Friday, April 10, 2009

Doom Ranch

The ‘ol western horror tale, we hardly know ya around these parts. I'll have another Harvey yarn up later this weekend too, so ya'll come back now, ya hear?

From the July 1952 issue of Black Cat Mystery #37









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Vintage ADS



12 comments:

bazarov said...

Wow! That is one F’ed up story!

It’s interesting how the ghost ranchers are skeletons, the ghost cattle are skeletons yet the ghost horses look completely normal other than being a pallid white.

Mr. Cavin said...

Yeah, but trampled to death by a whole herd of Georgia O'Keefe-head o' cattle, man, that was just jaw-dropping. Plus, I love the little modern touches. Sure, they have a wooden barrel collecting gutter water for the hard times, but they drive a late-model Willys CJ-2a. Also, they happen to be haunted by the politest poltergeists around. "Why, were already dead, ma'am." Love it.

Kitty LeClaw said...

"Im a devil on the run
A six gun lover
A candle in the wind..."

Great story, I was totally lassoed in! hehe

Horror pariah said...

Welcome back! This may be your second post; but it's the first one i've read; and it's excellent.

Really blew my expectations; I was expecting the ghosts to be men in costumes( a 'la CAPTAIN CLEGG.) with Sid being behind it all because he was always denying the story and then dissapearing; then the story would end with him being killed by the REAL ghosts. So this pretty much blew my expectations. having julia join up with them and then Sid too, was a really freaky touch.

I love how that one ghost talks like Butthead: 'UH...hahhahhahh' when was the last time a ghost said 'Uh....' before saying somenthing? Hilarious.

Anonymous said...

GLAD I STOPPED BY TODAY, THERE IS ANOTHER STORY!! ALRIIIGHT!!

VERY COOL ART AND I WAS THINKING THE SAME THING ABOUT WESTERN HORROR. ARE THERE VERY MANY STORIES LIKE THIS WITH COWBOYS AND MONSTERS? I REMEMBER THE HOWARD STORY YOU POSTED IN FEB WAS KICK ASS TOO.

Anonymous said...

COOL ADS TOO BY THE WAY!!!

Unknown said...

Great art and chilling throughout. Strange to see someone so evil in life invoke a curse and get away with it like that, though. But I guess that's why it's chilling throughout.

Mike H said...

Now thet's jes a good ol' story!

jpmorgan said...

"I'm gonna come back from the dead! An' so are you!"

"Uh, but we ain't dyin', boss!"

"You are now!" BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

"OW! That wuz mean!"

Anonymous said...

Wow, Kars. have I missed you. This was just great. I don't think I've ever seen ghost cattle in a comics story before, and you have to wonder why they'd even co-operate. Was this Bullard fella so powerful that he can exert his evil will over cattle that he himself slaughtered? Then again, if he can do that to his hired men, why not?

A surprisingly sadistic story to be set in an "old west" style atmosphere (Jeeps aside). Not a morality play by any stretch. Very pre-code indeed.

Anonymous said...

PS: Just checked out GCD. Joe Certa pencils. Of course! I knew the art looked familiar. Also, my favorite Warren Kremer cover ever. Somewhere I have a scan of the original. Gorgeous.

Dracenea said...

The second ad pic amused me greatly. Especially:

Fun For Girls:
Fun Alone - things to do in the privacy of your room.

Fun For Boys:
How to Punch a Bag