Friday, October 3, 2014

Lee Elias in The Witching Hour - 1974

Here's a dark, antebellum tale written by George Kashdan with artwork (pencils and inks) by the prodigious Lee Elias, who did tons of classic horror in the 1950s for Harvey's Black Cat comic. This tale easily demonstrates Elias still had is chops into the 70s and, not for nothing, drew an extremely attractive Cynthia, who was the witch co-host of stories from The Witching Hour; along with her less attractive (depending on tastes) witch sister, Mildred. Cynthia was the cool sis, too, speaking always in hipster jargon (a strange meld of beatnik and hippy talk). Oh, for those interested Hag Zebulah's snaky chant, "Obsurum per obscurius . . . Ignotium per Ignotius," is latin: "The obscure by means of the more obscure. The unknown by the more unknown." Who ever said comics weren't educational?

From The Witching Hour No. 46, Sept. 1974. Cover by Nick Cardy.

Friday, September 19, 2014

Secrets of Sinister House - Alfredo Alcala!

More from the fine, Filipino artist, Alfredo Alcala (see last post). I like Alcala's work so much I had to offer a second helping. So many of the artist's panels are so finely detailed, and so very well composed. Just beautiful stuff. A fine story, too, from the pen of DC giant, Sheldon Mayer. The swell cover? Michael Kaluta. This comes from Secrets of Sinister House No. 6, August-September 1972.