Vintage Comics - Baffling Mysteries, Issue 5 : Volcano of Vengeance, The Phantom Snow Queen (Cover - Pg. 14)

I'm sure most of you have figured out by now that the main thing drawing me to some of these vintage comics tends to be the awesome cover art. This one, too, while gorgeous (just look at that awesome skirt) won me over with the cover alone, and what could possibly be one of the most ridiculous lines I've ever read. The Baffling Mysteries comics often fell victim to your typical walls of text you see with any visual medium that hasn't quite grasped the law of 'show, don't tell'. Wasn't surprised at all to realize they came from Ace comics, who also produced Hand of Fate (which I've posted here before as well.) The characters in this one practically narrate everything. I mean everything. Very much in the style of an ear play or radio drama. If it's dark, and the panel is painted dark, you'll be reminded by the character telling you that it's definitely dark; so on and so forth.

The first story focuses on South American goat-men gods. Or, as the rest of the world refers to them, Satyrs. There's plenty of color variation in the panels, but far too much text covering up the actual art. It seemed like as the stories progressed, the line art got a bit more rushed. There was potential with the goat-ment, and certainly a message about...archaeology and museums not being a bad thing, I guess. The second story in a far snowier setting has death skiing with a sort of urban legend twist to it. The best part about this comic is the art, really. The stories are just near-misses...but man, look at all those bright yellows!

Vintage Comics - Midnight, Issue #1: Bedeviled Puppet, Eternal Struggle, There's a Will and There's a Way (Cover-Pg. 14)

What? I'm alive? You bet your sweet ass I am. And just to let you guys know, when I disappear for several months at a time, I'm probably not dead...undead at best, but I'm sure we all knew something like that was going to happen to me at one point or another. The sacrificial altar in my bedroom and haunted cemetery in the backyard don't help much, really.

In all honesty, I've just been writing a lot of short stories (even completed a few personal novels I will very likely never publish.) The result is of course maybe a little less blog-time, but fear not! October is around the corner, and as always I will be taking part in the horror blog-a-thon as I do every year. So if you've been desperately starved for more vintage comics, possible Hallowholic podcast episodes, trailer compilations, playlists, pretty pictures, and gruesome historical facts...they'll all be flying right at you on October 1st.

Anyway, I thought I'd start up a post this week with a little bit of vintage comics. The first thing that struck me about this one was actually the cover. The richness of the robe against that green backdrop...I can only imagine how incredible this must have looked crisp and new on the shelf.

The first story plays on one of my favorite tropes. Evil dolls/puppets. But...it really does explain every single action. I got the impression the writer for this one hadn't really acquainted himself with the practice of showing rather than telling. It promises something dark, but stops just short as a moral story...sort of...I guess. The second one is again, a moral story. But I did enjoy the little 'twist.' Imagine Final Destination if death pretty much lost in the end, and you get the picture. The third and final story of the entry...could have used more blood, but I doubt they could've gotten away with it at the time. Ultimately, this was one of those 'oh...I promise this is a scary comic' issues, that was really general adventure/moral lessons in disguise.

The cover promised a lot for this comic, and sadly did not deliver, but the art is still worth appreciating on its own.

Vintage Comics - Adventures Into Darkness, Issue 6: The Return of the Thunderbird, The Strange Cats of Killough Heath, The Phantom Horseman (Pg 23-End)

It's time once more for vintage comics day, and with this entry I'm winding up the end of yet another issue. The first story kind of threw me off, with the somewhat predictable dialogue and the Native American curse coming out of nowhere, but I'd love to see someone try to turn it into a short film as a tribute to old (poorly-made) B movies. The second one is fantastic...combining cats, skeleton knights, revenge, madness, an old Irish castle...needless to say, I really enjoyed it.

Vintage Comics - Adventures Into Darkness, Issue 6: Corpse Convention, The Thing From the Sea (Pg 11 - Pg. 22)

Right on time for the new 'Hotel Transylvania 2', we've got a story in Adventures into Darkness featuring a creepy hotel. Complete coincidence, figured it was worth mentioning anyway. As someone who actually worked in hotel, I can honestly say I would avoid the kind that had so many guests milling about the lobby at such an ungodly hour...but I guess that would defeat the purpose of the story, wouldn't it?