought, and not just with that title. If you hear Feldstein selling a gimmick with “ . . . Big Top,” you can hear the grindstone of mediocrity churning in Kamen’s piece.
“Phonies” is a whole lot cuter and cleverer than it has any right to be, but I’m perfectly fine with that. Double-twists, let alone single twists, were always tough acts to accomplish, but here Feldstein carries it through with economy and grace, so much so that I can’t help but be cynical and wonder if “Phonies” was closely “based” on a literary work that has yet to be accredited. Either way, I’ll go on record as saying that both twists genuinely took me by surprise. Jack and I will probably have to start a “Johnny Craig Admirers Club” one of these days, because I'm similarly ga-ga over how expertly that man constructs a fluid, visual narrative, such as the kind seen in this issue with his foreboding opening to “Hatchet Killer.” To keep the tension boiling and the reader guessing is no mean feat, yet Craig has been able to do this seemingly without significant fail throughout his output for the first full year of the New Trend. Hail to the chief!
Are those zombie clowns? ("Horror Under the Big Top") |
Craig |
"One Last Fling!" ★★ 1/2
Story and Art by Johnny Craig
"That's a 'Croc'!" ★ 1/2
Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
Art by Howard Larsen
"Child's Play" ★★★
Story by Al Feldstein
Art by Jack Kamen
"Trapped!" ★★
Story by Al Feldstein and Bill Gaines
Art by Jack Davis
"One Last Fling!" |
Harry and Olga Bell have found great success with their knife-throwing carnival act but, while on tour in Hungary, Harry is dismayed one morning to discover his wife dead in bed. Returning home that night after making funeral arrangements, Harry finds his wife's body is gone. Moments later, a bat flies through the window and transforms into Olga! She explains that a vampire bit her the night before and that she now desires human blood. Disgusted but madly in love with his wife, Harry agrees to cover for Olga and they head back to the States. His conscience weighing on him, Harry locks Olga into their motor home and makes her promise she won't hunt for prey. She agrees but, the next morning, the hapless hubby wakes to find two puncture wounds on his neck. The pattern repeats over the next few nights until Harry realizes he has to do something drastic. That night, during the act, Harry substitutes wooden stakes for his usual blades and ends Olga's bloody reign in front of a live audience with "One Last Fling!" Though the story itself is nothing new, I enjoyed the dynamic between the couple (at one point after Olga chows on Harry, she apologizes in an almost child-like way: "I couldn't help it. I didn't mean to hurt you! I won't do it again . . . I promise. Anyway, I just took . . . a little!") and Johnny Craig's visuals are spot on for what could essentially be a stage drama cornering around two characters. The only negative, again, is the climax, which just seems to sputter out rather than deliver an exclamation point.
"That's a 'Croc'!" |
Boys will be boys and that goes double for the Crescent A-C Footballers, a quartet who just love to practice in the street. Unfortunately, they happen to live on the same street as Clint Eastwood's father ("Get off my lawn!"), crusty old Mr. Collins who, for reasons unexplained, hates the four boys and will do anything to ensure they stay away from his little world. After one of the boys is caught trying to pick from his apple tree, Collins is prepared to tan the youngster's hide until Mrs. Collins intercedes. Bad idea, that. Very soon afterwards, the boys are mourning Mrs. Collins at her funeral and cooking up a little revenge. They dress up as a ghost to throw a scare in the old codger but, unwittingly, send the man over the edge and he dies of fright. Since "Child's Play" is a verrrrrry Bradbury-esque tale of precocious young boys and their playtime, Jack Kamen provides the perfect visuals (although I contend that there's not much difference between the boys' facial features, a la most of Kamen's work) and, though the climax is not a stunner, I enjoyed it.
"Trapped!" |
"Child's Play" |
"Child's Play" |
This one really sticks with you. Heh, heh! ("Trapped") |
John: Why not just call "One Last Fling!" "My wife Olga the Vampire" and be done with it? I wasn't moved by Harry's predicament, though I give him credit for finding an easy way out; something I'm sure many unhappy husbands wish was so easy. "That's a 'Croc'!" shows us just how bad man-eating crocodiles have it. It takes an enterprising individual to come up with a good solution to meeting their unique dietary needs. I'm normally a fan of Jack Kamen's art, but I found his work on "Child's Play" lacking. And last but not least, let the record reflect that Peter is crazy. "Trapped!" is entirely dismissible. Class dismissed!
Next Week! Jack and Peter bid a tearful farewell to Johnny Cloud and All American Men of War! On Sale Monday, October 10th |
2 comments:
E.C. Comics were the best! They set the standard for all that was to follow -- up to the present day. Incomparable in their insane creativity.
We agree! Thanks for reading and for taking the time to comment!
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