DAY ONE of the October 1953 issue of
Mysterious Adventures #16, in its entirety. I think I’ll skip the introductions for the next four posts and just let these stories speak for themselves, or maybe for today I’ll let the final panel of this one speak for them all. Like. Whoa.
TOMORROW: Another revolting tale of murder and-- robotics!
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PLUS: A Bonus Quickie (same issue)
The same old story, but with some appreciated little tweaks to make it different. The best part of course, was the stacks of Waltery ice cubes.
ReplyDeleteToo crazy. Nice attempt at adding some er...freshness on a tired theme. Lillian is one of the most deserving villains i've ever seen in a pre-code comic, even bullying the guy she cheats with, weird how Henry is the most likeable character, if he'd waited for Walter to try and kill him and not chopped him up elaborately, he could have claimed self defense. But where's the fun in that? :) .
ReplyDeleteI also got a laugh out of the one-pager, haha. Maybe the main story wouldn't have ended so badly if the vampire had bought some ice from Henry for his "Tall cool drink".
Just noticed on page 6, panel 4. Lillian has either a bad case of goiter, or if Walter had suceeded he would have found himself in his own personal Crying Game.
ReplyDeleteKarswell, familiar with the one about the rye-drinking deadbeat dad? Because nothing else quite compares to this one.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if marriage counseling would have helped here.
Standard story, but a few nice touches. Ice vs electricity, who would have thought that this is a topic for a horror tale :-)
ReplyDeleteVERY COOL ENDING, LITERALLY!! WHAT THE HELL IS IN THAT ONE BLOCK OF ICE THOUGH??? FIRST CUBE MIDDLE ROW. I THINK THESE STORIES AND THE FAMILIAR PLOTLINES ARE WHAT MAKES THEM SO ENDEARING, WE GET WHAT WE EXPECT WITH THE TWIST. EC DID IT ALL THE TIME TOO BUT NO ONE COMPLAINS........ THESE PROBABLY WEREN'T SAME OLD STORIES BACK IN THE DAY.
ReplyDeleteFirst cube, middle row... that seems to be a section of Walter's spine! He went all to pieces, but he was still a cool customer! Ha ha... I'll stop now.
ReplyDeleteAh, the things we do for love.
ReplyDeleteAny fool wanting to get married too young, especially to someone only for looks, should be given a stack of pre-code horror comics as therapy!
'The Ice Man Cometh' would've made an excellent 'Tales from the Crypt' episode.
ReplyDeleteYes, the story was generic, but the ending surprised (shocked me even) with the graphic depiction of Walter's chopped up corpse. I guess it was tales like this one which got the Comics Code rolling.
As for the one-pager: Shouldn't vampires react to hot August days by turning to ash?
Howdy,
ReplyDeleteLove the Ed Goldfarb art. Always thought he was better when he inked his own stuff instead of Bob Baer.
Brian James Riedel
Dang it! I wish the Ice Man would hurry up; my Diet Pepsi's gone warm. :-(
ReplyDeleteI didn't want to play spoiler, but I think enough time has passed: fun vampire story. I never even knew they sweated, much less in direct sunlight. At last, a hard-working guy just like you and me except for the whole bloodlust thing. Er. If you have a whole bloodlust thing, keep it to yourself like him, OK?
ReplyDeleteI should've made today a contest and had you guys find the connecting theme bewteen both tales. Half of you would have said "Same old story" while others would have got the ice cube and warm drink thing.
ReplyDeleteTOMORROW: I start my diet! Or else!
sorry i'm late to the party...HOLY CRAP!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a study in contrasts. Susie is such a nice, devoted wife to her vampire hubby, having a nice warm wino for him to drink when he gets home. I tell ya, that's the perfect job for a vampire too--mortician. He doesn't need any of that fancy equipment to drain the blood from the dearly departed--he makes a meal of it. Really saves on grocery costs too.
ReplyDeleteThen there's Lillian. A real gold digger, but not a very adept one. To be a successful gold digger, one really needs to set one's sights higher than the owner of the ice block company and his employees.
These stories also make me think of my family history. My father can remember the ice truck bringing blocks of ice in the days before the family got an electric refrigerator. But my grandmother wasn't married to the owner of the ice company and she didn't have an affair with any of the employees. Also, my great uncle was a mortician, but he wasn't a vampire. And the stereotype of the morose mortician didn't fit him at all. He was a very jolly, upbeat person. It was a pity that he died at a rather young age (64) from prostate cancer.
ReplyDelete[COMMENT NECROMANCY!]
ReplyDeleteGiven that "The Ice Man Cometh!" establishes that it's set in 1926, it'd've been nice if the artist had shown themselves capable of drawing people in vintage fashions. Wouldn't you have liked to see a nice sneaky flapper girl?