It may be argued that that a Lovecraft
adaptation occurred even months before the two issues of VAULT OF HORROR shown earlier. The May/June 1950, and
12th issue of WEIRD SCIENCE (formerly
SADDLE ROMANCES!) contained a story
written by the Gaines and Feldstein team, and illustrated Jack Kamen called,
“Experiment…In Death”. In many respects, this story is similar to Lovecraft’s
“Herbert West, Re-Animator”. As a result of the original story’s sprawling,
episodic structure, it might have been difficult to capture the entire plot in
a comic story. Nevertheless, there are enough elements present to seriously
consider deeming this story the first Lovecraft adaptation.
The folks at CINEMA RETRO magazine have just announced their new "Cinema Retro Movie Store", a DVD supermarket powered by Movie Zyng. It appears that many of the discs they sell are MOD, or "Made On Demand", a kind of DVD version of Amazon's CreateSpace for publishing.
The discs are listed by genre or manufacturer with familiar titles by big box distributors like HBO, MGM and Universal, as well as "indie" companies such as Full Moon, Midnight Releasing and Brain Damage.
I wonder of the wisdom of this move since there are so many other outlets available to buy these kinds of DVDs. The prices are competitive and they do offer a flat rate shipping cost of only $1.00. All I can say at this point is: Best of luck, guys.
You can browse CINEMA RETRO's Movie Store by clicking the blog title image above.
In issue #17 of E.C's VAULT OF HORROR (February/March 1951), introduced by The Old Witch, written by Gaines and
Feldstein, and drawn once again by Graham Ingels, appeared the story “Baby…It’s
Cold Inside”. The title, an obvious play on the 1940s pop standard, “Baby, It’s
Cold Outside” written by Frank Loesser, and like “Fitting Punishment”, is a
close adaptation in everything but the title and the character names, to
Lovecraft’s “Cool Air”. Since there is no outright use of Lovecraft’s name and
title on these stories, it is apparent that Gaines and Feldstein used these
plots after plundering the vast sea of horror and supernatural stories
available at the time, finding at least some of Lovecraft’s tales suitable
material for their comics. It is also possible that they consciously skirted
the question of copyright by adapting these stories without the use of title or
character names.
E.C. Comic's "Fitting Punishment" (VAULT OF HORROR #16, December/January 1951), was based on H.P. Lovecraft's short story, "In the Vault". By eliminating the obvious references, writers Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein were apparently avoiding any copyright infringements (Lovecraft's legal issues were complex and at times, even the true copyright holder was in question). Drawn by "Ghastly" Graham Ingels and introduced by "The Old Witch", the story was more than "fitting" for the macabre content of the E.C. horror comics line.
The pages shown here are pre-press original color page proofs and have penciled notes to the printer.
The December/January 1951 issue of Vault of Horror (#16) included a story written by Bill Gaines and
Al Feldstein and illustrated by “Ghastly” Graham Ingels entitled, “Fitting
Punishment”. The plot is closely based on Lovecraft’s “In the Vault” (ironic
that this particular story title was literally found “In the Vault of Horror”).
In the very next issue (#17), dated February/March 1951, introduced by The Old
Witch, written by Gaines and Feldstein, and drawn once again by Graham Ingels,
appeared the story “Baby…It’s Cold Inside”. The title, an obvious play on the
1940s pop standard, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” written by Frank Loesser, and
like “Fitting Punishment”, is a close adaptation in everything but the title
and the character names, to Lovecraft’s “Cool Air”. Since there is no outright
use of Lovecraft’s name and title on these stories, it is apparent that Gaines
and Feldstein used these plots after plundering the vast sea of horror and
supernatural stories available at the time, finding at least some of
Lovecraft’s tales suitable material for their comics. It is also possible that
they consciously skirted the question of copyright by adapting these stories
without the use of title or character names.
