Thursday, November 6, 2008
Dead Man’s Pajamas
Our fourth and final story from Voodoo #15 might be a bit tame in comparison to the other three OMG stories already posted this week, but it’s still a neat little yarn, though more of a murder mystery than a tale of terror, (and of course essential here when presenting an issue in it’s entirety.) Gotta love the PJ concept too!
Really fun story,nice art too(the girl's hair seems to have been Everett inspired.).Foster sure had some guts to put on the pajamas,especially since if he had ending up killing his girlfriend,his standing her up on dates would be seen as a motive,he would actually have made an interesting recurring character like Ken Shannon.
ReplyDeleteFun twist! Reminds me of the poisoned dress in Elizabeth.
ReplyDeletehere's another perfect rationale for this tale to appear in THOIA...
ReplyDelete"PAJAMAS CRASH THE MONSTER PARTY!"
Thanx! i'll be here all...AAAARGH!
The basic idea is great, but the girl's initial reactions spoil the twist somewhat.
ReplyDeleteWhat anonymous said! Why did Mrs. Hobart try to save Richard if Mrs. Hobart was trying to kill Richard? Also, she's obviously smart enough to mix the perfect potion of repeat ledge-walking opium to infuse his clothing dye with, but not smart enough to remember what pattern he prefers to sleep in? With her access, wouldn't she just infuse a pair of his own paj....
ReplyDeleteWait.
What the hell am I using logic for?
Thanks for posting the stories from Voodoo #15 - they've been great. (My personal favourite was "Nightmare Island".)
ReplyDeleteYou asked if anyone could confirm that this was issue 15. All I can offer is that the scant information included with the one copy sold by Heritage Auctions says: "Opium drug story." This would certainly tie in with this "Dead Man's Pajamas" story. (The date of Voodoo #15, incidentally, was May-June 1954.)
It seems to me that the detectives (private and public) have jumped to the wrong conclusion about the murder. They have assumed that the wife did it so that she could run off with her lover. Yet it is clear that she tried to waken her husband from his sleepwalking and tried to stop him plummeting over the ledge. If she wanted him to fall to his death she wouldn't have done that. Indeed it was her attempt to save her husband that cost her her life. A more likely scenario, therefore, is that the lover sent the pajamas, pretending they were from the aunt - either as a way of forcing her to leave her husband at once (if she was dithering), or (if she was planning just to leave her husband and damn the consequences) as a way of making sure she (and therefore the lover) got the money too.
Terrence Black didn't play a part in the wife's murder scheme - he was behind the whole thing! The 'Stella Hobart Is Innocent' campaign begins here!
Maybe the aunt hated him, and the affair was just one of those wacky coïncidences.
ReplyDeleteWait a sec: who the heck was the dead man?
>The date of Voodoo #15, incidentally, was May-June 1954
ReplyDeleteCool, thanks for the info.
I'm surprised at all the positive comments on today's story so far, I thought for sure after the onslaught of Nightmare Island and Hammer of Evil everyone would be wiggin' out from the lack of Xtreme. I also wonder if this tale would be even half as enticing if it had been called "Dead Man's PJs" instead?
>I also wonder if this tale would be even half as enticing if it had been called "Dead Man's PJs" instead?
ReplyDeleteI believe the technical term is "jammies."
OK... time for boring historical data!!
ReplyDeleteThis originally appeared in Superior's ELLERY QUEEN #3 as "Now I Lay Me Down To Die". horror pariah was absolutely right... John Foster DID make a good continuing character... Ellery Queen!
A few of the Ajax titles used recycled stuff from Robert Farrell's other ventures. Of course, these stories would also find their way (the Ajax versions) into our beloved Eerie Pubs!
>This originally appeared in Superior's ELLERY QUEEN #3 as "Now I Lay Me Down To Die".
ReplyDeleteThat's a great bit of info Mike H, thanks so much. And now that you mention it I've actually noticed quite a few stories in some of the Ajax Farrel horror comics that felt like they would have been more at home in a mystery / crime comic. I'll pull a few of the darker ones out for later in the month if anyone is interested.
I really enjoyed these Voodoo tales, thanks a lot for posting 'em, Karswell! I thought they were quite a bite more original and creative than the usual pre-code horror fare.
ReplyDeleteDrugs you injest through pinstriped pajamas?
ReplyDeleteI am starting to see a way Roger Clemens might just make it into the Hall of Fame...
Anonymous (but the same one who started the 'Stella Hobart Is Innocent' campaign, above)...
ReplyDeleteThanks for scanning the whole issue of Voodoo #15 for us Mr. Karswell, as this is not one of the issues available for download from the wonderful goldenagecomics.co.uk site. In case people want to make their own "complete" cbr/cbz file, I've sourced a high-quality scan of the cover from the records of the Heritage Auctions website (a brilliant resource) and unploaded it here:
http://d.imagehost.org/0077/Voodoo_15-00_cvr.jpg
The cover bears no relation whatever to the contents of issue 15 and indeed (as Karswell has pointed out) it contains a (re-worked) image from the splash-page of a story in issue 14. Indeed none of the covers of the five issues of Voodoo I've seen seem to bear any relation whatever to the content!
Guys (anonymous and Mr Cavin)—
ReplyDeleteOn a first reading, panels 3 to 5 or 6 of the second page are going to be interpretted as Mrs Hobart seeking wanting to help Robert, but don't stay committed to that first interpretation. They provide no actual evidence of her having done anything but follow him fairly closely, perhaps fascinated; perhaps keeping open the option of stopping him before he kills himself.
Her remarks in panel 4 can be taken to be those of someone for whom murder in the actuality is proving more dreadful than was murder in theory.
That much of the story, at least, is actually very well handled.