Monday, October 12, 2009

Terror of the Burning Witch

For all your endless toil and trouble, THOIA pays you back with a week o'witchcraft, and starting it off with a hot one from the February 1952 issue of Mysterious Adventures #6.









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A sexy, non-burning, cheesecake witch more your cauldron of tea?

18 comments:

Unknown said...

Yet another reason to remain single. Who knows if whatever dude I married might be my executioner from a past life, come back to finish the job?

Unknown said...

I just noticed that the Cheesecake Witch looks a lot like Joan Collins.

sfdoomed said...

I could barely imagine the nauseating horror of being burnt alive. Visualize being one of the people who were really burnt at the stake (or more likely hung) back in the 1600's by a bunch of uneducated, superstitious religious folk. The surreal realization of what was happening to you as the flames start to lick your skin! True terror that still occurs occasionally (most recently in Africa and captured on video).

This video is very disturbing, so don't watch it unless very curious (I turned it off half way through):
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dae_1236854361

I have my "lost comic" story, which is easily the most profound horror comic story of my childhood that led me to a lifetime of obsession. It's not a pre-code, though. The story is "The Dead Remember" from Creepy #133, and is a Bruce Jones classic. I first read it in the early '80s at a friend's house who got me into Creepy and Eerie (we became friends because of a mutual love of Mad Magazine). For years that story has always been stuck in my head and I finally tracked it down a few years ago (I never knew what issue it was from for a while).

Emby Quinn said...

Fft. They didn't burn witches in New England. They hanged them.

Other than that, don't you love a story with a romantic ending?

aldi said...

Yep, classic romance. Boy meets girl. They fall in love and marry. Boy burns girl. ;}

Anonymous said...

THIS ONE SURE LIVES UP TO ITS TITLE! AND THE BOTTOM LEFT PANEL ON THE LAST PAGE IS ALMOST HEARTBREAKING.

Runs.with.Ferals said...

I'd take the cheesecake, and would love to eat it, too !

goblin said...

Chilling tale. It was pretty obvious how the story would play out (the ending was given away in the splash page, after all), but it still worked for me. The gaudy coloring kind of reminded me of 'Suspiria.'

Anonymous said...

hello all,
i have a question. Right nest to the THOIA moniker there is a very pretty and frightened blonde lady reclining from some threatining floating skulls. i've often wondered where this pretty lady came from? Do you know the comic story or book where i can read about her predicament? Perhaps you have already featured this story here in your blog? Anyways Thanks for your great stories. Freddy

Mr. Karswell said...

Thanks for sharing your story SFDoomed, I'll have to dig out that issue of Creepy and read The Dead Remember now, (if I have that issue!)

As always, thanks for all the comments... and to answer Freddy's question about the girl from my newly designed banner, follow the link below into the THOIA Archives my friend, for WEB OF THE SPIDER:

http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2007/07/web-of-spider.html

More witchery on the horizon... stay tuned!

Daniel [oeconomist.com] said...

I really wish that authors wouldn't place American witch-burnings in the second half of the 18th Century, as if such things could have been done by the same generation that fought a war for personal liberty. The witch-killings were a phenomenon of the 17th Century, and really part of the general theocratic lunacy of that era.

Unknown said...

What a crummy husband.

I think my only "lost comic" story involves Superman turning into some sort of space reptile.

HEH said...

Was the cheesecake image ever drawn in an homage? It looks so familiar. It though Dave Stevens had drawn from it, but I couldn't find anything on the internet.

By the way Karswell, I love that new banner image.
Thanks for referencing the story.

Mr. Karswell said...

>Was the cheesecake image ever drawn in an homage?

Yes, it's photo reference outtake for an Elvgren Halloween witch painting, check it out here:

http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/ElvgrenWitch1958.jpg

And to see the actual photo he referenced from (same model) go here:

http://grapefruitmoongallery.com/gallery/images/elvgren-witch.jpg

freedomschoolrecords said...

What an awesome splash! It's always top-notch nasties at THOIA. Love the Crypt Keeper's little brother too - he keeps getting weirder and uglier in this!

This is also an example of why re-coloring comics is really silly - the wild, vivd color really makes it.

-Mike

HEH said...

http://grapefruitmoongallery.com/gallery/images/elvgren-witch.jpg

Wow, what a beauty.
Thanks for sharing the addresses.

Prof. Grewbeard said...

i'll have you know i stayed up late on a work night to read this! i just can't keep up anymore- i'm starting to get BURNED OUT! HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!...

sorry. i need a day off...

Mr. Karswell said...

Don't get burned Prof! One of the reasons THOIA is no longer daily anymore is because of emails I'd get from people stating the exact same thing. Hopefully spacing posts out a little more allows you readers the chance to keep up.

My scanner rests a little easier now too.