Here’s a neat little horror murder mystery from the October 1952 issue of
Strange Fantasy #2. And according to
GCD (
here) this tale appears to have possibly been reprinted a number of times in the silver age by
Eerie Publications… although only one or two of the synopsises there seem to match, plus the page numbers vary. Anyone care to double check this for us?
UPDATE: As suspected, this is indeed a recycled / retitled story from Superior Comics May 1949 issue of Ellery Queen #1. Thanks to Mike Howlett for the double check and the great scan of the original splash!
TOMORROW: More Strange Fantasy!
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Forrest J. Ackerman (1916 – 2008)
i just love the little peeks at the sociology of the era these comics give us. For instance, look! A healthy male-female relationship with no gold diggers or helpless ingenues!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dane. It's nice to have likeable protagonists once in a while. I really laughed when everyone thought the weapon was a barbecue fork, i have a fork so dull it couldn't cut through stale bread.
ReplyDeleteAnyone know if this story originally appeared here in Strange Fantasy #2 first, or if this is actually a recycled tale from some earlier golden era Superior detective mag like Ellery Queen or something? Reason I ask is because as Mike H pointed out last month we had the Dead Man's PJ's tale that Superior lifted from one of their other titles and recycled in Voodoo #15... this one to me has the same sort of vibe / characteristics.
ReplyDeleteI hate it when I wake up in the middle of the night with blue ankles.
ReplyDeleteYou got it, Karswell! This was an Ellery Queen story in EQ #1, called "Rest(less) in Peace" I'm sending you a scan of the original splash.
ReplyDeleteI just want to say that Forry meant a lot to me and I cried a little this morning. He made us all who we are, whether we know it or not! RIP, my friend.
By the way... the GCD is right on... those are the 3 instances that "Chant..." were reprinted in the Pubs.
Great dialogue and a nicely unexplained ending and of course there really is no debt like the debt of treason.
ReplyDelete"Half an hour from pajamas to corpse isn't bad."
ReplyDeleteGood story and artwork, except I'm boggled about the corpse reading about the case in the morning papers!
RIP to Forry Ackerman, the godfather of all us horror/sci-fi nerds.
CREEPY STORY, I MIGHT HAVE ENJOYED IT MORE WITHOUT THE BAD NEWS ABOUT FORREST J THOUGH....... HE LIVED A COOL LIFE THAT SOME OF US HORROR FANS CAN ONLY DREAM ABOUT.
ReplyDeleteRIP UNCLE!
Pax, Forry.
ReplyDeleteNice plot, but overwritten.
ReplyDeleteRIP Forrest Ackermann. He kept the genre alive in those times it hit a low. He will be missed.
R.I.P. FJA. You brought much happiness to a lot of lonely children.
ReplyDeleteThe NYTimes has a lovely obit on him this morning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/movies/06ackerman.html?pagewanted=print
Nice cameo by a mustachioed Ed Gein as the cemetary keeper.
ReplyDeleteYep, my friend, I can help you out with that Eerie Pub. request regarding "Chant of the Dead"
ReplyDelete