Thursday, March 19, 2009

Demons of the Night

From the June 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #9 comes this typically goofball Harvey story about a dude bringing fictional characters to life right from the pages of a children’s storybook (to serve his evil purpose of course.) This clichéd story concept is always so ridiculously entertaining to me that I thought I’d give you another one tomorrow from ACG that is pretty much just like it.







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12 comments:

Unknown said...

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

This is the most--just--

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Mr. Cavin said...

I think I prefer the traditional ending, where the butcher knuckles and fillets the evil old baldy, the baker makes sweetbreads from his glands and pot pies from his marbled cutlets, and the candlestick maker boils the remaining tallow into neat, phallic votives. Don't people take pride in a job well done anymore? I wouldn't hire any of these people.

(Of course, it's probably worth exploring a non-traditional ending, also: how about they are returned to the nursery rhyme after their night of incalculable, and incidentally larcenous, wanton evil? But they've been changed, of course. The merry old drunkards from the children's rhyme have been replaced by these blood-stained and nightmare-inducing childhood monsters, psychologically formulating maniacs-to-be from the Grimm pages of their kiddie books. The end.)

Tim Tylor said...

I prefer the version where the evil old man tries to summon more nursery rhymes and is flung to his death down a staircase by a demon goose. (Incidentally, don't any of the police have guns where this happened?)

AndyDecker said...

Loved the writing on this. So funny.

"In the sinister blackness of midnight, a repulsive old man wanders the streets in search of evil ..." Lool, did he did it every night or just on Thursdays? Hey, honey, I am doing my midnight stroll, see if I can find evil ..."

Of course "Ancient incantations in Evil" ist a classic. Wonder if he had the companion volume, "Modern incantations in Evil" :-)

Anonymous said...

Everything I might have said, Mr. Cavin already has said and much better than I would have... again!

The only thing I can add is the hilarious exchange on Page five when the woman screams "Help! Police! I'm on Fire!" and the other gentlemen helpfully corrects her. "Call the Firemen!" If only we all could keep our heads so clear in such stressful situations.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I do have something to add, now that I think on it. After all those stories ending in fire, Karswell gave us the 80's tale taking place almost entirely in water, and then today's story starts with "three men in a tub." Coincidence? Tell me this was all in your mad plan, Kars. And if not, well then, your genius is latent!

Of course, this story ends with fire again, but hey...

Anonymous said...

I wonder if my local library has a copy of 'Ancient Incantations in Evil'…

But seriously, with a book like that, couldn't he have just summoned some real demons instead of nursery rhyme characters? Also, I don't think it was a particularly bright idea of Mr. Falder to inform his creations that he was planning to dispose of them the next day.

Prof. Grewbeard said...

why not just raise the Three Stooges up from the dead and send them out on a bloody rampage? THAT would be funny!

Phantom of Pulp said...

This is truly excellent. So ridiculous, but so entertaining.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, or you could bring Dick Cheney back from his grave and.... oh, wait...

Anonymous said...

> Three Stooges

There was an episode of SOUTH PARK a while back depicting Gacy, Dahmer & Bundy as the Stooges trying to get a ferrari-shaped cake for Satan. No shit.

Really silly stuff, love how everyone refers to the Butcher, etc. as monsters, even though they look just like normal people; they could be being figurative, but that would make sense, and this IS a Harvey story, after all.

When i was a kid i wrote a Dr. Phibe rip-off story about a guy who went around killing people in ways based on Fairy Tales, and i really think it's weird i never used these 3 characters in it, so it's cool to see them here even though more could be made of their professions.

Anonymous said...

HA!!!!! THIS WAS A BLAST!