Where Monsters Dwell #23 [1973]

by

A retitled 7-page Kirby/Ayers reprint from STRANGE TALES #92 [1962] leads off this issue, so “The Thing Hunts For Me” becomes “The Monster Hunts For Me”. No doubt because calling a creature “The Thing” in 1973 at Marvel had a different effect than it did a decade earlier. In this short tale a young woman gets a cheap room in New York City, where one of the other tenants is a reclusive old man. He approaches her that night and tells her his story about seeing an alien ship land three years earlier and being pursued by a creature from the ship.

WhereMonstersDwell231973.jpg

Only managing to get aways thanks to the creature’s aversion to water. He’s been on the run ever since, and is now dying of a weak heart and wants to tell someone his story. A sudden knock on the door frightens him, giving him a fatal heart attack, never realizing that the girl he trusted was in fact the alien.

This is a pretty good, moody story with a few great bits of art, including the design of the alien, especially on the splash page (although in this case I think it was actually improved in the reprint colouring). On the other hand, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect with the script, as it’s kind of hard to reconcile some of the early narration from the young woman with the surprise revelation.

The cover is also from STRANGE TALES #92, one of a handful of experiments from the era with using panel art on the covers, but not the most effective examples.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *