Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Heart of Horror

Another full issue accomplished here at THOIA with the final tale for Valentine's Day 2012 from the April-May 1952 issue of Out of the Night #2 (also see "The Vampire's Fate", "Drum of Doom", and Scorpion from the Stars.") This is a fun tale today, full of um, moments, like the indestructable evil conveniently revealing in detail the "never would've figured it out on their own" process of how it can be destroyed. But most memorable of all being the incredibly cornball closing line from our lovely heroine.









XOXO!

8 comments:

Prof. Grewbeard said...

this one was sooo metal!...

The Vicar of VHS said...

I love how strong the female lead is here...she rescues her dumbass in distress like it's no big deal! "Oh great, the forces of evil are trying to take my man. I DO NOT THINK SO."

I do wonder how she knew EXACTLY the magic combination that would kill the Evil Hottie, but I guess there's no sense worrying my pretty little head about it. ;)

I also love greater-than-average creative use of bolding in this story. "Didn't you successfully transplant the hearts of animals?" "Yes, everything is great, but where did he get that heart?" I just imagine them shouting every other line at top volume. Would love to hear the radio play version! ;)

Hope your VD clears up soon, Karswell!

Bunnies, The Vicar

FrankFay said...

"The Lair Encrusted With Terror"

Its as if Larry Blamire wrote this one

Brian Barnes said...

These plots, aside from the supernatural element, aren't far removed from the silver age of DC comics, where everything is a puzzle to solve and convenient scripts reign supreme!

We just need superman being a jerk to Lois Lane and we are there!

I have to agree with the Vicar here, the female lead is pretty refreshing. There doesn't seem a moment where she's concerned, even when confronted by a evil ghost! The look on the last panel, page 6, is great. You can almost see the "keep touching me and you loose that hand" look in her eyes!

BTW, did they walk to the rotting mansion? From page 3, they are living in a city, probably an apartment, and nobody noticed the Gothic mansion nearby with coffins in it? How far did they walk?

[>] Brian

Brian Barnes said...

Karswell, I've got a slightly off-topic question. My favorite pre-code (maybe it was post-code) horror story of all time was an Atlas story I saw reprinted in I think Giant Sized Werewolf by Night (still my favorite Marvel mag, it's a great run, especially the Hell House lift in the later period, one of the best IMHO post-code horror comic stories.)

I swear you posted it, but looking through the archives (for Atlas) I couldn't find it.

I'll see if I can pull up the issue, but the setup is basically a trio of band robbers, a husband/wife and another guy, hole up in a cave that only the other guy knows the way out of. He gets caught, stays in jail for years, and then goes back to the cave thinking they are dead and he can collect the money. Then something happens :)

The art is incredible, and there were some truly spooky images in that one.

Sorry for the OT, hoping you know this one!

Mr. Cavin said...

Good lord, Colonel Sanders was a mad transplant doctor? I'll bet the original title to this was "Chickenhearted".

Tim Whitcher said...

You can get anything on CraigsList, but you meet the strangest people.

Another glorious convoluted tale of terror!

Mr. Karswell said...

My favorite Audrey line is on page 2, panel 3, "Wish we could be alone darling..." umm, you two are alohhhhhne, you mean ALONE alone, eh? The man's dying and all she can think about is being ALONE. Yep, she's DEFINITELY my fave pre-code heroine of all time!

Thanks for the comments, maybe someone else can help Gumba remember the name of the Atlas tale he's looking for, I know it's in the archive, but I'm totally drawing a blank-- ARGHH!! (sorry!)

Coming up next: More Convoluted Horror and some cool news for you ACE fans!