Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Fiends from the Crypt

I had some other stuff planned for today's post, but I noticed Mykal at The Bloody Pulp had gone and served up an awesome Eerie Publication / Dick Ayers tale called "The Sewer Werewolves" (click HERE!) ...so here's an equally brilliant and very violent original Golden Age sewer monster story from the July 1953 issue of Fantastic Fears #8. [NOTE: This post corrected from an earlier blunderama of obvious extreme magnitude.]









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24 comments:

  1. Drew4/06/2010

    Karswell:

    Are you sure that "The Sewer Werewolves" is a direct take-off of "Fiends from the Crypt"?

    In the 1970s, Eerie simply reprinted the original "Fiends from the Crypt" (in B&W with added shading) at least twice, in "Terror Tales" v2n2, March 1970 and in "Tales from the Tomb" v5n1, January 1973.

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  2. Mr. Karswell4/06/2010

    >Are you sure that "The Sewer Werewolves" is a direct take-off of "Fiends from the Crypt"?

    Seems close to me, mostly I'm going by some info that Mykal relayed to me:

    MYKAL: "...Sewer Werewolves (my alltime fav Eerie title) was an Eerie Pub. version of Fantastic Fears, Fiends from the Crypt. So not only did Eeire print the original story all but intact, but the liked it so much they had Ayers do his thing on an Eerie original re-do - setting the story in the sewers of Paris instead of the catacombs of Rome - isn't that perfectly Eerie Pub?"

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  3. Drew4/06/2010

    You and Mykal are probably right...it's just that the horror theme of man-eaters from the sewer(killer rats, werewolves, whatever) seems more ubiqutous to me than, say, the idea of sentient coffins, so I didn't make the connection.

    On second thought: Roman catacombs -- Paris sewers (Yeah, obvious)...

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  4. Mykal Banta4/06/2010

    Karswell: Forgive me. The info I sent you has since been corrected by Eerie Expert, Mike H (I was relying on another Eerie index, less authorative. I should have known Mike was the only true source). Fiends from the Crypt got the Eerie treatment as Where the Flesheaters Dwell in Tales From The Tomb 3/74. The mistake here is entirely my own. -- Mykal

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  5. Mykal Banta4/06/2010

    Karswell: I got you cross-posted! -- Mykal

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  6. Mr. Karswell4/06/2010

    No sweat Myk, I still think there are enough similarities here between both stories to warrant a cross post--- SEWER MONSTERS!!!!

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  7. Trevor M4/07/2010

    You're both fired and We The Readership are throwing you both to the sewer fiends/werewolves for this guffaw. Prepare for a visit tonight from your local catacombs.

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  8. Drew4/07/2010

    Spare them, Trevor M!

    I just located a copy of TALES FROM THE TOMB v6n2 (Mar 74), and Mykal's belated correction is accurate:

    After simply reproducing two exact reprints of "Fiends from the Crypt" in TERROR TALES v2n2 (Mar 70) and again in TALES FROM THE TOMB v5n1 (Jan 73), Eerie Publications had the gall to run the same tale a third time in TALES FROM THE TOMB v6n2 (Mar 74), the only changes this time being a new title and new drawings of the EXACT same scenes from a slightly different angle; even the dialogue is completely identical.

    So the cheap bastards got a LOT of mileage out of one single public-domain tale -- even more so if you also consider "The Sewer Wolves" a direct rip-off.

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  9. Unknown4/07/2010

    UBBLEE! They may be evil, but I love their language.

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  10. Corpse Parade4/07/2010

    I remember reading a story back in 1967 (yes, I'm THAT OLD) that I believe was in black-and-white that was an exact copy of this story. I think there was another story in the issue about a male and female ghost that took lace around the time of the Civil War. Therefore, that Ayers vampire sewer story is NOT a remake of this story.

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  11. Mr. Karswell4/07/2010

    Okay, we have certainly established that this story is NOT a remake or a re-do, can we just enjoy the repulsive insanity of this tale now? I mean, look at that central panel on the last page?!! AIEEEEE!!

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  12. Corpse Parade4/07/2010

    Does anyone here, including Karswell, know what magazine that 1967 story came from?

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  13. Squa Tront4/07/2010

    Oh joy! I've fond memories of this one (as Mykal will know because I asked if he could help me identify of this vaguely remembered story from my youth only a few days back) and reading it again, it all makes sense why it made such an impression on me.

    The single image that really stuck in my mind (and has remained there ever since) was that of the grisly skeletal bodies with heads left intact. I had quite forgotten it was his wife and daughter.

    That and the word 'catacombs' which I remember being unfamilar with at the time and had to look up in a dictionary.

    See.. horror comics featuring cannibalistic sewer-dwellers can improve your vocabulary!

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  14. Anonymous4/07/2010

    This has been a seriously evil month here at THOIA so far, the stories just get more and more disturbing and I shudder to think what happens next. And things started off so sweet with Sergio Aranges on April first too.

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  15. sfdoomed4/07/2010

    ERS-DA-ESTT-GN-BOR-TA

    This saying applies to most characters in horror comics.

    The sight of the half eaten mother and daughter combo will (shudder) be on my mind all day. Gee, thanks guys!

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  16. Anonymous4/07/2010

    Hello. Sorry for writin' here but don't know where to do it...
    I'd like to ask you 'bout a comic I'm looking for: Charlton's first issue of Reptilicus. Is impossible to find anything but some pages...
    Could you help me anyway to find it?
    Lots of thanks,and sorry for being annoying.

    PS: Another thing: Could you post some Gene Colan and Joe Maneely art? Thanks!!!

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  17. Mike H4/07/2010

    For Corpse Parade-

    The first Eerie Pub printing of Fiends from the Crypt was in Weird V2 #2 (4/67)

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  18. Mr. Karswell4/07/2010

    >looking for: Charlton's first issue of Reptilicus.

    Not sure about online, and I don't own any of the Reptilicus issues. Did you try ebay?

    Another Eerie Pub double shot on the way (the theme is creepy crawlers) one old story reprint and one new. It's coming... thanks again for the comments--- and the corrections! AIEEEE!

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  19. Corpse Parade4/07/2010

    I remember this story from 1967 distinctly because in the second to last panel, a scaly hand rips of the guy's face like a mask revealing the skull in the last panel.

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  20. Prof. Grewbeard4/07/2010

    this story BOOGLES!...

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  21. Stupid Ninja Cat4/08/2010

    Very Cool !

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  22. Squa Tront4/08/2010

    Lol! @ Prof. Grewbeard. Yeah, "BOOGLE!" tickled me too.

    Aww! With their cute language and cheeky ape-like faces you could almost forgive those fellas anything.

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  23. Anonymous4/08/2010

    One thing I don't get I thought was inconsistent, why didn't the commish shoot the criminal? A guy who's willing to sacrifice his partner and innocent people doesn't have the nerve to shoot a criminal for petty theft? Kind of weird.

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  24. john4/25/2013

    yes the bit i loved is that the wife and daughter are completely inocent in all this. and yet still get nibbled to skeletons. talk about dark... it's not in it! loved that the monsters had their own language. "mos-glur-tum-bar! urggg!" still make more sense than most politicians

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