[MarkWarner]

Last week's Spencer Spook was generally appreciated by the group, but a couple of us picked up on the fact that the scariness or lack of it was ill-defined. I suppose that is ghosts for you!

I admit this is another book that I choose because of its cover, which is bizarre to say the least!
I think Unusual Tales is an intriguing series, with a few other covers that stand out from the masses, so it's time to see what is inside.

Unusual Tales #5 can be found at
https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=19915, and the story we are concentrating on is the last one "The Lake That Lived". It looks interesting, but I am reading the whole book anyway

[Captain Audio]

"The Lake That Lived"

Thats an odd one alright. It's in the mold of folk tales or myths rather than sci fi or horror.
Old folk tales often make no sense, and aren't meant to, they give no real explanations they are meant to exercise a part of our mind thats seldom used. It gets you thinking even if your thoughts aren't productive.

It steps outside the box.

Of course the sci fi minded will think of the lake as an alien organism that just looks like a body of water, while the supernatural minded will look at it as a case of a spirit using a primary element as a physical presence to interact with the real world. The question is left open.
How easily the towns folk accepted the situation is the heart of the matter.

[SuperScrounge]

Woof! Woof! - Well... that was unusual... I can't help thinking that had it been done differently somehow, it might have worked, but as it is the punchline undercut the presentation.

The Eyes of the Beholder - An interesting idea let down by the ending which seemed too arbitrary. It felt more like the writer deciding that "now the coat works in reverse" rather than having it tied directly to what Frank did. It also ignores the fact that Frank has other clothes and money in the bank at this point.

The Man Who Changed Times - Why on earth would someone send a criminal back in time? The possibility of changing time never occured to them?

This is a Mystery? - Eh...

The Smile - Shame the artist couldn't do a better job of mimicing the Mona Lisa. Okay, but not great.

The Lake That Lived - Okay, but nothing special.

[crashryan]

Hard to believe that cover really refers to an interior story (sort of). It'd be hard to live up to this strange image, and "Woof! Woof!" doesn't manage to. There's the germ of a great story, but the writer just stalls for a couple of pages before delivering a punch line. Some GDA (Good Dog Art) here, and I get a kick out of the howling hillbilly in the last panel.

"Eye of the Beholder" is pretty standard fare. At least it has a beginning and an end. Looks like early Dick Giordano art to me.

"The Man Who Changed Times" is another so-so story with a weak finish. I'm bothered by the way Rand starts out relatively benign, then turns into a typical tough-guy crook halfway through the story. His hero-like appearance contributes to the impression that he isn't such a bad sort. And despite the closing caption Rand doesn't succumb to his "evil instinct to steal." He admires the jewels but he leaves them and takes the girl instead. Decent Giordano art here with Wood-like embellishments by d'Agostino.

"The Smile" is a bit of a mess. The message seems to be that love is possible only because women's "harmless guiles" deceive men. How harmless these guiles are is up to question, since revealing them will "brutalize" mankind. So Eros dresses in drag and sits for Leonardo? No wonder La Gioconda looks like a guy on the first page.

"This is a Mystery?" lives up to its title. Its cheap payoff was worth a short groan and a hearty, "Oh, come on!"

"The Lake that Lived" is pleasantly strange. Its offbeat premise makes up for a somewhat inconclusive ending. Rocco Mastroserio does a good job though he doesn't draw chickens any better than I do.

[narfstar]

"Yuh never heered such a story like this before" too true. But it was a heck of a lot of fun in its absurdity. Old Clem sure was a hard and fast worker digging all around the lake like that.

[Captain Audio]

Hard to believe that cover really refers to an interior story (sort of). It'd be hard to live up to this strange image, and "Woof! Woof!" doesn't manage to. There's the germ of a great story, but the writer just stalls for a couple of pages before delivering a punch line. Some GDA (Good Dog Art) here, and I get a kick out of the howling hillbilly in the last panel.

I think it would have worked better if his owner had simply been deaf as a post.

Excellent drawings of the dog, reminds me of the dog owned by one of the cyborg detectives in the "Ghost in the Shell" movies. Theres a sweet scene of the cyborg holding the dogs ears up while she eats from her food bowl. I've had to hold a girlfriend's hair like that while she threw up in the toliet after drinking too much. On more than one occasion as a matter of fact, different girlfriends over the years none of which could hold their likker.

[JVJ]

Decent Giordano art here with Wood-like embellishments by d'Agostino.

