I typically like to deliver a little Shaitanic evil during December, aka the holiest of months. So let's kick it off with a devilishly diabolical entry from the October 1978 issue of Charlton's Monster Hunters #16. Interestingly loose illustrations and lay-outs from Enrique Puchades (making his THOIA debut), an artist who felt the need to sign his name on nearly every page --and sometimes even more than once on a single page too?! I also get the feeling we're seeing quite a number of Vampirella swipes every time demonic dame Regina pops into a panel. Okay, initially I thought this was cantankerous old monster huntin' horror host, Colonel Whiteshroud's first appearance on the blog too, but he actually told us a macabre little mermaid tale back in 2014 HERE! Lots more monsters, mummies, maniacs, and merry holiday spirits on the way all this month-- so staay tommbed!
5 comments:
The tale has the feel of a slimmed down Hammer Horror-
High priestess of black magic, disbeliever in love with her, mysterious book from an equally mysterious seller (a hint of Lovecraft lore) the evil is defeated along with the follower of the dark one. All it needed was an expert in witchcraft to give advice to the hero, and a few unexplainable encounters with the denizens of down below (and I don't mean Australia) and we have a memorable British Horror for Friday evening and Saturday afternoon viewings.
A great tale to set the stage for the horrordays, and for some of us horrordays is what the season really feels like.
I don't know why but the panel of Richard remarking "what a nice old guy!" and the one of him screaming "Stupid!" while summoning Shaitan (which, BTW, is not a parody or misspelling. It's an Arabic word that means Satan, the devil or an evil spirit.) are unintentionally hilarious to me. Dunno why, but Regina drained of her youth and powers is kind of cute. Must be the little sunken black eyes.
I'm also very amused that a book that shows you how to summon a demon also comes with a handy page on how to safely send him back! More spell books should come with such a page for amateur cultists.
The art on this is all sorts of interesting. It looks a lot more like 70s DC art, and yeah, some of it looks exactly like Vampirella swipes. His name seems associated with Skywald, too, so maybe he did work at Warren? His bio is ... pretty clean. 6 stories in total (7 with a reprint.)
I wonder if he was new? The signing every page is a little bizarre, and he goes from full backgrounds, to empty backgrounds, to your B&W hatched backgrounds. It's all over the place but a good artist! Page 5 looks almost like a different artist, altogether, and panel 4 looks like a lot of DC horror stories of the time (the expression.)
As I said, it's interesting, I'd like to see more work from this guy. He's got credits for a couple of English things (like 2000 AD.)
Can't read the SFX, but I swear it says "plop" when the demon disappears!
I was thinking the same thing about Regina and Vampirella, especially on Page 9.
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