Saturday, January 21, 2012

Fear of the Witch

Here's a unique, somber story of possession with an equally unique and interesting ending. What would you do in this situation with a busy blonde beaver by day - sexy satanic succubus by night? (Best answer wins something from the Karswell Kollection!) From the May / June 1954 issue of Haunted Thrills #15.






15 comments:

Trevor M said...

Completely unexpected ending. Unique is the right word for this story. As for what I'd do with them, I'd get Beth started in a life of crime. As she's dead, cannot be found during the day -- and, in fact, the cops can exhume her grave and see for themselves and even match fingerprints! -- we could rack up millions. I'd also probably get a Viagra prescription.

Prof. Grewbeard said...

"Completely unexpected ending. Unique is the right word for this story. As for what I'd do with them, I'd get Beth started in a life of crime. As she's dead, cannot be found during the day -- and, in fact, the cops can exhume her grave and see for themselves and even match fingerprints! -- we could rack up millions. I'd also probably get a Viagra prescription."

i can't come up with anything better than that!

Brian Barnes said...

BTW, when I talked (earlier) about predictable endings, there's actually nothing wrong with that; these stories are always about the journey, the ending is just a way to get to the 5-8 page count :) Some of my favorite stories are predictable, but the journey is so fun it doesn't matter. It's just that Stan kept drawing attention to it! His stiche (and I love him for it) was always that kind of "contest" with the reader.

This is a fun story, but nowhere earlier was Beth evil initially, but then is suddenly she's an evil thing! And the husband throwing away all her pictures? Yikes!

I'd have to agree with Trevor -- it'd be hard no to take advantage of such an arrangement!

Daniel [oeconomist.com] said...

It seems to me that the author had a clever twist… and a dead-line to meet.

So the story is more than just a bit thrown-together.

Mr. Karswell said...

Shoot me your address in an email, Trevor... thanks for the comments.

SpaceLord said...

Gotta love those crummy Iger stories.
This is wrong on so many levels.
;-)
Pure madness condensed in five pages. A Freudian bonanza.
Blonde at day, dark at night.
"Busy little beaver, aren't you?" and "The strangest bigamist of all time".
The rest is silence. And awe.

Jess said...

the end is....WOW

Turok1952 said...

Talk about having one's cake and eating it, too!

The only thing better would be having a redhead in a snow bank.

Well, as long as the collar and cuffs match...

Mr. Cavin said...

How is it Beth has supposedly become evil, again? Seems to me like she was just trying to make good on a promise. Her love knows no bounds--including possibly stealing the body of her postmortem rival. Her story is actually super bittersweet, frankly. Here she can only return to the man she loves by sharing him with another woman. That's pretty heady opera.

I agree with everyone that Trevor is the clear winner here. The only suggestions I have are a) become a magician and wow your friends with two transformation shows daily. Or b) study hard and become a husband-and-wife (and wife) astronaut duo. Then set up house on the moon's north pole, instead. Depending on how you position the bedroom on the rotating day/night line, you can actually turn your wife into both women at once in a kind of windmill pattern.

As for he story's actual conclusion, I loved it. It's highly romantic! I appreciate the man's desire to maximize his relationships by consolidating the days and nights of the year together.

Mr. Karswell said...

My Wife was a Windmill Patten (Rated X) haha

Some fun and very clever comments here gents, I appreciate you playing along! I'm going to try and get some more real contests going again here like we used to do, and as we enter the Year of the Dragon, I'll see what kind of monstrous horror I can unleash upon you for the next post...

den said...

Dear friend,i just saw at amazon ZOMBIES HC.Now that you have spoiled us we can't wait the official anouncement.Please write a few words about this.Thank you.

Mr. Karswell said...

Thanks Den, yes Amazon has officially announced (and made available for pre-order) the next Chilling Archives of Horror collection from IDW and Craig Yoe's always awesome Yoe Books-- ZOMBIES (Coming May 22nd!) And like the Bob Powell Terror book, this one not only includes Karswell story contributions, but is also co-edited AND features an intro from yours truly. Click the link below for more info, I'll have more info about this in the next post.

http://www.amazon.com/Zombies-Jack-Cole/dp/1613772130/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1327344779&sr=1-9

Dr. Theda said...

as Always Love your Posts.... I hope to post more scans of my collection of horror comics stories ( Scans that I will make at the Library) Now that my computer is working (changed out from "Vista" to "Windows XP")
Keep up the Great work...
....the Doctor

Anonymous said...

more stories from Haunted Thrills plz. they really are weird and fun to read too! Freddie

Mr. Karswell said...

Thanks Doc, let us know when you post some scans... I'll check and see what Haunted Thrills I have left to post Freddie, check back soon.

Thanks again for the comments!