Monday, December 13, 2010
The Torture Jar
One more tale for you from the August 1952 issue of Witches Tales #13, and this one in particular goes waaay off the screaming rails of the good 'ol Harvey goofball train, delivering deranged narrative with giant monsters and even a bit of bone-crushing "gorso" (that's gore and torso combined-- I made it up!)
Love it! It took me back to my cadet days when we would explore the caves around the first gold strike in the U.S. of A.!
ReplyDeleteThe Bzark reminds me of a few of the coeds we used to drag along.
Oy vay!
This story contains my favorite sci-fi cliche; the advanced race that will wait until "we become a threat" to conquer us! No, conquer us now, while we AREN'T a threat!
ReplyDelete"Can we get them now?"
"No, they don't have enough atomic bombs, tanks, and planes! Wait a while!"
After reading that text story, I wasn't thinking of my index finger.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that writer was flipping off his editor, or, perish the thought, his readers?
I assume cursive writing was much harder to do than printed lettering?
I liked the premise of reading unpublished papers, presumably from a deceased person. But when he started ranting about feeding his doll people and demanded we look at them, it seemed he was right in our face, blocking the sidewalk. So the vegetable jar was with the unpublished papers? Or what? The change in narrative point of view was jarring.
so scary
ReplyDeleteIs it just me, or doesn't the protagonist look an awful lot like H.P. Lovecraft with a moustache?
ReplyDeleteCoincidence? Tribute? My crazy delusion?
Haha, great comments from everyone... I was a bit torn about where to go from here for the rest of the month but it seems like this Harvey series is winning everyone over so I guess we'll keep the Witches Tales a'brewin' (at least for a few more posts) until I deliver a xmas present to you all. Stay Tombed...
ReplyDeletei see John Carradine in the movie version...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this story inspired the Bush administration to put a stop to stem cell research?
ReplyDeleteToo much?
"I wonder if this story inspired the Bush administration to put a stop to stem cell research?"
ReplyDeleteOr Kansas to stop thinking.
>i see John Carradine in the movie version...
ReplyDeleteTotally, Prof!
>Or Kansas to stop thinking.
Good one Thwacko, my buds in KS will LOVE that comment, haha...
Christmas has gotten in the way of my being timely, but I had to stop in belatedly here. At first I was a little disappointed in the discrepancy between the story we were given and the one I was imagining after seeing that awesome cover illustration. But I was wrong. This was totally loopy and amazing. I like it when the cave freaks threaten to lick the guy to death with their teeth. That's the best thing I've read in a while.
ReplyDeleteAnd wow, the Impossible reads just like a Penthouse Forum letter. I didn't think he was talking about his middle finger, either, Mark B.