It may be argued that that a Lovecraft adaptation occurred
even months earlier in E.C. comics. The May/June 1950, and 12th issue of Weird Science (formerly Saddle Romances!) contained a story
written by the Gaines and Feldstein team, and illustrated Jack Kamen called,
“Experiment…In Death”. In many respects, this story is similar to Lovecraft’s
“Herbert West, Re-Animator”. As a result of the original story’s sprawling,
episodic structure, it might have been difficult to capture the entire plot in
a comic story. Nevertheless, there are enough elements present to seriously
consider deeming this story the first Lovecraft adaptation.
While not to be thought of as a true Lovecraft story
adaptation, it is noteworthy to add that the E.C. line was also the first in
comics to mention Lovecraft’s invented book, The Necronomicon. In issue #13 (May/June 1950) of Weird Fantasy (formerly A Moon, A Girl, Romance!) is a story
entitled “The Black Arts”. Written by well-known science fiction author and
artist Harry Harrison, and illustrated by Harrison
with inks by the great Wallace “Wally” Wood, the splash page leaves no doubt as
to the name of the book mentioned in the story.
In closing our discussion on the connection of H. P.
Lovecraft to the E.C. comics line, at the time of this writing, one
Lovecraft-related website claims that Cthulhu is mentioned in one other E.C. comic (Vault of Horror
#30, Apr 1953). Upon scrutiny, while a murdering octopus is the villain of the
story, there is no mention of the name, “Cthulhu”, and it is a bit of a stretch
to suppose that the character was intended to be the selfsame entity, or even a
distant relative for that matter!
We have to wait until July, 1968 to find the first actual,
title and all, Lovecraft adaptation in a comic … this time appearing in a
magazine-sized comic by the name of Creepy.
Founded by James Warren, the same publisher who, along with Forrest J. Ackerman
a decade earlier had unleashed upon the world the greatest monster movie
magazine of all time, Famous Monsters of
Filmland, Creepy was an
unapologetic copy of the E.C. horror comics. Warren, who never missed a publishing
trend, sensed that the time was right to resurrect the classic combination of sensational
writing and first-rate illustration which were the hallmarks of E.C.’s achievements.
He even brought aboard a number of the same artists from E.C., who were only
too willing to get back to work scaring the wits out of youngsters with their
macabre stories. With A-list draftsmen like Joe Orlando, Reed Crandall, Jack
Davis, Wally Wood, Johnny Craig (a.k.a. Jay Taycee), John Severin, and the
greatest fantasy artist alive, Frank Frazetta, the formula was an instant
success.
In Creepy #21, artist
Bob Jenney brought to life the first ever Lovecraft story adaptation to
commercial publishing. Jenney had the previous distinction of illustrating
Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla” in Creepy #19, as well as the art chores for the
Dell Movie Comics version of The Wolf Man
five years earlier. Billed as “Adapted from a story by H. P. Lovecraft”, the
writer goes mysteriously uncredited. The late Archie Goodwin, who churned out
story after story as Creepy’s first
editor, and who had relinquished his editorship after issue #17 and
subsequently slacked off scriptwriting a bit, could possibly be the author of
the adaptation. Another likely candidate is Bill Parente, who was Creepy’s new, official editor as of
issue #21. The story was apparently a big enough editorial event to warrant a
cover spot which was painted by the newly-hired Brazilian comic artist
Gutenberg Monteiro. Marred by 2 misprints on the contents page (the story was
listed as “The Rats in the Wall”, and artist Jenney’s name was misspelled
“Jenny”), the appearance of this Lovecraft adaptation is nevertheless a
milestone for Lovecraft aficionados.
The next time we see Lovecraft story adaptations in
commercial comics is in 1970 and 1971 from the mighty Marvel Comics Group. The
titles, Tower of Shadows and Chamber of Darkness each contained Lovecraft-named stories.
