So, yesterday’s Mysterious Adventures post was a big hit, and hopefully today’s story (from the same issue) proves just as weird and exciting to everyone. And boys boys boys… maybe today we won’t get so distracted by the mesmerizing attributes of Valerie Leon too, okay?
From the October 1951 issue of Mysterious Adventures #4
From the October 1951 issue of Mysterious Adventures #4
The ending has me wondering how he was smart enough to be a doctor to begin with.
ReplyDeleteNice story! I would really love to see some of the later issues of Mysterious Adventures, as well as other titles, where they featured excessive gore in the stories in order to compete in sales with the flood of other
ReplyDeletepre-code horror comics on the stands at that time.
Excessive gore? Yes to that. Just ask that chick at the bottom of this post.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that she's all for it. Count me mesmerized!
>Just ask that chick at the bottom of this post.
ReplyDeleteValerie Leon again... she won't leave us alone!
ANOTHER FANTASTIC EXAMPLE OF MYSTERIOUS ADVS! THIS STORY HAS SUCH A GREAT HOOK......... I STILL THINK HOLLYWOOD HAS AN UNTAPPED RESOURCE FOR MATRIAL IN PRECODE COMICS INSTEAD OF JUST ONE ENDLESS REMAKE AFTER ANOTHER THEY SHOULD BE LOOKING AT THESE STORIES.
ReplyDeleteI've been absent from the blog world for just a little bit. Looking forward to catching up on your great posts. This looks like an excellent place to start!!
ReplyDeleteI liked the story all right--though why the sheriff would need to rummage through an ancient skeleton for an inquest prop is a little unclear...or why the doctor, knowing what he did, would cavalierly bring the neck bones of the skeleton...but still, a good hook, as someone said, and a nice follow-through.
ReplyDeleteI have to say though--I'm no expert, but comparing the art in this story with some of the others posted here, I can't help but find it a little lacking, especially in the face drawings. I know it was probably rushed and all, but it still looks kind of sub-par.
But, I guess the art is like the grammar and spelling in these things--hit and miss. :) I still dug it--after all, it's a "WIERD" and "GRIZZLY" tale! :)
Very original concept for a story,i was surprised.man,that sheriff sure was young,huh?and did anyone notice the bat outside the window?thought it was a red herring at first...
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned in the intro to The Coffin Fits post, these early Mysterious Adventure stories are not the best illustrated... they greatly improved their artist bullpen in later issues, but the stories became less interesting in my opinion and just a bunch of attempts to be like EC instead of original like in these stories I'm posting this week. I'm personally more interested in stories with cool IDEAS than just what's the most gory one or whatever.
ReplyDeletelove that pic of valerie, if you look closely you can see a bittle of nipple!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that the later issues of Mysterious Adventures were more derivative of the EC stories. I am also far more interested in seeing a more original story than one that is simply soaked in gore. What I was saying is that it is fun sometimes to see just how far these publishers were willing to go to sell their books.
ReplyDeleteIf this is Stan Ash, he gets better in certain way s and not at all in others. He's in this comic series. In other issues he signs his work but this is his best story I could find. It's called, 'Grounds For Murder,' in Lawbreakers Suspense Stories.
ReplyDeleteThere's an E.C. story with a similar plot but this one takes it further into a very weird territory. The bottom panel on page three is especially interesting to me. He claws on the sugar bag as he laughs and dreams of murder. The characters are smiling with manic expressions throughout most of the story. I would expect a lot of people would read the story and see it as an example of, 'one of those terrible non-E.C. titles.'
The laughing characters and the crudeness of the drawings make this tale unique.
Here it is: http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=26398
I posted Grounds for Murder here at THOIA back in March 2018:
ReplyDeletehttps://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2018/03/acid-test-grounds-for-murder.html?m=1
Oh... sorry about that. It doesn't show up on the Stan Ash link. It's kind of the ultimate crazy primitive pre-code horror story. It could almost be a spoof of the fifties horror comics.
ReplyDeleteIt has a feverish nightmare intensity that feels pathological.