Saturday, July 19, 2008

The Finger

This is our first creepy sci-fi tale of the weekend, and like I said, if you thought you were going to see something out of Buck Rogers today then you don’t know your THOIA. And what’d I tell ya? I told ya I’d be giving you The Finger today, didn’t I? I wish I could say I was giving you The Devil Horns. Bang. Your. Heads.

From the January 1952 issue of Astonishing #8








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Even the Dubble Bubble Gang got in on the horror action back in the day. Actually, when The Finger from another dimension wasn’t chewing up the scenery (and cast) in the tale above, it was moonlighting on the side and starring as bubblegum in ads from the 50’s like this one. What an actor!

13 comments:

Kitty LeClaw said...

Bang. Your. Heads.

Unbaptized, and ready to serve only The Dark Master!

silvano said...

clever little story from the fifties ! This would've been a great plot for a "Twilight Zone" episode !
Thanks for sharing

Mr. Cavin said...

Yum. Secret flavored gum.

You know, I really liked this one,and am surprised that for at least two pages it was really pretty challenging sci-fi. Of course, if you were to follow the diagram, it's pretty obvious that us two dimensional creatures would only really perceive the circles where the scientists fingers were bisected by the plane of the sheet. While I loved the art on this one, I might've liked to see some real thought go into what it might look like to have our own 3D "sheet" of perception bisect a solid extra-dimensional mass.

And what's up with "nothing we have can harm [the creature]" ...except, you know, a pole? And why on Earth can the thing take the shape of humans? And why does the scientist know this?

Man, I think there is probably no subgenre of horror I like better than theoretical sci-fi horror. And the Heath cover to this issue is a real wowser too. Thanks Karswell.

Anonymous said...

CREEPY. KIND OF LIKE THE BLOB'S WEIRD SHAPELESS COUSIN ONLY MINUS THE RED FOOD COLOR ADDITIVE. THIS PROBABLY WOULD HAVE MADE A GOOD MOVIE IF EXPANDED UPON MORE, SEEMS LIKE ALOT OF THESE GREAT PRE CODE SHORT STORIES ARE JUST STARTING JUST AS THEY'RE ENDING.

KIDAS ART IS SUPER, NOT EVERYDAY YOU SEE A JUNGLE MONSTER SCI FI TALE AROUND HERE, A REAL NICE CHANGE OF PACE K!

Pappy said...

Ah, good ol' Pud. You just never know when he'll pop up. Yuk, yuk.

Frederick said...

Cool story! I wonder why he didn't just take the stick out of it, and rejoin with it, instead of destroying it. And where did the "death-ray camera" come from?

so many questions...

Anonymous said...

So the narrator was the monster? How did we get the story? And the finger started writhing in violent fury when it recognized the rest of its body?

The head, she reels.

But a very cool story. I actually enjoy all the plot holes. And I agree that it would have made a good Twilight Zone episode.

joe ackerman said...

jinkies! scary alien blue-tac!! run away!

Mr. Karswell said...

Hey gang, sorry to be chiming in here so late today but thanks to everyone who stopped by and commented. I know weekends are tough cuz most of us sit and stare at a computer screen all week and like to keep it seperate. But---

Next up: Another sci-fi horror-rama from Astonishing #8!

Anonymous said...

Wow..the finger and a pud.keep those body parts coming!

Unknown said...

Fleer touted its "secret flavor" so many silly ways. Pud scared me more than the monster.

Unknown said...

P.S. Love that last panel. Photographer would make some action figure.

Captainadam said...

I don't understand how poking it with a stick work. Why didn't the stick disappear like everything else that touched it?