Number 591
Mr. Mordeaux
"The Last of Mr. Mordeaux" is a nifty little Atlas horror story originally published in Astonishing #11, 1952. The story is Lovecraftian: the main character has a weird genetic defect, bulging eyes and no eyebrows, and he has family secrets that involve otherworldly critters coming out to grab him...
It's drawn by Joe Sinnott and that qualifies it as worth a look.
The story originally appeared in Astonishing #11 (1952). I scanned it from a Marvel reprint comics, Tomb of Darkness #16 (1975).
One of my favorites Pappy!
ReplyDeleteNice. But I think someone had been reading both "Pickman's Model" and "The Lurking Fear" before writing this one.
ReplyDeleteHa! He should have gone to England and searched, he sure looked like Marty Feldman's brother!
ReplyDeleteIt's certainly no mystery why Joe was such a great inker, is it? My God, could he draw! There are some really inventive panels in this story (in all of Joe's work). Inking Kirby all those years is analogous to Scottie Pippen playing on the Bulls with Jordan. If he hadn't, many might never have heard of him, but because he did, most never knew how good he could be on his own.
ReplyDeleteAnd that story, as goofy as it is, is too well scripted to be Stan. Just sayin'.
I'm sure to get comments when I post Joe Sinnott. The guy could do it all, draw and ink, ink other artists. Even some guy named Jack Kirby, who would be otherwise unknown were it not for Joe Sinnott's inks.
ReplyDeleteBefore you get out the tar and feathers, I'm just checking to see if you're paying attention.
Tamfos, I agree that this doesn't read like a Stan Lee script. A Lee script would probably start out, "Your name is Mordeaux! You are from an old and wealthy family but find yourself financially embarrassed!"
And Charles, as I've stated before, comic book writers weren't averse to stealing ideas from wherever it is that ideas are.
Favourite Lovecraftian story, New England to Budapest, by ocean steamer, possibly up the Rhine and down the Danube? Similar story "Nothing happened to Ronstadt" deals with same cannibal theme in distant lands but not as classic as this.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the story "Nothing Happened to Ronstadt"? I am not familiar with that.
ReplyDeleteI think this was Joe Sinnott, too. I don't have any issues of "Tomb of Darkness" etc. in my possession anymore, so I cannot placed it in time. Story is weird enough: The sailor Ronstadt is only survivor of cannibal attack on South Sea island. A curse turns him into a cannibal himself. Back in New York the narrator, a no-good cheap journalist, hears of recent disappearances at the waterfront. Investigating the "story" he chances upon Ronstadt, now full-time cannibal and eager for his unmentionable "reward" for tipping the journalist as to the awful reason for the disappearences.
ReplyDelete