From the Sept/Oct 1954 issue of Fantastic Fears #9
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Strange and Stranger: The World of Steve DitkoThis week I'm featuring stories from Ajax’s Fantastic Fears series, a pre-code title where comic book legend Steve Ditko actually got his professional career start (in issue #5.) So it’s only appropriate that this week a new art book tracing Ditko's life and career should arrive in stores, showcasing his unparalleled stylistic innovations from the thousands of pages of comics he's drawn over the last 55 years.
For more info and/or to order click HERE!
For more info and/or to order click HERE!
Fun story! And that splash page goes beyond risque' for the time.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how Angus and the narrator both go out of their way to mention that Angus and Mary's looks are "gruesome" since their deaths, but they're drawn better looking as ghosts than they were as living people.
Another masterpiece of dark and campy humour ; besides that NECROPHILIAC DEAD could have been great song title for Slayer in the eighties ...
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing
Wow, I have to agree with Dane. That splash really is beyond anything that I would have expected from the era in which it was released.
ReplyDeleteThe tale ain't bad, but I would have liked to see the rest of what that splash promised. Karswell did promise us some necrophilia after all.
Original. Half Romance, half Elizabethan Revenge Drama staring ghosts. Gotta love it. (except is Angus skipping on the first panel of page six?)
ReplyDeleteNot necrophilia as much as hot ghost loving - but since they killed all their families I would have liked to see the families' ghosts rise from the dead and exact some ghostly revenge on the two young lovers.
ReplyDeleteGETTING DOWN AND DIRTY IN THE CRYPT! WHAT A SPLASH AND COOL REVEGNE STORY, VERY DIFFERENT THAN USUAL AS THEY ASSASINATE EACH OTHER'S FAMILIES. MARY IS QUITE A HOTTIE, ESPECIALLY IN THE MIDDLE PANEL ON PAGE FOUR.
ReplyDeleteTHE DITKO BOOK SOUNDS GREAT TOO.
Wow! Sex and Death: the Peanut Butter and Chocolate of horror! And what as great little Reese's Cup this story is!
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see that even though they're enjoying hot carnal love beyond the grave, Angus and Mary are still not committing the cardinal sin of cohabitation! After gettin' it on, they scurry back to their own tombs. I guess there are some mores even murderous fornicating zombies won't violate!
Also nice to see that in death they maintain their senses of humor. In fact (chuckle), they seem to be having a grand ol' time! Hee-hee! Ho-ho-ha! Ha-ho-hee-ha-hoooooo boy!
This has to be the first time I've ever seen a ghost slip someone a poison pill, however. And if they're incorporeal, why did they have to open the graves? More importantly, if they lack physical substance, how...I mean what...how does that WORK?
One thing's for sure--that crypt has got to be just reeking of spilled ectoplasm, IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN...
Great stuff, K!
Ok, now I'm extra-vexed, because MY Scottish forefathers lived in a fishing village and not in a TOTALLY RAD AND SKULL-BEDECKED CASTLE. Also, to the best of my knowledge, none of them rose from the grave for sex-related purposes.
ReplyDeleteDamn. Family is always so disappointing.
I actually live in Scotland, and this kind of thing happens all the time around here.
ReplyDeleteI can't step out the door without tripping over another undead zombie ghost thing rising from the grave to seek bloody vengeance on those who've wronged them.
Flippin' nuisance.
It's still necrophilia! The zombie in "Haeckel's Tale" wasn't a necrophile, as he preferred to get busy with a living girl. There are so many options open to today's modern zombie.
ReplyDeleteThe above comment was from meeeee, I was just logged in improperly. I can't get Blogger to kill that account entirely, so I make slip-ups from time to time, and beg forgiveness later.
ReplyDeleteSilvano mentioned that this would have been a good song title for SLAYER- well, whaddya know.. Slayer actually did do a song about this stuff called "Necrophilliac" with such inspiring lyrics as: "Mortuaries, dead of night
ReplyDeleteMy body starts to rise
In my mind the horror lives
To feel death deep inside
Relentless lust of rotting flesh
To thrash the tomb she lies
Heathen whore of Satan's wrath
I spit at your demise"
Leave it to SLAYER to cover all the bases!
This was another fun story, kinda had some internal confusion going on, like why one minute they are described as zombies then the next they are ghosts who can't be seen, except by the mother who sees Angus without problem... anyway gotta love it!!
Wow -- good story, indeed. Murder, sex, revenge, ghosts, curses. What could possibly be missing? Noting -- except some shirts for every male in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteLittle known fact: the two clans hated each other because they each claimed to have started the "going shirtless" fashion of the 1560s. The fad was short-lived, however, as the clans wiped each other out. And winter came.
A truly hilarious mound of excellent comments here... literally EVERYONE today caused me to do a spittake while trying to drink a soda and read the comments! Nice work gang, of course having easy material to work with helps too, and while we still have two more stories from this issue to go this week I don't think any of them are as insanely inspired as this one.
ReplyDeleteIf a bonnie kill a bonnie lass...
I love the last panel on page eight, when both Scottish castles just blow up For No Apparent Reason. The end!
ReplyDeleteThe Ditko book bites-I want my money back.
ReplyDelete