The "chilled monkey brains" scene in
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is played pretty much for maximum gross-out laughs. Not so is the case in this ultra grim, icky back-up tale with a revoltingly similar theme, from the April 1980 issue of
Vampirella #86. (Extra thanks again to my chum
Brian Barnes who sent me a box full of
Warren mags to add to my collection!)
(Cover art by
Terrance Lindall)
And also another thanks to
Eric Stanway for sending me a copy of his
Vintage Blood Volume 1 collection. If you enjoy atmospheric, graphic adaptations of
Poe, Bierce, Stoker, Dickens, and
Stevenson (many of these culled from the pages of
Fantaco's GORE SHRIEK magazine) then check it out by clicking
HERE!
Really disturbing ending on this one which lingers with you. I liked the art, as well. Definitely a notch about the average "import artist" that Warren was using at that point to save money -- they were typically bland and academic. This guy is pretty inventive with a strong graphic sense that puts you in the scene he's drawing. Love the oddball cover to the issue! Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteShades of Ray Liotta in Hannibal...
ReplyDeleteI thought they were going to turn him into a monkey, then eat his brains.
ReplyDeleteBrains! Nom nom nom!
That's a really well written story; there's no "as it turns out", you're introduced to the magic blanket and the eating brains right at the start.
ReplyDeleteThat his brains will be eaten is obvious; but the trick ending with three heads comes directly out of elements introduced earlier is played very fairly, something a lot of EC-ish horror stories failed at.
Vampirella had a surprisingly good amount of clever stories, many times better than Creepy/Eerie in the latter period. I still can't stand Vampirella the character though, those stories were always so flat (well, flat in story telling, at least!)
I recommend anybody who likes this stuff to check out the Dark Horse or Dynamite reprints, they are really great. That's why I can give this stuff to Kars!
Great art!
ReplyDeleteIf I had read that particular issue of Vampi as a wee one, I think it would've scarred my oversensitive self.
ReplyDeleteI think I like the creepy, erie, and vampirella comics better than the pre code stuff. They're usually darker
ReplyDeleteYeah, I dug this one too. I've been going through alot of these newly aquired Warrens (and Skywalds) trying to find more tales to showcase later this summer. I'll probably do one or two black and whites a month mixed in with the pre codes. Thanks for the comments!
ReplyDelete