Friday, September 4, 2009

Venom of the Vampires

Only Ace Comics could come up with a weird tale like this, a vampire story set in, of all places, the jungle wilds of Honduras! From the debut, Feb '51 issue of Web of Mystery #1, and featuring some nice solid art in typically consistant Ace fashion... an interesting bit of trivia is that apparently right up to it's actual publication, Web of Mystery was intended to be called "Creepy Stories."







NEXT: More Sucka You Blahhd! And don't miss a great Lin Streeter vampire tale that Pappy posted on Monday August 31st, click HERE for Villa of the Vampire!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Dude.. thanks for posting this!! I really dig this comic!! Takes me back to when my brother and I had BOXES of weird comics like this in the 70's!

Mr. Cavin said...

...and a beautiful golden Hostess Twinkie, tee-em.

Awe. Some. I particularly love the trial-n-answer of the prickly lean-to sprig. There is no evidence that Johnny imagined this to be some legendary vampire repellent; no, he just thought he'd go ahead and attack the giant winged blood beast with a dainty stick. And it worked.

All this and a particularly glaring example from the hint-hint dialog file--found way back on page two, even: "It would require a simultaneous attack by a great number of those little bats to kill anyone." Then six weeks later everyone present went rabid and died. The end. Or is it?

Unknown said...

When oh when will people learn? If someone has "Count" in front of their name, they are probably a vampire.
This particular vampire was in desperate need of laser treatment for his hirsute bod.

Unknown said...

Gosh! I always thought Honduras was in Central America, but this taught me it's in Africa, where everyone speaks some sort of African pidgin dialect. Except of course random East European royals who turn out to be vampires. Too bad the girl didn't turn out to be a mermaid, huh?

Anonymous said...

LOVED THE LOST BOYS MOMENT WHEN THEY WALK INTO THE CAVE AND SEE THE VAMPIRE HANGING UPSIDE DOWN. THIS REMINDS ME OF ANOTHER ACE STORY YOU POSTED ABOUT A VAMPIRE STATUE, I AM PRETTY SURE ITS THE SAME ARTIST TOO. THANKS MAN!

Trevor M said...

"Chief say what do now? Me know what do... RUN!"

ahahahaha

Prof. Grewbeard said...

"aah, i'm glad vampires did run in my family!" how convenient! but i thought vampires could control the creatures of the night. he could have just told those bats to back off. and i bet that pilot guy celebrates EVERYTHING by beating the pulp out of someone...

Mykal Banta said...

Karswell: I loved this story. There is something so Atomic Age about it - the flight that happens to have a rich nobleman and a young, American schoolteacher (and of course a beautiful school teacher) on the same private flight; the blonde hunk pilot that is nothing but jaw line and fists. There was also something very direct and clean about the art I liked.

I am with the good Professor, though, in noticing that our Count is sort of an unfocused vampire: first he meddles in Voodoo, then can't even control his children of the night. No love lost here, as he even calls them "little fiends." -- Mykal

Mr. Karswell said...

Thanks for the comments today everyone, we've got another vampire classic coming up later this weekend so don't venture away too far (especially after dark!)

Also, Kitty has The Stalking Doom posted so head on over to her blog and check it out!

Kitty LeClaw said...

MEOWSERS! Super-cool "Stalking Doom" banner you whipped up... Goes purrrfectly with the super-rad vampire tale ("Get off, you fiends!")...

But I'm still not sure that it beats... The Hulk in Flip Flops.

Mr. Karswell said...

>The Hulk in Flip Flops

Nothing beats The Hulk in Flip Flops, except of course the 1618 Cats!

Balakrishna said...

I loved the story as well as the art. Maybe the art looks a bit dated, but if you consider that this was the Seventies, I think it was truly Great.