Saturday, January 19, 2008

The Living Head

I have a couple spooky severed head stories for you today for Double Post Saturday… so hang on to your own noggin’ as we let’em roll!

From the April 1953 issue of Forbidden Worlds #16







6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for reminding me why the pun is the highest for of terror. Also, excellent post.

Unknown said...

This wins the all-time award for non sequiturs and most consistently ridiculous conclusions.

I'M GLAD YOU CAME, DARLING--BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING I CAN'T GET OFF MY MIND! YOU CALLED THAT GHOULISH THING LAST NIGHT A LIVING HEAD--AND I WONDER--COULD IT HAVE LIVED FOR SEVERAL HUNDRED YEARS?

Anonymous said...

THE SEVERED ARMS COMING OUT OF THE COFFIN ARE CREEPIER THAN THE HEAD! ANOTHER GOOD POST, THESE ACG STORIES ALL HAVE THE SAME GUY / GIRL IN PERIL SET UP, ITS FUN TO SEE HOW MANY VARIATIONS THEY CAN ACTUALLY DO WITH IT SUCCESSFULLY.

Mr. Karswell said...

>HOW MANY VARIATIONS THEY CAN ACTUALLY DO WITH IT SUCCESSFULLY.

Well they're not all successful by any shot. I have entire issues of Adv into Unknown Worlds, Skeleton Hand, and Forbidden Worlds that don't have a single decent story inside. But yeah, ACG found a formula that worked for them (the same one used over and over by Hollywood in the B classics) and stuck to it. A really good ACG story can also sometimes be spoiled by the happy, "we fought evil and lived so now let's get married" ending, but mostly it works as a capper to the ridiculously entertaining proceedings.

Anonymous said...

Actually,i think that that setup makes ACG's stories distinctive.what a chilling way to begin a story!and the charcoal-tinted moments are great!i also like how the gruesome dismemberment is implied rather than shown(not that i don't love a nice,juicy gorefest here and now!).

Captainadam said...

Man those two talked a lot. This might be the post with most text yet.