Number 249


Tales Too Terrible To Tell


Tales Too Terrible To Tell is a magazine published from 1989 to 1993 dedicated to reprints of old horror comics. It's the old "so bad it's good" syndrome. Or even, "so bad it's really bad," which is also the case with some of the reprints. Either way they're pretty fun. There was an occasional original story and cover. Steve Bissette did the cover for #1. TTTTT also included a section every issue devoted to the publishers of 1950s horror comics. Stories are reprinted in black and white, some from original art in editor George Suarez' collection, some shot in gray tones from color comics.
 
The series went 11 issues, with numbers 10 and 11 renamed Terrology. Because I answered a survey I got a copy of #10 in a 500-copy variant edition, still titled Tales Too Terrible To Tell.

Number 248


"Me and Whizzer McGee…"

Phantasmo, who appeared in Dell Comics' The Funnies #45-63 back in the early 1940s, was really Phil Anson. Thanks to some training by some lamas in Tibet Phil could leave his body, become Master of the World, get really big, get transparent, fly, lift subway trains. He also hung out with a teenager named Whizzer McGee, who took care of his body while his spirit was outside being Phantasmo.

In this episode of the Phantasmo saga he deals with some "magnetic atom time bombs," containing enough U-235 to blow up five city blocks!

His costume was kind of a non-costume, a cape and a pair of trunks with matching boots.* The art is done in an old-fashioned style by E.C. Stoner.

My copy of The Funnies #54, from which this story appeared, was used as insulation, along with a stack of other really poor condition comics I got a few years ago. It was near an old furnace, which accounts for the streaks of coal on the first page. Sorry 'bout that!

*And sometimes Phantasmo wore less than that.

Number 247


Shriek of Araby


This past weekend Karswell showed us a gruesome horror story by Howard Nostrand from 1954. In the story I'm showing from Harvey Comics' Flip #2, also from 1954, Nostrand tries his hand at humor and satire.


Bhob Stewart interviewed Nostrand for Graphic Story Magazine #10, in 1974. Nostrand talked about "The Shriek of Araby." He gave the reason for the color scheme: the movie it's based on, Rudolph Valentino's The Sheik, was a silent film done in sepia tone. The comic book version is a good try, but because of the quick-and-dirty printing of comic books, experiments like this didn't always work out. Some of the panels are too dark, and in the captions the white-on-black lettering is hard to read in spots.

Nostrand liked the story. In part of the 1974 interview he claimed, "That was the one Kurtzman commented on." Stewart asked, "What did Kurtzman say?" Nostrand answered: "He thought it was the best one of the book, and that sort of thing. Didn't mean much 'cause I wrote the rest of the book, too." Later he confessed, ". . .I think I stole it from S. J. Perelman. He did the synopsis in his 'Cloudland Revisited' series. I just sort of changed the plot slightly, and then it said what I wanted. Some of the dialogue is pure Perelman. . .I have a feeling that Perelman doesn't read comic books, anyway, so I wasn't in…you know, when in doubt, plagiarize, but make sure the guy who wrote it doesn't read it." What, plagiarism, in a comic book?!! Say it ain't so, Howard.

Along with "Shriek" I'm including these two "Ulysses" single-page gags by Nostrand, also from Flip #2.
 

Number 246


Supermouse and the Timid Giant


What would writers do without fairy tales, nursery rhymes or folk tales? Probably have to actually look for a plot beyond Mother Goose or the Brothers Grimm. The surprise is in the endless variations on such familiar stories. Supermouse and his nephew Roscoe go into Cloud Coo Coo Land for this riff on Jack and the Beanstalk. It's from Coo Coo Comics #40, July 1948. It's derivative, but a cute kid's story, done by an unknown writer and artist.

As many comics fans know, Frank Frazetta did some illustrations in the late 1940s for text stories in these funny animal comics . This issue of Coo Coo is blessed with three:

Number 245


Don't Shrink Sam's Head


With a little tweaking I think this story, originally published in Atlas Comics' Mystic #23, could have been published in one of that company's humor titles like Crazy. The last panel is a visual joke, and how many stories open up with a collector displaying a petrified vampire and stuffed werewolf?


The Atlas Tales site lists this story as drawn by Romita? with a question mark, so they aren't sure. I scanned it from the Marvel Comics reprint in Vault Of Evil #6, October 1973.