I believe these are Hy Fleishman's pencils, Crash, not Giordano's. That's where the "Wood embellishments are coming from, too.

"The Smile" is a bit of a mess. The message seems to be that love is possible only because women's "harmless guiles" deceive men. How harmless these guiles are is up to question, since revealing them will "brutalize" mankind. So Eros dresses in drag and sits for Leonardo? No wonder La Gioconda looks like a guy on the first page.

So how come "Eros" is supposed to have some secret smile? That part is never explained and it's the whole crux of the punch line! No wonder I don't read comics. And noone who does a story about the Mona Lisa really gets the SIZE right. It's only about 30" x 20" which looks pretty small when drawn to scale in a comic story.

I'm "resurfacing" again after a four and a half month project of going through EVERY Atlas comic and submitting the corrected data to the Atlas Tales site. Now that I've finished I have time to breathe again. Expect to hear from me a bit more frequently - hope you're doing well. (|:{>

[Mazzucchelli]

When I first saw the cover I was confused. Not sure if I was in to a real thrill or if I should expect bad nonsense.

The first story

[narfstar]

Been missing your name around here and DCM Jim. You are always busy contributing the comic book community. Now if you could ever find time to tackle Archie or Harvey comics. Like there would be enough time in the day for that, right

[Morgus]

The art was okay, but nothing great...the stories reminded me of kind that was used in TWILIGHT ZONE or BORIS KARLOFF...not bad, but they had to hedge their bets to keep the Comics Code folks happy.., so for instance, you could not say that the coat was haunted or cursed because that might create belief in the supernatural, boys and girls...THE LAKE THAT LIVED reminded me of those filler episodes on NIGHT GALLERY...they'd be four or five minutes and centre around a joke...thing is, there wasn't really a punch line this time...

[SuperScrounge]

the stories reminded me of kind that was used in TWILIGHT ZONE or BORIS KARLOFF...not bad, but they had to hedge their bets to keep the Comics Code folks happy..

Gold Key did not submit their books to the Comics Code Authority. Any hedging of bets in the Twilight Zone & Boris Karloff comics was strictly in-house.

[Morgus]

My bad, SuperScrounge. But you get what I mean...both books would feature stuff that would be hampered by lack of set up or explanation...like the one Karloff story where some guy had 'all the evil of the world' locked up. THE LAKE THAT LIVED reminded me most of an old pulp story WHISPER WATER..by Leah Bodine Drake. But the pulps could go into more depth and development.

[bowers]

 "Unusual Tales" is one of my favorite Charltons and I hadn't read this issue yet. Not sure how to classify this title- a mix of supernatural, sci-fi and horror, so I'll just label it as fantasy.
The opening story , while not very well drawn, was still pretty good. Page one panel 3 even managed to work in a tip of the hat to a then- running TV show, "The People's Choice". This show featured a talking (to the audience) basset named Cleo. Predictable ending but fun.
"Eyes of the Beholder" had much better art and a nice touch of irony in the ending.
I didn't care too much for the time-travel story or "Smile". Both were just OK- nothing special.
"The Lake that Lived" was the real star of the issue. I have no idea if it was meant to be a fantasy or a sci-fi tale. I just know I found it to be a ripping good yarn.
Charlton had some pretty good fantasy titles at the time. While never as good as EC, I liked them much better than the Atlas batch of monsters.
This one was good! Cheers, Bowers

[MarkWarner]

This is going to be my first ever read of an Unusual Tale despite the series always intriguing me. OK so the cover picture actually DOES relate to a story inside! A talking dog and the punchline of a howling owner was certainly interesting, but a bit weak. So saying, I thought some of the art was good as indeed is the really cool cover!

The next story The Eyes of the Beholder was pretty standard, but well executed. And BTW Huntington Rockerman is a totally fictitious name and any  similarity to Rockefeller is purely coincidental .

Next we have The Man Who Changed Times, which is also very workmanlike. Totally bizarre proposition ... but it led to the unforeseen (by me) little twist at the end. Next is a two page text story "This Is A Mystery?", and it also has a cool ending!

WOW I might have commented on his advertisement before, but 100 Airplanes for $1.25 including a hangar toy storage box (or is it spelt Hanger as per the illustration) is summat that I really want! 

I was confused about the next story, so I reread it and it now makes a bit more sense, Actually, I don't think it does at all!! We finish off with "The Lake That Lived" which was the best in the book, very peculiar and excellent. I really enjoyed it.

Verdict: A hit for me. It is books like this that make me suspect that Charlton is often unfairly maligned.