Friday, May 25, 2012

Skull House / FrightFeast

Another typically scummy (but fun) Superior Publishers Limited tale about hee-heein' and gaaa glurgin' people to death or something, from the May 1954 issue of Strange Mysteries #17. It's hilarious to me how the ominous "Skull House" (first page, panel two) simply looks like one of those round, silver mid century style mobile trailer homes!







And speaking of scummy fun (the brutal / modern kind), a big thanks to my truly disturbed friends in the UK for sending me a copy of FrightFeast, (as well as a rad original piece of art!) Indie splatter punk meets Eerie Publications in a boiling vat of barf and gore... it's definitely not for everybody, but then if it was-- it wouldn't be so recommended! Click HERE for more!

9 comments:

motortree said...

"Not much of me left, cousin, after the fish and crabs got through with me! Hee-hee!" That bit really grabs me. Why is it that the trashiest horror comics are so often the ones that have these moments of absolute genius?

Mark B said...

Superior Comics were usually anything but, though their stories did register highly on the insane-o-meter.

That Skull House does look like a trailer, and is blueish silver, but is described in the first panel as yellow!

I had to look up scape-grace (page 2 panel 1)and the best definition I found was from thefreedictionary.com - n. an idle mischievous person. [from scape2 + grace, alluding to a person who lacks God's grace]

Is there any older horror story with an elderly female falling and breaking her hip, allowing a ghost (or whatever he is) to attack her? ("I've fallen and the ghost is coming!")

That last panel...geez. The cops didn't find the tapes and recorders before? They were just taking their time and happened to notice they were all missing, including the old lady's body?

Do you have a scan of The Black Zombie from the same issue? It sounds interesting/insane.

Thanks Steve!

Mr. Karswell said...

It's called The Black Flame, I'm getting it ready for the next post... and trust me, it's just as awfulsome and trashy as this story!

Ghastly Gil said...

I love the clunkiness to this story. What was auntie doing down there confronting her living nephew alone in a creepy old cavern? What did she think she was going to do? Boy I'm gonna need a vacation after this story. A LONG one!

Brian Barnes said...

Page 2, Panel 2, creeps me out! The art is pretty rushed and the artist has a lot of problems, but it all comes together for a pretty teriffic panel.

The story itself seems like it was written on the fly, panel by panel, without an ending in mind.

"With courage born of terror..." What?

Mr. Karswell said...

Get ready for a vacation to Haiti next, Gil!

I like that panel too, Gumba... creepy old ladies always bring to mind the floating dead woman in Bava's Black Sabbath, as well as the deceased granny that won't stay in her casket in Fulci's Gates of Hell.

Ghastly Gil said...

Yeah the big closeup of Auntie had me thinking of Graham Ingels. Even if it was only for a single panel, that's not a bad accomplishment.

Mr. Cavin said...

I think that very last close-up is particularly effective, too. It's crude in a good way, and I like how the nails of the grasping zombie resonate with the motion lines and crosshatching over the old woman's face to make it look chillingly like he's actually drawing her freaky expression right onto her head.

But yeah, this is one for the Psycho Department for sure.

Mr. Karswell said...

Haha! Another one from the Pyscho Dept coming right up!