Friday, May 23, 2008

The Haunted House

I recently stumbled upon something called The Barker’s Blog containing a wealth of fascinating info about circus freaks, related art, pop culture stories, old comics, that sort of thing. The blog doesn’t appear to be active anymore though; the last entry was posted back in November of last year and was dedicated to the life of this awesome fellow:



But of interest to the THOIA gang is this: around Halloween ’07 The Barker posted 6 great pre-code horror stories, one of which I present to you here today (yes I swiped his scans, but I’m hoping he sees this and starts his great blog back in action!) It’s a really spooky Pete Tumlinson ghost story from Atlas, so if you like what you see then please visit The Barker’s Blog and check out the other various comic scans he posted, a few you’ve probably already seen here but also a few others you probably haven’t.

From the April 1954 issue of Journey into Unknown Worlds #26






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“NAME THAT FILM” CONTEST WINNER: Doug Bentin of Bethany, Oklahoma. Congrats Doug! You win the Eerie #12 comic book. There are plenty more contests coming up this summer people, so hang in there!

ANSWER:

Seven Keys to Baldpate (1917)
Thanks again to everyone who entered! Special Mention “No Prizes” goes to all the other fine film freaks who also guessed correctly: Michael Specht of Suffern NY, Brian Riedel of Hollywood CA, and John Hegenberger.

Answer to clue #4: Remade many times in film, the latest re-titled adaptation being the "House of Long Shadows" (1983) starring Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, John Carradine, and Peter Cushing (as pictured on the right hand side of this blog in the “Recommended Movie” section--- and staring you right in the face!)

Answer to Clue #5: Hedda Hopper.

14 comments:

Chuck Wells said...

Well, I'm very glad to find out the actual name of the thing. I see where I was in the right ballpark a few times during my search, but I guess I was just hitting foul balls.

Congrats to the winner!

Jeremy Rizza said...

How on earth did you get ahold of my "glamor shot"--?

Unknown said...

My hearty congratulations to the four who figured it out.

The Vicar of VHS said...

Oh, "Seven Keys to Baldpate"--of course! :rolleyes:

As to today's tale, another great one! Some wonderful weird art here--the old lady's face, Ben's physique (he's a real gangly Gus, isn't he?) and of course the art on the ghost himself!

On the splash page I immediately though, "Holy crap! It's the ghost of Madman Marz!" Brilliant!

Several great moments in this--I love that the title of Ben's Necronomicon is Ghostology. Retitled for marketing purposes, one presumes.

The creepy skeleton in the well is priceless, although on the next page it's also the source of an egregious flub--"I removed the axe from his skull..." Dude, I can see the bag, and you CLEARLY didn't! And anyway, I bet you wish you'd dissolved it too, now!

I'm going to have to check out the freakshow stuff too--I used to have a great book on sideshow performers called Very Special People that I must have read through a half-dozen times back in high school Fascinating stuff, the lives these people led. And of course, makes a run-of-the-mill high school freak feel hopeful. After all, if the Human Skeleton found his soulmate with the Fabulous Fat Lady, then there must be someone out there for everyone!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a good story with an interesting twist and some nice artwork. Some lonely old ladies get a pet for companionship; Mrs. Anderson likes a ghost around. I could have used more gruesome, though.

Despite Karswell's help, I couldn't name the film. I did guess Hedda Hopper, but couldn't come up with the right movie (and now I want to know what The Whip Woman is about). Congrats to those who figured it out.

Anonymous said...

COOL STORY, GHOSTS IN THE WELL SEEMS TO HAVE BECOME A FAVORITE SUBJECT OVER THE LAST HALF OF THE CENTURY WHAT WITH THE THE RINGU AND ALL THAT. NICE ARTWORK HERE TOO, THOUGH I'VE NEVER HEARD OF PETE TUMILSON WHICH SHOULD BE RECTIFIED AT ONCE!

I'VE SEEN THE BARKERS BLOG BEFORE TOO AND REALLY ENJOY IT, I WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GUY? CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CONTEST WINNER TOO!

Anthony said...

A nice story- I also especially liked the art on the old woman on page one. Beautifully done.

I did leave the story wondering why the old lady was doing all of this, but I think Jeffos hit the nail on the head (*ahem* as it were) with his comment. Strange that the story never actually addressed that fact.

But a lot of fun. Thanks for swiping- err- 'posting' it Karswell ;)

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Thanks for the link to The Barker blog. I am going to branch out my blog eventually to include as much of Klaus Nordling's The Barker as possible and they have two complete stories up as well. I recommend them to everyone.

Anonymous said...

Hell, I would have never figured out the movie still contest, although I am a fan of Der Bigger's Charlie Chan stuff I'm not very knowledgable on his other works.

I love the skeleton with the axe in his head, that is spooky stuff. Old ladies creep me out too.

Anonymous said...

Really well drawn story,very atmospheric,i also admit that that old lady is creepy,she must get together on weekends with the caretaker's wife from HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL and talk about how they like to scare people.thanks so much for the link to the barkers blog,amazing the stuff you don't know about on the internet.

The Vicar of VHS said...

>>amazing the stuff you don't know about on the internet.

Karwell's a real fount of information when it comes to that... ;)

Jeff Victor said...

Ok, steve, you whiny bastard.
Check out my blog! :)

Mr. Karswell said...

>Thanks for swiping- err- 'posting' it Karswell

Carrying on the fine pre-code horror swipe tradition in my own little way.

So wow... what a week, eh? From the shiverful grue of Dark Mysteries and Mysterious Advs to an old silent film contest that seriously destroyed many people's mental state (Chuck), I appreciate all the great comments and daily devotion from the lot of you... it's keeping me on my hooves to find bigger, badder, and uglier things to post for you every week.

FYI: This weekend will be an ALL HARVEY SPECTACULAR! We'll take a trip into the Chamber of Chills, and early next week the Tomb of Terror etc... all jammed packed with lots of fun one-page filler stuff (been scanning my forked tail off for the last few days.) Yep, lots of undead, ghouls, wasp women and maybe even a visit to the Rue Morgue to wrap up the final week of May.

Keep it glued, stay creepy...

Anonymous said...

What a great story ...the art had me thinking early Wrightson and the ghost looked like Bill Gaines.