Saturday, June 2, 2018

Poe 1953, Pt. 3B

(Continued from Poe 1953, Pt. 3A)

TOMB OF TERROR  10
"NOAH'S ARG-H!"

Harvey Comics, a publisher founded by Alfred Harvey, was in business from 1941 to 1994.  For most of their existence they specialized in children's humor books, including SAD SACK, CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST and RICHIE RICH.  However, early-on, they published all sorts of genres, inclding crime, super-heroes, and horror.

One of their titles, TOMB OR TERROR, ran for 16 issues from 1952-54.

Among the many and varied anthology stories was this oddball item, which I ran across at the Comic Book Plus site, completely by accident!  A quick glance at its pages revealed to me it was an obvious take-off on one of Poe's humor tales...

"THE ADVENTURE OF HANS PFALL"

     This was thr 2nd comics version of this story, following...
Gilberton's CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED #40 (Aug'47)
     ...some 6 years earlier.

I rather imagine someone might argue the validity of my claim here, but when I consider just how "loose" some of the so-called "adaptations" I've seen from Marvel, EC, in one case, Gilberton, not to mention the films of Roger Corman, have been, I think I'm on solid ground here.

In both cases, the stories are played for laughs.  They both involve a man who goes to absurd lengths to get away from his wife, who commits murder in the process, and winds up permanently marooned as a result of his efforts.  And, both stories' names are BAD PUNS.

Overall, I'd say this thing has far more in common with Poe's story than it does with the story its name obviously took its inspiration from, in THE BIBLE.

The artist was Howard Nostrand.  He started out as an assistant for Bob Powell, and in 1959-60 did the syndicated newspaper strip BAT MASTERSON.

TOMB OF TERROR  10
cover by LEE ELIAS   (Harvey  /  July 1953)
"NOAH'S ARG-H!"
     (inspired by "HANS PFALL")  /  Version 2
Story & Art by HOWARD NOSTRAND  /  Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
HARVEY HORRORS COLLECTED WORKS:  TOMB OF TERROR  2
cover by LEE ELIAS   (PS  /  England  /  2012)
HARVEY HORRORS COLLECTED WORKS:  TOMB OF TERROR SOFTEE  2
cover by LEE ELIAS   (PS  /  England  /  2014)
Public Domain.

Howard Nostrand.
Scan of TOMB OF TERROR #10 cover from the Heritage Auctions site.
Scans of TOIMB OF TERROR #10 #40 interiors from the Comic Book Plus site
     Special thanks to "Tilliban".
Scans of HARVEY HORROR COLLECTED WORKS:
     TOMB OF TERROR #2 (2012) from the GCD site.
Scans of HARVEY HORROR COLLECTED WORKS:
     TOMB OF TERROR SOFTEEE #2 (2014) from the GCD site.
Photo of Howard Nostrand from the Wikipedia site. 

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at The Poe Museum site.
Read about Edgar Allan Poe at the Biography site.


Read about Harvey Comics at Don Markstein's Toonopedia site.
Read about Lee Elias at the Lambiek Comiclopedia site.
Read about Howard Nostrand at the Lambiek Comiclopedia site.
Read about Howard Nostrand at the This Is Horror site.

Read about THE UNPARALLELED ADVENTURE OF HANS PFALL
     at the Infinity Plus site.
Read the complete short story at the EAPoeOrg site.
See the HANS PFALL Gallery of Illustrations.

Read the BOY'S LIFE Stories From The Bible versions of "Noah's Ark".

     Comics:
Read the Henry C. Kiefer HANS PFALL adaptation!
Read the Howard Nostrand HANS PFALL adaptation!
     (Coming soon:)
Read the Dino Battaglia HANS PFALL adaptation!
Read the Hieronomous Fromm HANS PFALL illustrated story!

See the CHRONOLOGICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!
See the ALPHABETICAL list of Edgar Allan Poe stories!

(Continued in Poe 1953, Pt. 4)

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