[MarkWarner]

I certainly was the member who least enjoyed last week's choice .. but ever the optimist, this one looks really good. Well, at least according to the comments left!

So it's The Thing #1 which can be found here https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=18116 and the story we are concentrating on is the first one "The Creature From Dimension 2-K-31" If nothing else a cool sounding series name and a cool sounding title for a story!

[SuperScrounge]

The Creature From Dimension 2-K-31 - Eh, okay, but nothing special.

Grunwald - Ummm... yeah... interesting idea for a story, but I don't think the finished product worked.

Nightmare - ... wha? You know, some writers believe that a story should make sense and be consistant, clearly this writer believes differently.

The Thing! - Not bad.

Hellfire Of Doom - Probably the best story in the book.

[Philv]

The Thing #1
- The Creature from Dimension  2-K-31 - This was a pretty cool story!  The panel of the physicist's lab was my favorite!   I liked the way it incorporated the Korean War, a current event of the time, with a monster story.  There was a good flashback to explain the Thing's aversion to metal, that was later put to good use, at the end of the story.  The whole tank thing was kind of hokey, but I'm glad the military picked it up with a net, so the soldiers didn't end up having to go inside.  All in all, a good read.  I've seen the original B&W 1951 movie, "The Thing from another World" with James Arness, and there seems to be a slight connection between it and this story.

- Grunwald had a great premise, but the story was over before the rats could really give you a sense of dread.  If you haven't heard it, you should listen to the Old Time Radio show, Escape "Three Skeleton Key".  It's based on a short story by George G. Toudouze. It is this story, but told so much better.

- Nightmare had a good idea going for it too, it just wasn't written very well, in my opinion.

- Hellfire of Doom - this wasn't a bad story.  It had a good plot and the killer was a mystery to me right to the end.  I wish there was a clue as to what motivated the killings and why an escaped scientist was automatically suspected. 

[narfstar]

The Thing story was pretty stupid. What caused the professor to be obsessed with this other dimension and how did he even know of it? The story made less sense than most.

[MarkWarner]

So here we go with the issue #1 of The Thing. I like the title name, and the cover is pretty cool. It reminds me of my bathroom!

We start off with our main story "The Creature From Dimension 2-K-31". So the experiments of 2 scientists on different worlds collide, and

[crashryan]

I've always associated "The Thing" with Steve Ditko, but here it's all Tyler and Forgione. Not my favorite artists, but they do competent work and put a little extra into the stories. I like the masthead with creepy faces worked into it.

The IFC follows emulates Wallace Wood's work in Avon comics. An odd note is the picture of a colossus wrecking a lighthouse with a club. I wonder if they just didn't want to give away "Grunwald's" rat angle, or whether the artists hadn't yet read the script and were winging it.

"The Creature from Dimension 2-K-31" has an interesting, if unlikely premise--simultaneous experiments result in a trans-dimensional creature exchange--but the writer tries to tell two different stories. Of main interest is the creature running amok wrecking things. The shape-shifting subplot doesn't go anywhere and seems like a digression. I wish they'd used the space to show more of the trouble the ape causes in the other dimension. One thing took me by surprise: the line on story page 4, "Get it, you queers!" Even in the wild days before the Code certain things never saw print, among them "dirty" words and homophobic slurs. Strange. I like the alien's statement that he's "gathered...all worthwhile ingredients" to create his monster.

As everyone has noted, "Grunwald" rips off "Three Skeleton Key." Consequently this story is better-structured than the previous one. The goofy decision to make the hero's companions a sadistic hunchback and a weak-minded giant is typical comic book lily-gilding. It weakens the impact because we don't care much about them. The other weakness is that at key points the artists don't draw the rats. The chilling scene in which the men turn on the lamp to find rats covering the lighthouse windows really needs wall-to-wall rats. I imagine Tyler and Forgione felt they weren't being paid enough to draw ten thousand rats. Ending the story by having the rats drawn to the supply ship is a satisfactory way to end the tale, since there isn't room for the original story's elaborate conclusion.

"Nightmare" has potential but its stupid shock ending betrays the build-up and wrecks everything. It's strange how many captions sound like the narration of radio show horror hosts ("I can just imagine how Hiram feels, but we must leave our bookkeeper now..."). We expect to see a host in the captions but none appears.

"The Hellfire of Doom" is more a crime story than a horror story. It works okay despite a deus-ex-machina explanation. Some of the dialogue is truly bizarre: "Look out! The flames will get you! Too bad we can't help those very unfortunate people!" I'm sure that's what commenter MediocreMan meant when he said the dialogue reads "like a bad Japanese translation."

Overall, a so-so book with high and low spots, and a respectable job by the artists.

[bowers]

Embarrassingly late on this one- it's getting crazy at work! Anyway, I only had time to read the feature story. It looks like Charlton was trying something a bit different for the times- a sympathetic monster title. They would later return to this theme in the 60's with Konga and, to a lesser extent, Gorgo. One can't help but feel a bit sorry for this artificial-life creature. Thrown into a hostile environment and left to fend for itself with only a pre-programmed mission to dictate it's actions. Interesting concept, yet some parts of the story were poorly written, such as the intro with Prof. Rico. It made very little sense. Still, this title ran for a couple years so it must have found an audience. If I can ever get caught up on my reading, I'll try a later issue to see how this character evolves. Cheers, Bowers