The 7-page "Trophy Room" is the lead story of this Charlton comic. The writer is Gary Petras, and it features an arrogant young big-game hunter named Woodrow Kingsley. The opening is a great shot of him in this trophy room, full of the usual array of stuffed and mounted animals. As he shows off his various prizes, he rebuffs a lecture on conservation by one guest, while another expresses interest in going with him to hunt some elephant. Later in Africa, Kingley makes some joking comments about wanting to hunt humans, but it turns out he wasn't joking when the guide they hire fails to find them some illegal elephants to shoot. The guide's grandmother doesn't buy that accident story, and curses Kingsley, which he dismisses until he returns to his trophy room.
Kind of a half-formed story, really. There are some really nice bits in Ditko's art, especially the animals and the shooting scene, which captures the fear and insanity on the faces well, but other parts are the more workmanlike style with minimal backgrounds that a few stories from this era feature. And it's not a very inspiring story in any case.
Ditko is a master of facial expressions and emotions, even in his present work he still occasionally comes through with an interesting, unique character look.
ReplyDeleteNick C.
I must admit I do prefer Ditko's Marvel stuff in the 1960s to his 1970s' Charlton work but it's always interesting to see what he was up to at the time, and I have a lot of affection for Charlton Comics in general anyway.
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