Boris Karloff Tales Of Mystery Volume 6
Boris Karloff Tales Of Mystery Volume 6 (Dark Horse Books www.darkhorse.com)
Mention the name Boris Karloff to even the most uncouth, ill-educated, Saw-obsessed Horror fan, and a little light bulb will flick on behind their dim, pale and pasty eyes they’ll inevitably mumble something about Frankenstein’s Monster, the role which made Karloff famous, and the one with which he’s most associated. Yet, there was so much more to the man, both as a person and an actor, as he was already a well established character actor who’d had roles in more than seventy five film roles before being cast as the infamous monster. Personally, I think his best performance is in ‘The Raven’, a Roger Corman classic that pitted Karloff as the villain against Vincent Price and Peter Lorre, but I’m more than likely in minority, but it showed his warmer, more humorous side, facets of his personality which made him perfect to host his own strange, horror comic series. Imagine if EC Comics had made the Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock presents, and voila, that’s the formula for ‘Tales Of Mystery’, a series of short, sharp Horror and mystery related tales with a sting in the tale. In fact,. The artwork is highly reminiscent of the classic EC books, which isn’t surprising as the publisher set the bench mark as far as horror comics were concerned, but it’s the stories where ‘Tales…’ comes into it’s own. Each is introduced by Karloff, acting as guide and narrator for the inevitable story of misfortune and ghastliness that follows. Okay, so the stories feel a little dated, but on the whole they’re entertaining yarns, and ‘Takes Of Mystery’is the perfect way to spend an afternoon or three, whiling away the hours, lost in pulp horror perfection. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore, so thank whatever deity you pray to for the Dark Horse Archives, as this time, they’ve released a bone fide classic… Tim Mass Movement
