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The Drunken Odyssey

~ A Podcast About the Writing Life

The Drunken Odyssey

Monthly Archives: October 2019

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #39: Master of Horror

09 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #39 by Drew Barth

Master of Horror

Alex Toth as an artist and illustrator is an unsung masters of the medium. Toth strove to push the boundaries of what a comic could do in terms of creating panels, lines of sight, and use of shadows. Using simple black and white techniques, Toth was able to create some of the most spectacular short comic works for Dell Comics, DC, and Warren Publishing with genres spanning mystery, war, superhero, and horror.

His short form horror comics are still some of his most underrated creations—even more so considering his most iconic work was the design and animation of the Super Friends cartoon in the 70s—but Dark Horse has amassed much of Toth’s horror work in Creepy Presents: Alex Toth. But what makes Toth’s horror work so distinct? So memorable? Why catalog his work with the reverence and respect in this collection?

ale1

As an illustrator, Toth knew how the eye would move across a comic page and how certain kinds of panel breaks, coupled with clever lettering, could keep a reader from wandering into the twist ending of a story too early. His panels worked like walls for the eyes—they would maintain a thick, black panel frame. This technique of paneling is one of the reasons his horror work was always so shocking whenever the ending did come. The steady pacing of his panels, the continuous cordoning off of panels for the readers, and his thicker, almost brush-like line would instill in readers a sense of constant mystery and unease.

ale3

The above page is a perfect example of how his panels would create this uneasy feeling, by allowing the eye to literally rock back and forth through the page. He strove to do something different with each comic he created as a means of maintaining an audience’s uncertainty, whether this was through window panes as panels, the excessive use of black space to create a sense of claustrophobia, or misdirection via simply not showing what a threat was at a given moment.

ale2

Alex Toth was able to create some of the most interesting and innovative horror comics of his time. And he did it all without having to saturate his pages with blood and gore. Even stories concerning grave robbing or murders in a theme park, Toth was able to maintain a subtlety in the macabre that would deepen a story’s sense of dread. That focus on the anticipation of horror is what made his stories so interesting to read and why his horror lingered long after the story was finished. It is also why a book like Creepy Presents: Alex Toth exists—to ensure new readers can feel that same terror decades later.

Get excited. Something lurks.


 

drew barthDrew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

Introducing The Batalogues!

08 Tuesday Oct 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books

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Hi, gang!

For over two years, I, Patty Hawkins, and Shawn McKee have been in production of a series that discusses the history of Batman, mostly in secondary media. Patty is Vergil to my Dante as we explore this cultural phenomenon that has endured for 80 continuous years.

Batalogues with Patty

John King, Batmobile replica, Patty Hawkins. Photo by Shawn McKee.

For those of you who want to hear more of me while hoping I will ask even fewer questions, consider your pleases answered.

Batalogues Logo Final

Today, the first video of this series is now out in the world. Patty and I could not resist talking about Todd Phillip’s Joker.

Please watch it if you have the time, and if you think you’ll be interested in following the exploits of our Batalogging, please subscribe to us on youtube.

With immense gratitude,
John King

 

Episode 387: Mixtape 11: Dark Thoughts from a Very Pink Room

05 Saturday Oct 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Episode, Mixtape, Music

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Episode 387 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

In this week’s episode, music!

TDO Mixtape 11.png

NOTES

This episode is sponsored by the excellent people at Scribophile.

Scribophile

TDO Listeners can get 20% of a premium subscription to Scribophile. After using the above link to register for a basic account, go here while still logged in to upgrade the account with the discount.

Check out my literary adventure novel, Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame.

Guy Psycho and the Ziggurat of Shame Cover


Episode 387 of The Drunken Odyssey, your favorite podcast about creative writing and literature is available on Apple podcasts, stitcher, spotify, or click here to stream (right click to download, if that’s your thing).

The Curator of Schlock #293: The Black Cat

04 Friday Oct 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Horror, The Curator of Schlock

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Tags

Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Edgar G. Ulmer, The Black Cat

The Curator of Schlock #293 by Jeff Shuster

The Black Cat

Lugosi + Karloff = Total Terror!

It’s October, and you know what that means! Your humble Curator of Schlock will transform into the vile Curator of Schlock! All month long, I will be watching some of the scariest motion pictures Tinsletown ever produced. Tonight’s picture is 1934’s The Black Cat from director Edgar G. Ulmer. It stars Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. This movie is Universal Studios biggest box office success from 1934. It made $236,000. I guess that was a lot back then. The Black Cat is also one of the earliest examples of psychological horror so those of you out there who hate horror movies might like this one.

BlackCat1

The title credits read The BLACK CAT SUGGESTED BY THE IMMORTAL EDGAR ALLEN POE CLASSIC. I remember reading “The Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe back in the second grade. A substitute had us read the short story, but she regretted it as the story revolves around a man torturing and killing a black cat over and over again. He evens cuts the cat’s eye out. Now see, this is what you give young boys to read if want to get them interested in reading. Not Johnny Tremain.

