I think their one-shot Dracula was all euro reprints.

Ah, that makes so much more sense! Thanks for this.




I just checked it out, and no. Not at all.

Oops. Somehow, I missed this one a LONG while back, so I'm reviewing it now, a full year behind when it was actually published!


"Buried Pleasure" (from Creepy #49, November 1972)

art by: Esteban Maroto

my grade: B-



Plot synopsis:

A pirate captain and crew stumble upon a dazed man who wants to hire them to dig up something important. Presuming he means treasure, they take him aboard, planning to kill him once the treasure is found. Throughout the voyage to his mysterious destination, crew members keep being killed by some shadowy culprit. We finally learn it's the captain, killing off his men so that the treasure is split in fewer pieces. In the end, it's just him and the dazed man, but the treasure they unearth isn't gold -- it's the dazed man's vampiric mistress, who promptly bites the captain on the neck.



There are a few things to like about this story, which was clearly inspired by yet another of Moench's horror movie rerun viewings. The repeated mysterious deaths aboard the pirate ship was likely inspired by a viewing of Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula film (you know, the famous Bela Lugosi one?) or perhaps the earlier 1922 F.W. Murnau Nosferatu. Either way, that sequence was eerily familiar, even if Moench tried to take it in a different direction.

And the mysterious passenger with a secret that will yield karmic retribution for his abusers, well that's right out of the Atom Age horror stories Moench grew up upon.

But you put them together, and the final story we're given doesn't have a whole lot of plausibility, even for a campy horror tale. I mean, these pirates have to have SOME sense, right? Surely betting EVERYTHING on a dazed passenger who just might be out of his mind was a pretty foolish idea. Captain, kill your crew AFTER you've verified the treasure exists! And besides, what if the treasure isn't all that big? Recruiting a good crew -- that's priceless and difficult to replace.

Beyond all that, Esteban Maroto's involvement in this story ensures, as always, that any visual concepts Moench had in mind for this story are not realized. Moench has gone on record singling out Maroto as being his least favorite artist to work with because he never followed Moench's directions.

So there are some interesting aspects to this story, and it's cool to see Moench venturing out into the pirate horror sub-genre for once, but the tale ultimately falters.

"Sense of Violence" (from Creepy #57, November 1973)

art by: Isidro Monés ("Munes")

my grade: A



Plot Synopsis: A man walking down a dark street fears for his safety, is approached by another man and assumes he is about to be mugged. Instead, we watch a horrific stabbing and see the shadowy figure flee for his life, ultimately running to the cops and revealing it's the man from the beginning, and he stabbed a detective checking to see why he was out so late at night.


This definitely makes my top five Moench horror stories of all time, beginning with a pretty impressive essay about violence in our culture:






and then transitioning into the introduction of our protagonist, so burdened by these reflections on violence in our culture that Moench provides an unending torrent of internal narration that is delightfully saturated with fear of violence:



Moench could have stopped at any point prior to this and, even without a plot, I would have been awed. But he then has our fearful protagonist approached by a stranger, and that's where Munes' art takes the reigns:





Whereas Moench often experienced frustration with Spanish artists not following his art instructions, Muno seems to "get it" perfectly. The dynamic panel arrangements feel in-keeping with what we saw earlier on when Moench was still providing breakdowns to his artists, and (more importantly) Muno does an excellent job of conveying the misdirection this story so dearly depends upon.

In the end, even if you could tell that Moench was going for the same twist ending he pulled back with "The Thrill of The Hunt", you respect the clever trickery being employed.



My only regret is that the ending, in which everything gets explained, drags on for an entire tedious page. I feel like it could have been done with less words in a single panel ("He thought he was the victim, but he was really the killer!").


But overall...wow.

Sekowsky + Cardy? Sign me up!

I probably need that Pirate story.

And Sekowsky + Cardy looks pretty cool to me.

Also, Swamp Thing and Man-Thing were in development at the same time... All parties involved in their creation swear that Swampy didn't influence Manny. (Or vice versa.)

Yeah, it was something like that.  I don't think Wein and Thomas were roomies, but (probably Wein)  and (someone @ Marvel.)