Sunday, October 26, 2008

Devilish Dolls of Death

Today we finish up our week-long look at ACE Comics with one last Deadly Killer Dolls tale from the November 1952 issue of Hand of Fate #14. I hope everyone enjoyed the horrors this week, and tomorrow marks the start of the OFFICIAL THOIA HALLOWEEN 2008 ASSAULT. (More details after today’s story.)









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Authentic Zuni Fetish Doll

Long before Chucky was just a gleam in the Devil’s jeans, there was Trilogy of Terror '75, starring Karen Black vs. a vicious, razor-fanged zuni fetish doll bent on her destruction. Now immortalized, presumably for your own destruction, this 13-inch, faithful replication is just like the one in the movie and available to own!

Click HERE for more info and to order / die now...

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THOIA HALLOWEEN 2008 ASSAULT
Those of you that were with me last year through the final week of October / Halloween '07 might remember the gaggle o'great All Hallow’s Eve inspired pre-code stories I posted (check the back archives if you missed it.) But having seriously blown my orange and black themed wad with everything I had in my collection at the time, the big question was what to do this year to top it? And realizing I couldn’t possibly just "top it", I came to the conclusion to just "out do it" with quantity, and that means MORE stories PER day. So for the next five days, every single day this week (up to Halloween night), you’ll get TWO stories. Yep. EVERY DAY, Mon - Fri.



The other thing I asked myself was this: what defines Halloween to me? It was a tough question, and after much thought and process of extermination, I came up with--- Vampires and Witches! So for the next five days, every day, THOIA will play host to the greatest collection of vampire and witch stories you ever did see. You guys like vampires and witches right? Who doesn’t… plus! the usual assortment of other bonus goodies and horror stuffin’s you’ve come to expect. Don’t miss a single day... because the REAL Halloween Countdown has just begun!

12 comments:

blackwalnut2001 said...

Very interesting use of color here -- so many panels are washed with only one or two shades. This may have been pure expedience, but I found it quite stark and effective.

When a story has real possibilities, as this one does, the rush to pump out so many of these comics every month becomes all the more noticeable. A couple more pages of development, especially toward the end, could have made this one a real classic. Another recent post, "The Terror of Dread Isle," suffered from the same drawback -- it, too, had a jerky, truncated feel and one yearned for greater length to fully exploit the potential, all the more so because it was so bloody good. Ah, well. That's the nature of the beast, eh?

In spite of that, an effective story. Just love that tiny little girlfriend and the way she huddles against our hero and tries to embrace him. Special mention: 3rd panel on page 5 -- how great is THAT?

Prof. Grewbeard said...

there's something almost Disneyesque AND Tezukaesque about this one- it would make for an wonderful animated film. you'd just have to do something about that downbeat ending and the orgy of death that precedes it! AH YAH AH YAH!

Mr. Cavin said...

But then the hero kills the bad guys! Whew, that was close! The end!

Karswell, your Deadly Dolls Weekend inspired me to watch Stuart Gordon's goonie eighties horror the Dolls last night. It only got creepy when you could hear the dolls sawing off-camera. Otherwise, it was brightly colored and everybody looked like Madonna. Luckily, I was drunk of tequila.

Anyway, it's sure been a great theme weekend. I'm going to try to work "...in your stupidity you never dreamed that I had learned to transplant human souls into dolls!" gracefully into my everyday conversation. Let's see how the fools like that!

Anonymous said...

GOD WHAT A WEEKEND........ WHAT A WEEK, I'M SOLD ON ACE COMICS THATS FOR SURE!! A PHENOMENAL DISPLAY OF STORIES, PROBABLY MY ALL TIME FAVORITE WEEK AT THOIA EVER! THANKS AGAIN, LOOKING FORWARD TO MORE AND YES VAMPIRES AND WITCHES SOUND GOOD TO ME!!

Anonymous said...

Last panel of Page Five. "I've just discovered my girlfriend has been turned into a doll slave and I'm next! I must act now! But first, better pack a change of clothes." WTF?

Anonymous said...

Hahaha...very entertaining! Great week of stories!

Anonymous said...

Just got back from Knotts scary farm,loved it.now time to relax again........and scare myself to death with killer doll stories!.Also Mr. Cavin i'm a big fan of DOLLS,heck all of Gordon's output except CASTLE FREAK and SPACE TRUCKERS.

Soiled Sinema said...

Oh my god. I need that doll.

Mr. Karswell said...

Things To Do This Week:

1. Stock up on garlic, holy agua, and crucifixes.

2. Polish the mirrors.

3. Sharpen some wooden stakes (BBQ some steaks would be good too.)

4. Remain standing in constant sunlight.

5. Figure out what prevents witches from attacking.

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YOU'VE ALL BEEN WARNED!

Mr. Cavin said...

"...I'm a big fan of DOLLS..."

Oh Horror Pariah, so am I. Just because I don't find it particularly scary does not mean that I don't love it. Not only does it have the very best gory little doll deaths ever filmed, but it's like the epitome of silly eighties horror: the plucky kids in peril, the pop-culture references, the comedy relief of naive adult stooges, the arch manipulation of melodrama and high camp.

Ah, the lip-glossy, soundtrack-heavy, kinder-traumatic, conspicuous consumption and yuppie comeuppance genre landscape of the nineteen eighties! Beginning (in the seventies) with Jaws and running--I don't know--all the way until Wes Craven turned all deconstructive. Firestarter, Poltergeist, Nightmares, Mutant, Deadly Friend, Slaughterhouse Rock, Shocker, Trick or Treat, Cat's Eye, etc. Arcade Games! Heavy Metal! Television! Dungeons and Dragons! Creepy Toys! The genius of Carlos Rambaldi and Rob Bottin and Syd Mead plus an eleven-chair string section, horns on horns. Little Drew Barrymore. And, yes, Stuart Gordon too.

Chuck Wells said...

Hey, Karswell! Who's the pin-up chick in witches drag standing in front of the jack o'lantern wall sconces?

Arben said...

I would like, a mere dozen years later, to second BlackWalnut2001's praise of the color here. Like many of the comics from this era it may be stark, flat, and even counterintuitive but it's far more effective than much of the over-rendered crap in the comics of recent decades. Also, I highly recommend that anyone stumbling upon these words click through BlackWalnut2001's name to his Blogger profile.