Friday, September 7, 2007

Mirror of Doom

Though ACG’s Skeleton Hand series only ran 6 issues before it folded, it was a decent title with plenty of classic weird horror tales from the talented likes of Lin Streeter, Harry Lazarus, etc... and today’s creaky little tale about a mirror that bridges the gap between the awful dead and the awfuller living proves yet again what an asset King Ward was to ACG too.

From the March / April 1952 issue of Skeleton Hand #4




8 comments:

Anonymous said...

NEAT IDEA TO HAVE THE MIRROR BRING FORTH GHOSTS THAT WERE MURDERED IN WHATEVER ROOM THE MIRROR IS CURRENTLY IN

Mr. Karswell said...

Yeah, a simple little twist on an much used plot device like a mirror can create an entirely new, fresh idea to work around (another successful simple modern horror idea being the cursed video tape as seen in The Ring films.) But mirrors have played many good roles in some of my favorite films like John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness and Robert Hamer's Haunted Mirror segment from Dead of Night '45.

Anonymous said...

love those movies too...... for noly being 4 pages long this story has a couple cool ideas actually, almost wish we could have seen the guy win with his ghost army!!!

Anonymous said...

also wanted to add that i think i bought that mirror from some antique shop! AAAAAAAAA!!!!

Mr. Karswell said...

Let me know if you need help finding recruits for your own Legion of Evil!

Anonymous said...

I agree,for 4 pages(you can tell from the crammed first page it was a last minute job,but the beautiful art is not.)this is pretty good,it would've made a great full length story,and for some reason,even though he's pretty gaunt,and doesn't have broad shoulders or thick eyebrows,doesn't Forsythe look like Boris Karloff?

Mr. Karswell said...

You're right, it is totally Karloff... maybe the Skeleton Hand editor said, "Quickly, somebody give me a four pager starring Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre as two nutty antiquarians fighting over a haunted mirror! And make sure somewhere in there it says something about Legions of Evil!"

Bill the Butcher said...

Can't tell you how much I love how the late Forsythe Senior flew away from his son as fast as his ghost could go. In his place, wouldn't you?