Thursday, October 25, 2012
Groove's Faves: "Gargoyle Every Night" by Thomas and Wrightson
Hey, hey, hey, Groove-ophiles! From the Forgotten Files of Fear, Ol' Groove has dug up a reprint from Giant-Size Chillers #3 (May 1975) of Berni Wrightson's Marvel Comics debut way back in Chamber of Darkness #7 (July 1970). Co-written by Wrightson and Roy Thomas, this macabre masterpiece was Plopping before Plop ever Plopped its first Plop!
Hey Groovy one!
ReplyDeleteMan, I really loved this era in comics! 1970 & 71 were my Golden Age. Both DC & Marvel had not only a ton of great talent & superheroes. But their monster mags & supernatural heroes blew me away. Especially with talents like Wrightson, Ploog, Barry Windsor Smith, Gil Kane, Kirby & Gene Colan! I can't believe Oct is already almost over! SIGH! I love halloween!
The story really is quite silly and illogical. If the gargoyle were the old man's natural form, then why would he create a 'golden angel' gargoyle to thwart himself? And why would he turn into a bearded old man by day in the first place? These non sequitur plot holes do it in. There is no 'gargoyle lore' in place to explain those things.
ReplyDeleteThe implicit idea is that the gargoyle turned into a human as a daytime disguise, but the fleshly trappings also caused him to have sympathy for his 'fellow' human beings, thus creating the golden angel and giving it power over his baser motives...but once it was destroyed, he reverted to form...permanently. That's what I derived from this story.
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