Saturday, July 5, 2008

The Smiling Woman

This weekend we’ll be paying tribute to those fun lovin’ jokesters who make horror movies and pre-code comics so much torturous fun--- the prankster! After all, without them and their ill-fated "fast ones" we’d sometimes hardly have a story even worth getting all revengie over in the first place. Hey, while we’re at it, did you ever play a practical joke on someone that went a little too far or maybe even backfired? If so, let’s hear about it, and quickly--- before the supernatural swoops in and pulls the ultimate prank on YOU!
From the December 1952 issue of Weird Horrors #5







Plus, don’t miss more rare pre-code horror story posts this holiday weekend with another Jack Cole terror classic from Web of Evil called "A Pact with the Devil" over at Ger’s blog HERE, as well as another great Ace classic "Recruits for the Legion of the Undead" over at Pappy’s blog HERE! And if that ain't enough Mr. Doortree has a handful of Sid Check gold including a great story from Beware #10 called "Guest of the Ghouls", as well as a wild Atlas sci-fi adventure called "Machine Age" from Journey into Mystery #17. Click HERE!



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And of course no comic book would be complete without ads like these... if you have a ripped-off story about any of this mail-order crap let's hear about that as well.


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11 comments:

  1. silvano7/05/2008

    The comic is great , but the mailorder ads are the icing on the cake !

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  2. Dane7/05/2008

    I always wanted to send away for that stuff but would never have been allowed to. Mom always told me that stuff was junk.

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  3. Kitty LeClaw7/05/2008

    I get a serious Castle Greyskull vibe from the mansion on page 2.

    Dane: My Mother let me learn things the hard way. The hot pepper chewing gum really isn't all that hot.

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  4. Anonymous7/05/2008

    OOOOOOOO THE SMILING WOMAN IS SUPERBLY SPOOKY AND THAT SPLASH IS A KNOCKOUT, HER GREEN SKIN AND GLOWING EYES, THE BACKGROUND DETAIL..... A PERFECTLY SIMPLE HORROR STORY. MY ONLY BACKFIRE PRANK STORY WOULD INVOLVE SOME TOILET PAPER IN SOME TREES, HARDLY WORTH MENTIONING ANY OTHER DETAILS HERE.

    SNAKES ALIVE! WHAT A GREAT AD....NEVER SAW THAT ONE BEFORE. WITH IT YOU CAN REALLY SCARE THE GIRLS BUT IT ONLY JUST STARTLES THE MEN. I NEVER ORDERED ANY OF THAT STUFF EITHER, OLDER BROTHER SCHOOLED ME ON THAT SCAM QUICK.

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  5. Chuck Wells7/05/2008

    This was a great read, Karswell. Sadly, I've been sworn to secrecy over all of the cons, scams, schemes, etc. that have backfired on me over the years.

    It's written into the witness protection manual that was issued to me when I was stranded in the Catacombs.

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  6. Dane7/05/2008

    Kitty: At least we were spared the bitterness of the hoax that is Sea Monkeys. :)

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  7. Mr. Karswell7/06/2008

    Dr Phibes and I could tell you a terrible tale of a wonderfully misspent Halloween involving eggs and powdered donuts and an angry friend's family who didn' think we were funny even in the least bit. Oh well... some tales are best left untold, unless you were there of course.

    My only real mail order ordeal came with the full page ad for the set of 12 million army men or however many there were. I was so psyched to get them and when they finally showed up in the mail months later they were very small and flat, not fully dimension and no fun to play with because the realism factor did not exist. Live ya learn... AND, you get what you pay for.

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  8. AndyDecker7/06/2008

    Great story. And it is in parts most of the plot of a lot of horror movies like Terror Train for instance.

    Is this a coincidence or ...

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  9. Anonymous7/06/2008

    cool story very nicely illustrated, who is the artist do you know? love the ads too, all of that stuff was just junk but also part of growing up. xray glasses were probably the most famous

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  10. Anonymous7/06/2008

    Karswell and I proved we weren't the masters of deception on that fateful Halloween night. In fact, I believe we could be a case study of what not to do. Rule #1: Do NOT return to the scene and repeat your egg and donut crime eight or nine times in an hour. Rule #2: When being pursued by people who don't appreciate your genius, do NOT drive down a road with no outlet.(and you probably don't want to be driving a pinto wagon as your get away car.)

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  11. Mr. Karswell7/06/2008

    >case study of what not to do (continued from above comment)

    Rule #3: If your persuers are chasing you down the street with no outlet and you turn the car around to find that they are blocking the road with their bodies so your car can't pass, don't tell your nervous getaway driver to just run them down. He might think you're serious.

    Rule #4: When caught and standing before the enemies father, if he's asking everyone their name and you're all giving fake ones try and come up with something different than each other. If everyone gives the same fake name the enemy might catch on.

    Rule #5: When hosing off the splattered eggs from the front of the house, don't have a water fight or get distracted. But do pretend to "accidently" spray the hose into the house if the enemy should peek his head out the door to check your clean-up process. Say something like, "Oops. Sorry."

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