Today is Halloween, and my one bag of jelly beans is ready to parcel out to the trick or treaters, one jelly bean at a time. I found the jelly beans in a drawer in the basement, so they are several years old. When I poured them into a bowl I noticed some of them were moldy. Nice guy that I am I picked out the worst of them. But my eyes, fried from sitting in front of a computer monitor all day, probably didn't detect them all. So, kids, c'mon over to Pappy's...and take your chances. Oh, yeah...I will put in one jelly bean per trick or treat bag. It's my way of fighting the childhood obesity epidemic. Gad — speaking of vision problems — I'm blinded by the glow from my own altruism and public spirit!
Here are two stories that are oldies, but unlike the jelly beans, not moldies. They’re original art from
Vault of Horror. They show the artists, Ghastly Graham Ingels and Jack Davis, at the very top of their profession. I've complained about text-heavy comic books before, and that's true of these stories. They're very wordy. But the artwork...gasp! Choke!
Good Lord!
“We Ain't Got No Body!” is from
Vault of Horror #28, and “Tombs-Day” appeared in
Vault of Horror #35. The scans were made by Heritage Auctions, and it was from their website that I shamelessly lifted them. I give all the credit to them for the sharp scans.
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This would be a good time to echo what my friend Chuck Wells at
Comic Book Catacombs has recommended, the first issue of Craig Yoe's and Steve “Karswell” Banes'
Haunted Horror. I'm doing this sight unseen, because I respect both those guys, and know first hand the quality they are known for.
Buy it!
Thanks Pappy, that's all I can say. I love Davis, but Ghastly, there was nobody like him, nor will there ever be. It's all made worse by how badly his life was affected by all this, and how he ran from all the (sadly later) fame he deserved.
ReplyDeleteI've got no proof but I'm always thought the drunk on page 4 (ironic, I know) is Ghastly himself.
"No Body" was obviously built around the image of a the head/hands/feet combo. It's fun to see the sketch in the margins. This stuff is so great in it's original B&W form.
The Davis art is also great, the story is a bit by numbers, though. Davis always had pretty static composition (Ingels always slanted and distorted his panels), but makes up for it with his great cartoonish-horror-drippy style.
Pappy, be nice to the kids, you were one once :) Happy Halloween!
Fantastic to see these originals, especially on Halloween!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dave and Brian.
ReplyDeleteBrian, me a kid once? I dimly remember — and the more the years go by the dimmer the recollection — there was a kid once who answered to my name, and went to school, and thought Halloween was great.
Then something happened, and over time the kid was replaced by a grumpy old man.
One of those offerings to just savour... to see the work as one of progress before the obligatory colouring is like seeing a manuscript with scribbles and marginalia before being printed en masse.
ReplyDeleteBut some conductor, telling a traumatised man "Yep- you're brother's dead all right. And his arms and legs completely severed!"
No sympathy; reminds me of an Irish joke I'm find of relating.
Have to say though that such incidents are a common occurrence here in Germany; last year a student experienced two cases of jumpers on the way to school, the second time whilst on a school trip whilst waiting at the station.