From the September 1954 issue of Ghostly Weird Stories #124
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Plus, a THOIA Bonus Quickie:
The Parchment of Death, also by Jay Disbrow.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
The Homecoming
Jay Disbrow was one of a handful of pre-code artist/writers that could take an ordinary horror story idea and really give it that little extra something special... and if you love his stuff then you’ll love this one for sure. It’s a strangely satisfying story full of gasping sudden violence and hideous metamorphosis--- plus a truly exceptional Monster Mosh Pit ending! “Hey Killer! Watch where you’re throwing those hairy elbows! WAKUGA! KIGAH! YAHAW!”
From the September 1954 issue of Ghostly Weird Stories #124
From the September 1954 issue of Ghostly Weird Stories #124
Yay!he killed Rhoda,now no on'll have to watch her crappy,awful annoying spin off!...oops wrong Rhoda.Not the best Disbrow i've seen,but good.
ReplyDeleteOMG, that "never never never" bit at the end of the parchment one is killing me.
ReplyDeleteBOOM BA BA BOOM BOOM!
ReplyDeletewho on Earth would ever "assume" that their name was Lancelot? come on! especially if your real name was actually Abdarkaran, the Hairy Killer Beast. . .
i mean, that's just silly. isn't it?
Abdarkaran? Looks like Hank McCoy to me.
ReplyDeleteNot long ago , I discovered the existence of Jay Disbrow on this same blog ; he's now one of my favourite pre-code artists , up there with Wood , Wolverton , Kriegstein , Fox ,and not many more ...
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing !
Joe—
ReplyDeleteOne time when I had amnesia, I assumed the named “Richard Cheney”. What a mistake! Terrible things from the Half-World surrounded me!
The next time, I tried “Daniel Rather”. God, that was awful! Terrible things from the Half-World surrounded me!
After that, I used “Hillary Rodham”. But — you guessed it! — terrible things from the Half-World surrounded me! (Also, there was a stacatto of hairy feet.)
So I figure that ya just can't win, and that “Lancelot Carter” is no worse than anything else.
"I don't like it Rhoda!" said Lance blandly, "There's something about this place that's fraught with danger!"
ReplyDeleteSome interesting facts about Haiti in 1954: the dictator du jour was General Paul Magloire, who seized the government from Élie Lescot in a 1950 coup after that dictator attempted to legislate his own re-election. The fifties were actually a long succession of civil unrest and temporary despots, as hungry faction leaders struggled to grab up the country during a power vacuum left by the US Army's withdrawal from the island after World War II. While General Magloire's spate was generally characterized as an era of plenty for upper-class travelers and the ruling bourgeois "haves", the impoverished masses were all but ignored. Years of social turmoil had left the country seventy-five percent deforested. Record death tolls from infectious diseases (polio, tuberculosis, pertussis, malaria, smallpox, leprosy, etc.) were mounting yearly. But don't worry, cataclysm forced Magloire out of office within two years, bringing on a reign of ruling terror the likes of which the world has rarely seen: the government of Dr. François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his legendary henchmen the Tonton Macoutes. What happened to disrupt the four years of lucrative pandering aimed at the regal element which kept General Magloire in power? On October eleventh, 1954--scant weeks after this story took place--hurricane Hazel nearly destroyed the island of Hispaniola, initiating a swath of death and destruction that eventually cut up through North Carolina, New York, Toronto and the damn arctic circle before finally petering out just shy of Scandinavia.
"Nonsense Lance!" replied Rhoda, looking scornfully back over her shoulder. "You just imagine it!"
Oh yeah, and I really loved the art on this one, I think. I have to read between the lines a little. It's old, and the print job is kind of bad, so I can't decide whether the colors are poorly done or not. I would love to see the original inks on his one. I imagine that would look much improved. Even still, the last panel makes me want to see Mr. Disbrow do an R-rated version of Where the Wild Things Are.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr. Karswell.
MONSTER MOSH PIT!! HA
ReplyDeleteCOOL STORY, DISBORWS ART LOOKS REALLY CLUTTERED TO ME BUT I STILL LIKE IT ALOT, HAS A WEIRD MOOD TO IT
Hope everyone had a great weekend, rained here in STL the whole time (boooo!) but at least it feels like fall has finally really hit us, and ol idiot summer can go take a flying leap off Roderick Usher's seaside cliff finally.
ReplyDeleteLots of good stuff lined up for this week, some short but sassy Mister Mystery stories tomorrow, Tuesday is request fulfillment day for one lucky reader, plus a couple epic Fawcett horror classics, and maybe around the end of the week we'll finally pop the cherry on pre-code DC horor around here--- a THOIA first for sure.
See ya's in the mourn... and as always, stay creepy.
---K
I am surprised Mister Mystery is not better remembered. It had bad spelling and a bit of a cruel streak, but also style out the ears. I always look forward to it.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Hank McCoy knew how to treat a lady.
ReplyDeleteThat's Doctor Hank Mccoy
ReplyDelete