Boris Karloff Tales of Mysters, #57

Comic books are primarily a visual medium. The writing is very, very important and when the words and pictures work well together, you have something special; but it's those pictures that move the stories along. This is from Golden Key, Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #57, from October 1974. It has a bit of an odd concept for a comic book. You really never see the monster. The strongest aspect of a comic book is not used. It is an interesting experiment; but I don't think it is all that successful.

An irritant in this story for me is that Fred, the man the monster seems to be harassing, talks to himself. An advantage that the comics medium has over movies, or television, or theater, is the use of thought balloons. You can read what someone is thinking as well as see their actions. In the panel to the right, he may be thinking something like that; but what he might say would be more like, "What the… who's there?"

Happy Birthday Boris Karloff

To celebrate Boris Karloff's birthday, born William Pratt on November 23, 1887, I did a very quick sketch. The drawing only begins to capture his unique face. Someday, I would like to spend more than ten minutes and try to catch a better likeness.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BORIS!