Monday, October 07, 2019
I think there's a Night Gallery-era Serling in here somewhere.
Host Rod Serling usually didn't dress up to present his stories; but he's a waiter for the first story in today's book: from 1975, the Twilight Zone #62. Cover by Ricardo Villamonte. (Several of these horror comics we're going to blog this month were from the same year and probably the same quarter bin; I wonder if they had been part of the same collection?)
In "An Expensive Date" (art by Adolpho Buylla) a former bank teller has made his fortune by killing his first two wives, and has his eye on a third. After a quick marriage and some brake tampering, the cash comes pouring in--literally, in some cases! Why he sees these random windfalls as his wife's revenge, I don't know. Next, "The Bounty Hunter," with art by Ricardo Villamonte. A murderer is hounded by a bounty hunter who always seems one step ahead of him, even after a shortcut through the desert. The murderer may not be able to get away, but he's determined to not let the bounty hunter collect the reward on him, at any cost. (Perhaps not intentional, but the opening reminded me of the episode "Spur of the Moment.")
"The Howling Dog!" is another dog story--no, horror comic! No sad dog stories! (I'm posting these in the opposite order that I wrote them, so expect more sad dog stories later!) A folk singer loses his beloved dog Ruby, but when he can hear Ruby sing in the recording studio, has he lost his mind as well? (Art by Jack Sparling.) On to "Planet Death," with art by Nestor Redondo. (Maybe!) An alien race evacuates their doomed world, but may have just leaped out of the frying pan.
Not the best Twilight Zone I've ever read, so I may have to keep my eyes open, I could've sworn I had picked up some more with this issue. Maybe they improve in bulk...
Interesting to see each artist's different take on how they thought Sterling should look. The first seems to think he should look like a young Ricardo Montebon
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