I thought I'd take a break from the Warrens for a moment to talk about this odd little publication I picked up yesterday at the Philadelphia Wizard World ComiCon, Web of Horror.I had only vaguely heard of this magazine in an interview with Berni Wrightson, but when I saw this cover I snapped it up. "America's Nightmare Magazine"? How does one earn that title, exactly?
Anyway, even though Major Magazines was apparently a pretty fly-by-night operation(I remember in the interview Wrightson saying something like he and Mike Kaluta I think went to the offices to get original art back to find the premises completely abandoned), they did manage to put together some fine talent just as they were getting into comics.
After the nice Wrightson cover(reprinted on the back, sans that horrendous logo and the other cover copy, Gold Key-style), we've got "Dead End", a very Twilight Zone-ish tale by Otto Binder and Mike Kaluta, where your typical Rotten Human Being gets his due for being so rotten. Its followed by "Curse of the Yeti", written by Binder with a beautiful art job by Ralph Reese:
...now that's a nice splash page. With Reese's Wally Wood-esque style, this twist-ending tale feels like its right out of an old EC.
The third tale is "Santa's Claws", written and drawn by Frank Brunner, which feels like Rankin/Bass' Santa Claus is Comin' To Town rewritten by H.P. Lovecraft.
After that is centerspread drawn by Berni Wrightson, with a mad doctor, a lovely assistant, and a hunchbacked assistant staring at an empty table...where you are supposed to draw something and send it in! Cool! Finally, here's my chance to collaborate with Berni Wrightson!
"Strangers" is written and drawn by Syd Shores, and is the most pre-Fantastic Four Marvel-ish of all the stories here, in that the horror of the story(involving a vampire) is dulled down by the very straightforward art. Next is "Point of View", written and drawn by Bruce Jones, and is a mix of horror and sci-fi that Jones was good at. For a writer, the art is pretty good--Jones uses lots of different tonal effects to achieve some really interesting visuals.
Last is "Feed It!" written by Mike Freidrich and drawn by Berni Wrightson, which is a typical(i.e. good) ghoulish tale of murder and comeuppance. Wrightson would of course get better, but you can see here he's already on his way to becoming a master of comic book art.
Abruptly, this was WOH's last issue, so we never got to see people's various contributions to the Wrightson pin-up, or whether Major would continue to publish work by some of the best emerging comics talent...
The third tale is "Santa's Claws", written and drawn by Frank Brunner, which feels like Rankin/Bass' Santa Claus is Comin' To Town rewritten by H.P. Lovecraft.
After that is centerspread drawn by Berni Wrightson, with a mad doctor, a lovely assistant, and a hunchbacked assistant staring at an empty table...where you are supposed to draw something and send it in! Cool! Finally, here's my chance to collaborate with Berni Wrightson!
"Strangers" is written and drawn by Syd Shores, and is the most pre-Fantastic Four Marvel-ish of all the stories here, in that the horror of the story(involving a vampire) is dulled down by the very straightforward art. Next is "Point of View", written and drawn by Bruce Jones, and is a mix of horror and sci-fi that Jones was good at. For a writer, the art is pretty good--Jones uses lots of different tonal effects to achieve some really interesting visuals.
Last is "Feed It!" written by Mike Freidrich and drawn by Berni Wrightson, which is a typical(i.e. good) ghoulish tale of murder and comeuppance. Wrightson would of course get better, but you can see here he's already on his way to becoming a master of comic book art.
Abruptly, this was WOH's last issue, so we never got to see people's various contributions to the Wrightson pin-up, or whether Major would continue to publish work by some of the best emerging comics talent...
