DC Comics 1981
Written by Paul Kupperberg
Illustrated by Howard Bender and Rodan Rodriguez
Coloured by Jerry Serpe
Lettered by John Costanza
Back-Up Feature
Written by George Kashdan
Illustrated by Ken Landgraf & Vince Colleta
Coloured by Rachelson
Lettered by Shelly Leferrman
I loved this series! DC had been largest line of horror comics on stands back in the day. It’s a shame that we don’t have or see this kind of Storytelling any longer because one of the things these books made you do aside from getting chills being a little creeped out and the occasional gasp is that it actually made you think. You thought you were engaged you figured scenarios you tried to come up with you no answers there was so much more to genre then just trying to scare someone. I think as a modern society horror has taken on a new Direction where people see Gore as horror and it’s not really horror it’s just body parts. I really do believe that we need to go back to storytelling that engages the reader’s mind makes them think puts them in in an uncomfortable position maybe as a voyeur or the victim but one that makes them unable to look away knowing something frightening could be about to happen.
Doctor 13 was a character that was created long before his time. Today he’d have his own TV show just like the ghost hunters where he tries to debunk evidence claims and everything else of the Paranormal. Doctor 13 with definitely one of the most underrated characters to have ever been created in comics. Now we see his kind of people we see his stereotype in life people plastered all over television and he was doing this way back when so you know in the sixties seventies when he was in his highest popularity so I think a lot of people need to give him his due.
The way this is written it’s phenomenal I love that this issue has to complete stories in it each one wheat we follow the plot and story development through how the sequence of events unfold through how the characters learn information and by extension reader. We got to see genius at work and they find those Clues and those things that we as a reader mess and then wonder how we missed it. The character development is utterly amazing and the more we see the more we learn how they is adversity or the circumstances and situations they find themselves in really help Define who they are. And then of course the pacing the pacing is essential because what it does it keeps the story moving smoothly. Be short stories which I would never have thought you could complete in that amount of space seem to be done in a way that feels natural.
The interior artwork here blows my mind. The line work and the way we see so many different techniques and varying wait inside Line work really helped to bring out and showcase this gorgeous attention to detail. You don’t realize how much we’ve lost over the years of people of tried to streamline what they do because the base is the facial expressions and all the line that we see that makeup you know musculature and body structure we take for granted these days and hear the way we see it this is a masterclass illustration and real life illustration not photographic reality but this is pretty damn close to realism. The utilization of the page layout and how we see the Angles and perspective in the panel show a masterful I for storytelling. I am a huge fan of the way backgrounds are utilized here and how they work within the composition of the panel’s bringing us this Rich depth perception expensive scale and that overall sense of size and scope of the story at hand. Then there’s the color work to consider I mean they might not have had the same palette of colors that we have today but what they did do with what they had and the tricks that they used make this as vibrant colorful and interesting as you can possibly imagine. The Interiors are so Dynamic so beautiful that it’s no wonder as a medium Comics started a love Affair with so many people.
I want this back I want a line a Comics you know whether it be ghosts the witching hour or House of mystery where the attention is upon the story the story that gives us in a palpable tension in our shoulders or on the putting us on the verge of jumping. We need storytelling that seeps into the soul that isn’t sensationalized but is actually authored by a writer. I miss stories that feel like they sent her around the everyman regardless if he’s a cult Specialist or not we need stories that engage the mind and make us feel like any of this could happen to us at any given moment not to mention scare the bejesus out of us as well. I miss these days and I really hope that somehow, we can get them back we have the talent we have the skill we have the outlet we can rebuild it we can make it better stronger than it was before.