From the January 1954 issue of Out of the Shadows #11
TOMORROW: More Mike Roy.
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PLUS: A 2-page bonus quickie featuring a startlingly brutal pickaxe murder panel.
Monday, November 24, 2008
The Wig / Retribution
For most of this week we’ll be looking at scary selections of Standard Comics, from titles like Adventures into Darkness, Out of the Shadows and The Unseen, plus various other odds ‘n ends… kicking it off with an eerie Mike Roy weirdie today--- so hang onto your hat man, and don’t flip yer wig!
From the January 1954 issue of Out of the Shadows #11
From the January 1954 issue of Out of the Shadows #11
It's comforting to know that if you are murdered and scalped in the process, you can get retribution via your hair! Pretty funny concept, but I found it a fun read. That was a pretty graphic pick axe murder, at least the artist held back on drawing the blood...
ReplyDelete"The Wig" was hilariously grim. As some may or may not know, I'm a HUGE J-horror fan. The idea of "vengeful hair" has been explored in several films, but today's story reminds me most particularly of a Sion Sono flick, Exte.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exte
Sion Sono is the director most famously known for the bizarre and over-the-top gory Suicide Club.
OMG A KILLER WIG!! TOO FUNNY, ALTHOUGH IT'S ONLY AS FUNNY AS SOMEONE GETTING THEIR THROAT SLASHED ON PAGE TWO, OR A PICK AXE THUNKED INTO THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD. OWWWWW!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe revenge of the awful wig. It really looked more like a mop :-)
ReplyDeleteBut the real horror was the prices. A haircut for 90 c? Sigh!
things HAVE been hairy today...
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised they didn't think of the title "Hell Toupee" (which was used by Spielberg's AMAZING STORIES TV series for a similar tale).
ReplyDelete"Retribution" looks like it's just the last two pages of a longer story.
Kind of reminds me of an episode of The Tick, entitled That Moustache Feeling, but with more murder!!!
ReplyDeleteCan't help but wonder if sixties garage band The Wig drew inspiration from this. Also, if you ever find yourself prospecting in a pre-code comic, as I often do, go alone. There's no exception to the rule.
ReplyDeleteIf I were ever to murder someone, I would certainly try to remember that I must carefully wear a piece of the victim in front of all his friends around the very spot he was last seen.
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure this guy would not have eluded capture. And you know what they do to purty bald barbers in jail. He's probably better off....
Wigs have always given me the willies. My grandmother worked the wig counter at Zares when I was a kid back in the 70's (remember that store?) and she'd bring all kinds of wigs home nestled snug on those styrofoam heads. She had 20 or 30 of them, granny was a bit of a kook... anyway, she kept them all on display in her spare bedroom which was also the bedroom I had to sleep in when I stayed over there occasionally. What a terrifying night that was, all alone in a dark room with a bunch of severed styrofoam heads. Even today if I hear a cooler squeak I duck under some covers.
ReplyDeleteTOMORROW: Attack of The False-Eyelashes!
Wow! That was truly the scariest story I have ever read!
ReplyDeleteI will need a lot of Sominex to sleep tonight...
Best supernaturally vengeful blond wig story ever! Though George had it coming, yes indeedy he did.
ReplyDeleteThat second one... hmm. It's no ordinary pickaxe that can plunge through a man's skull and into his brains and come out shiny clean. Truly this must be a pickaxe of mystical power - a pickaxe such as King Arthur himself might wield.
When discussing with a friend a few days ago on what was the stupidest killer/monster in horror fiction of all kinds in any medium, it was a tossup between the killer snowman in JACK FROST(1996)and a sentient snot rag from a story i have in an anthology book. Thank you for providing me with a monster even sillier. PS. I think there was a Halloween episode of THE SIMPSONS with the same plot and it ended with the wig shooting it out with the cops, anyone watch SIMPSONS to verify this if i wasn't stoned or somenthing?.
ReplyDeleteHorror Pariah: No, you weren't stoned (or maybe THAT stoned) ..It was the Treehouse of Horror episode where Homer receives a hair transplant from the recently executed Snake. And it's title? According to Wiki: Hell Toupée (yet again)
ReplyDeletePS: I just thought I'd throw in my two-cents because I'm one of those lurking daily readers Karlswell mentioned a few days back.
Karswell, the story of staying in your grandmother's extra bedroom with the wig heads does explain a lot. :-)
ReplyDeleteMr. Cavin -- actually, it's not a bad idea if one is trying to establish the basis for man insanity defense...
ReplyDelete>I just thought I'd throw in my two-cents because I'm one of those lurking daily readers Karlswell mentioned a few days back.
ReplyDeleteThanks for becoming a voice Squa Tront, you're much more interesting than just being a lurker.
>Karswell, the story of staying in your grandmother's extra bedroom with the wig heads does explain a lot.
Actually it barely scratches the surface, but you are on to something Hugo!
I must say I'm impressed with the pick-through-the-skull frame, though some gore would have really driven home the brutality (and into perhaps an unnecessary "ick" moment). I couldn't help but glance at the two rock hammers I have sitting on my desk...hmm...their potential is indeed endless - BWAAHAAHAA!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed The Wig. Silly? Yes. Disturbing? Heck yeah. And so we discover the dark, buried childhood of dear Cousin It, back in his blond days.