BlackCat2

This movie has nothing to do with Poe’s “The Black Cat.” It starts out with newlyweds Peter (David Manners) and Joan (Julie Bishop) on a train traveling to Hungary. They’re a good looking, yet boring couple. A mysterious man named Dr. Vitus Werdegast (Bela Lugosi) joins them in their train compartment. He’s a Hungarian psychiatrist fresh out of a fifteen-year stint in a Siberian prison camp after serving in World War I. When Joan falls to sleep in Peter’s arms, Dr. Werdegast reaches out and almost touches her hair. He begs Peter this indulgence as Joan looks like his late wife.

Weird.

They get in some kind of shuttle bus after the train stops, but it gets into an accident. Peter brings an unconscious Joan to the house of an old friend of Dr. Werdegast, Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff). Dr. Werdegast isn’t all that fond of Poelzig as his command resulted in the death of thousands of Austro-Hungarian soldiers to the Russians. Poelzig also told Dr. Werdegast’s beautiful wife that he died in the war. Poelzig then married Dr. Werdegast’s beautiful wife while he was stuck in a Siberian prison. Ouch! Some friend!

BlackCat3

Did I mention that Poelzig is a great Austrian architect? I guess he’s like the Frank Lloyd Wright of Austria. This is a weird house with sliding doors that adjoin each room. So much for privacy. Dr. Werdegast finally confronts Poelzig about his wife only to learn that she died many years ago. Poelzig kept her perfectly preserved in a glass case in his basement. Poelzig’s not lonely, though. He simply married Dr, Werdegast’s hot, young daughter. Dr. Werdegast  wants to shoot Poelzig, but he freezes in fear at a black cat that crosses his path.

BlackCat4

Did I mention that Poelzig is a Satanist? Yeah, he’s got a devil-worshipping cult coming over for a human sacrifice party.  They’ve got those black robes and everything. Who is the human sacrifice? Joan the newlywed, of course.

I’m not going to spoil the ending, but let’s just say it features a man getting skinned alive and a whole lot of dynamite.


Jeffrey Shuster 1

Photo by Leslie Salas

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, and episode 284) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.

Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #38: Dipping Into Horror

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by thedrunkenodyssey in Comic Books, Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart, Horror

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Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #38 by Drew Barth

Dipping Into Horror

It’s October this year, so you know what that means: thirteen months until the next presidential election.

Also, Halloween—the best time of the year as a different kind of horror (finally) can grip our imaginations. From the ghosts, ghouls, and other ghastly creatures that invade the space under our beds to dark, macabre tales of the gothic that creep into our minds, October is the season of the spook. The horror comics of old really advanced what was imaginatively possible with the medium, and there are still a great variety of chilling and creepy comics coming out, like Something is Killing the Children by James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’edera.

skc1

Tynion is known for haunting series like UFOlogy and The Woods and Dell’edera for working on The Crow: Memento Mori and House of Mystery. Together, the duo have crafted a first issue that oozes with unease and menace, bolstered further by the beautiful color work of Miquel Muerto.

skc2

Something is Killing the Children establishes itself quickly as a series that knows how to ratchet up that menace panel by panel. We begin the first issue with James, a high school kid trying to impress his friends with truth or dare during his first sleepover. He tells them the story about a monster he saw in the woods while home alone—something spooky for a sleepover, because that’s what sleepovers are for—a monster he made up for an entertaining yarn. But somehow the monster was real. On a dare, he sent his friends out into those woods. James then must watch as his friends are eviscerated. From here we cut to an unnamed woman with swords now tasked with slaying this monster.

skc3

What makes Something is Killing the Children so tense for a first issue is the immediate tone and pace. If ever there was a master of the page as a stanza idea, it is Werther Dell’edera. Dell’edera knows how our eyes track shape and movement and uses that as a means of ensuring we look where we need to look on the page every time. When we have the flashback of James watching his friends die, it is a large two-page spread that uses longer panels that layer the action in an effortless way. We instinctively follow the line of action until the moment concludes with the monster on the next page.

Coupling the above art with Tynion’s fantastic realism-in-the-face-of-actual-monsters dialog and Muerto’s use of comfortable blue tones for horror sequences turns Something is Killing the Children into one of this year’s strongest comics. Something is Killing the Children knows how to do uncomfortable uneasy horror without having to splash blood in our eyes. The building of tension through its panels, the pitch-perfect small town characters, the dread we feel when we see those blue night tones are perfect to make us squirm.

Get excited. Check under the bed.


drew barth

Drew Barth (Episode 331) is a writer residing in Winter Park, FL. He received his MFA from the University of Central Florida. Right now, he’s worrying about his cat.

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