Thursday, January 29, 2009

The Castle of Fear / The Disbeliever

Today we have two seriously messed-up Monster-Ramas from the February 1953 issue of Weird Mysteries #3 …both of which can be suitably filed away in the old banged up "WTF Cabinet." And FYI: for the 5th and final tale from this issue you’ll need to head over to Chuck’s Comic Book Catacombs sometime today by clicking HERE. Thanky Chucky!








TOMORROW: A Killer Set of Choppers!

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Two-Page Text Story




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The Disbeliever

We haven't seen killer ants around here at THOIA since World War III With the Ants. No wait, actually it was the last time the Orkin guy came by (dude's a bad ass with the bug drugs.) Anyway, I think in February I may try to cook up an "All Insect Week" or something. Anyone got any ideas or recomendations?







Nice ending, eh? Huh??!
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13 comments:

  1. Anonymous1/29/2009

    “The Castle of Fear” became “House Of Monsters” in Eerie Publications' Weird, Sep '76.

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  2. Unknown1/29/2009

    The last one is kind of cool for all the wrong reasons.

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  3. Mr. Cavin1/29/2009

    I think the Ghoul Teacher is possibly the nuttiest pre-code narrator I've seen yet. But thanks to her I've learned a number of things:

    In the first story, for example, I learned that if I see a tentacled serum monster eat an uncle-headed tiger I'll get a mystical anime-star power-up that allows me to communicate telepathically with crazy people.

    And thanks to the second story--about giant, unobservant man-ants--I know that the NYPD carry tommy guns and grenades, and that the real reason they ever investigate anything is just to prove who's nuts. No need to investigate the creators of either story, I don't think.

    My favorite panel is from Castle of Fear, where the bad guys are watching Bill's "every step" with their crazy futuristic lightbulb box (page four panel one).

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  4. Chuck Wells1/29/2009

    I wonder if that's what happened to James Whitmore?

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  5. Anonymous1/29/2009

    I'M GUESSING WE DIDNT EVEN SCRATCH THE SURFACE WITH THE MONSTERS IN THE CASTLE OF FEAR. DID I MISS THE PTERODACTYL FROM THE SPLASH IN THE STORY? THEY COULD HAVE USED A COUPLE MORE PAGES TO REALLY FLESH THIS ONE OUT BETTER BUT IT WAS STILL FUN AND COOL ART.

    THE DISBELIEVER REALLY NEEDED AN ENDING, IT HAD A DECENT BUILD UP AND NICE ART TOO BUT JUST SORT OF RAN OUT OF STEAM. BOTH STORIES HAD TONS OF ORIGINALITY THOUGH........ CRAZY STUFF FROM A CRAZY ISSUE.

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  6. Kitty LeClaw1/29/2009

    Sheero hates the mean ole Orkin bug taker-awayer man.

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  7. Anonymous1/29/2009

    THE PUNCH COMICS COVER ON THE SIDEBAR IS AWESOME!! IS THAT A GOOD SERIES?

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  8. Prof. Grewbeard1/29/2009

    oh great, now I'M turning into a giant ant, thanx a lot Kars!

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  9. Anonymous1/29/2009

    The Disbeliever is another Gillmor cut-and-paste job. The original was called Now I'll Tell One from Mister Mystery #3. Eerie reworked it (The Disbeliever version) in Terror Tales v2n1 as The Man Who Didn't Believe (art by Walter Casadei).

    I supect that Eerie Pub's House of Monsters was actually a rework of a cut-and-paste version of Castle of Fear since the stories are very different after the first couple of pages.

    For those who don't know, Stanley Morse published both Mister Mystery and Weird Mysteries (plus Weird Tales of the Future). Mister Mystery was originally self-published by Ross Andru and Mike Esposito (calling themselves MR Publications) until Stanley Morse swindled them out of the company for something like a dollar (I forget the details - I'd have to check my notes/back issues of Alter Ego, which I don't have with me).

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  10. Anonymous1/29/2009

    The giant ant story art looks a lot like some Harvey Kurtzman influence going on.

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  11. Mr. Karswell1/29/2009

    How about the sound FX here? My fave is in the second story, top of page 6: Yeah, it'll take you hours to dig it open, better use a grenade... or a broom. Sweep that ant hill away, use the BROOM! Kudos also to the strangely low impact BRRAATT TAT TAT TAT of the flatfoot's tommy gun, same page.

    So once again great comments, I'm like a broken record here but seriously--- great f'n comments. And I love when you guys point out the Eerie reprints and additional background info on publishers and stuff (was that you Keith?)

    Tomorrow we have a long distant dedication, and a story that will really gnaw away at your sanity.

    To the Morning Mobile!! TGIF.

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  12. Mr. Cavin1/30/2009

    "CASEY WAS A COP... A GOOD COP. BUT CASEY WAS FROM MISSOURI, HE HAD TO BE SHOWN!"

    I'm surprised nobody pointed this out. Nevermind it makes nary a lick of sense, but one must notice that the official THOIA P.O. Box is also located about ten miles outside of St. Louis.

    The question this raises is whether the caption in question is a coincidence or an Easter Egg? Or maybe whether there's some folklore about the relative skepticism or Missourians that I've been so far unaware of?

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  13. Mr. Karswell1/30/2009

    Missouri is the "Show Me State" after all! Props to my peeps, hillbilly and other...

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