Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Face from the Future!

And finally wrapping up our Black Magic Fest this week, from the June-July 1951 issue of Black Magic Vol. 1 #5… I simply adore stories about innocent, naïve girls who dabble in the occult and discover much more than they bargained for… and believe it or not, sometimes they actually do have happy endings too.

Ummm, today’s story though does not.









NEXT: The Return of Basil Wolverton--- plus a Silver Age Flash Forward!

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12 comments:

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Who is Sam Citron and where did you get his name?

Mr. Karswell said...

Ger, every post I've ever uploaded since the day I started this blog has the highlighted issue name and number in my intro before the scans... clicking it will take you to GCD which more times than not has all the info there as well.

Anonymous said...

WOW-----THOIA MIGHT NOT BE DAILY ANYMORE BUT EACH TIME YOU DO HAVE SOMETHING NEW IT ALMOST SEEMS BIGGER AND BETTER THAN EVER! I LOVED ALL THE BLACK MAGIC STORIES, SPOOKY TOP DRAWER STUFF!!!!

Mr. Cavin said...

Yeah, I really like the spooky paranormal party trick stories too, Mr. Karswell. There is just something fairly compelling about teenagers sitting around a room scaring one another, doing old-time Halloween party tricks of hopeful divination, telling campfire urban legends, chanting Bloody Mary in the mirror. These tend to be my favorite scenes of the stories including them. On the other hand, the eventual by-the-numbers accompli of the cleverly revealed fait is always such a letdown. It's storytelling as essay: 1) establish a thesis, then 2) illustrate it, then 3) explain it. I cannot imagine a worse narrative trick than fulfilling destiny. What a bore.

At least this story had the good graces to relegate the bore to just one-and-a-half pages. So then first five were still awesome. I think this guy is super at producing panel after panel of complex group interaction that comes off uncluttered and easy to parse. That's no small graphic feat, there. Without any evidence to the contrary, I'd assume this artist was from the romance mags, which stabled more than it's fair share of artists with a nearly heroic ability to craft the prosaic into something attention-getting.

Anonymous said...

Greatest comics quote ever: Page Six, Panel Four "She actually believes she's going to DIE!" Uh, girls, I got some bad news for you....

You're right, Mr. Cavin. The storytelling here is remarkable (and overlooked by many). Few modern comics artists could crowd their panels and still make them comprehensible to the reader, even if each character is arrayed in a distinct (and goofy) costume.

Unknown said...

Aw, that sucks! Kathy was one of the few horror comic protagonists that really didn't seem to deserve her crappy fate. She didn't even sacrifice the chicken or anything.

oldefrostfarm1780 said...

I've Never read this one before...It's Great!!

Thanks for sharing!!

SpOOky Dreams My Friends

~adele~

Anonymous said...

boy there some really nice panels in the first story like on page4 panel 4 looking through the chair and the big weird shaped center panel on the last page,

great stuff!!!

Mr. Karswell said...

>page4 panel 4 looking through the chair

Totally. It almost becomes a pentagram doesn't it?

Horror pariah said...

Ah, I come back from a nice vacation to escape the perversions of everyday life to find a story about a lonely girl sticking strange objects in a ring......

Kidding of course, and I agree, brilliant storytelling. I initially thought Kathy would end up getting scared to death by the surprise party; but the story blew my expectations. Kudos!

Anonymous said...

Didn't you post a very similar story not too, too long ago? That one had something to do with a charm woven from swamp grass, or something, and there was a dude involved.

Mr. Karswell said...

>Didn't you post a very similar story not too, too long ago?

Yes I did... can't remember the name of it though, but I definitely remember the swamp grass. Anybody else remember?

Thanks for all the great comments on the Black Magic posts this week gang (good to see HP back too, I almost sent out a search party for ya!)

Basil Wolverton up next, as well as an eerie Silver Age Flash Forward.