This brings us back to Skull
comics. The first few issues contained stories which were largely in the vein
of the ironic, dark-humored E.C. comics style, albeit “updated” with generous
helpings of sex and perversion. However, the May 1972 issue hinted at something
a little different. Below the “Last Gasp” comics logo, the cover of #4 stated
that this issue was a “Special H. P. Lovecraft Issue”. Sure enough, the issue is
indeed cover-to-cover Lovecraft adaptation or Lovecraft inspired, making Skull #4 the first comic to contain
exclusively Lovecraft-derived stories. The cover, drawn by Jack Jaxon, depicts
a furry creature obviously meant to be Lovecraft’s eponymous “Hound”. It sits
in a coffin with the transom open, arms crossed and clutching the “Amulet of
Leng” fetish, leering with beady red eyes at the reader. There are bat symbols
and “E.C.” logos decorating the exterior of the coffin, and, if read closely,
read “Exorpsychic Comics” and not the original E.C. “Entertaining Comics” that
has been erroneously suggested from another source.
The title page is classic Skull comics gleeful gore, as it pictures a Dave Sheridan demon
rising up from an open cellar hatch, who has grabbed two hapless youngsters and
has squeezed their heads until their brains have popped out like two
mini-mushroom clouds! The caption reads: “Welcome, fear freaks, to the Skull’s
mouldy [sic] archives. Down here among the cobwebs and batshit is where you’ll
find all the mind squishing tales of malignant evil … just like our two friends
here.”
The facing page shows a pen and ink drawing by Simon Deitch
of a Chthuloid being, complete with bat wings and tentacled mouth and
proboscis, and flanked by two toad-like looking creatures. The jagged word
balloon intones a classic Lovecraftian mantra: “I am not dead … I sleep and yet
I do not sleep, for I have died … and yet I am not dead, I shall rise again for
that is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange eons, even death may
die …” This illustration is good enough to be easily placed in any book of
Lovecraft, with one small exception … in true Skull comics fashion the creature has been artistically bestowed with
what can only be described as a prehensile, tentacle penis!
Continuing from his cover illustration, the lead story is
Jack Jaxon’s striking interpretation of “The Hound”. Executed in exquisitely
fine pen and ink detail and embellished with pressure-sensitive tone screen to
add a murky atmosphere, this piece can without doubt be referred to as the
capstone of Skull comics Lovecraft
stories. Remaining true to Lovecraft’s own style, there is little dialogue, and
the story is narrated with caption boxes. One particularly effective panel shows
a copy of The Necronomicon open to a
page filled with strange script with the hound amulet sitting next to it, and a
caption reading: “Imagine our triumph when we established it as the very thing
hinted of in this forbidden Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred; the
ghastly soul-symbol of the corpse-eating cult of inaccessible Leng, in Central
Asia.” The tale is told very effectively and, as comics adaptations go, doesn’t
get much more “Lovecraftian” than this.
Next up is “The Hairy Claw of Tolen” and is a clear
derivative of The Dunwich Horror. The
emphasis here is on back woodsy, rustic folks in a horrifying, cautionary tale
of the more sinister effects of inbreeding. Charles Dallas’ disturbing but brilliant
artwork borders on the abstract.
Michael C. Smith’s adaptation of “Cool Air” follows. The
heading shows the story title above a steaming, deliquescent mass that looks
formerly human. The narrator is pictured, bordered by a circle in classic E.C. host
fashion, and intones: “It is a mistake to fancy that horror is always
associated with darkness and solitude. I found it in the glare of mid-afternoon
in a shabby rooming house … “
The last story of the issue is “Pickman’s Model”. At first
glance, the artwork could be mistaken for early Richard Corben. In truth, it is
drawn by Herb Arnold, who was an assistant of Corben’s before going on to his
own illustrating career. The adaptation is faithful to the story and very
effective for the medium of comics. One detail worth mentioning is that Arnold draws the
character, Thurber, in the likeness of Lovecraft himself. His depiction of the
demon is also chilling.
