Had a request for this classic
Vic Donahue tale from the March 1952 issue of
Chamber of Chills #6. It was originally featured here back in August 2007 (along with the rest of this entire great issue), but I thought I'd share it again for those that missed it the first time around, as it is definitely one of the finer, more gruesome examples of 50's
Harvey horror... I'll begin with new posts soon!
Two of
THOIA's favorite followers,
Blaise & Mim, have been with us since the very beginning... I'd like to thank them again for the great
Tales of Terror postcard book they were so kind to send to me for
Halloween! It's kind folk like this that keep
THOIA going!
XOXO
Having recently discovered THOIA I really must thankyou so very much both for its content AND the memories it brought back for me of my misspent youth at Junior School on the South Coast of England in the early 1970`s, where my friends and I caught up with Pre-Code comic stories (much to the displeasure of our parents)in the form of American imported re-prints. What memories! What comics! What a great site! Truely. Once again thankyou and keep the material coming.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, GP!
ReplyDeleteThis is one I would've DEFINITELY have had to hide from my mother!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Karswell!
Thanks for re-posting this classic!
ReplyDeleteSomething that shocked me when I first read this story was how that innocent woman in the tank suffers a hideous, painful death. There was no happy ending or moral twist, just evil winning. Then the reader is directly warned to be suspicious of his neighbors. I wonder if there was a red scare type of element there?
I think Donahue was hands-down one of the best of the semi-underrated artists!
My favorite Donahue story--also one of my favorite pre-code tales of all time--was "Two Ways To Die!"
The "evil wins" pre-code stories always stop with the "you could be next!" blurb, but as sfdoomed said, it's hard to not think there isn't a red scare element here.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, the script's a little goofy. One needs the world's worst puppet theatre to disintegrate somebody, and another one can just do it with her finger. Also, the ray seems very selective, clothes, organs, skin, but not bones or ... hats?
I was the person who originally requested this story. I saw it here years ago and it just stuck with me. The whole thing was very creepy, especially the "disintegrator top," and its eerie whining. The shadows cast in the weird light by the monstrosities in the unused subway tunnel also left an impression. Here's another monsters in the subway movie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Line
ReplyDeleteI saw this, and this story reminded me about weird stuff happening in subways.
will you be mad if I download haunted horror comicbook without paying for it? what does an editor do if the stories are already written? what kind of percentage do you make on sales ? idw didnt they reprint everything in black and white before so now they use color?
ReplyDeleteI always think of the movie Raw Meat when re-reading this story too. SFDoomed mentioned another good one in Two Ways To Die, this can also be found in the THOIA Oct 2009 Archive.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the supportive, positive comments lately... it's a breathe of fresh air with the mountain of ridiculous spam comments and even hate mail i''ve been getting here in 2012. People, I work hard on the blog, it's incredibly time consuming and my personal life schedule sometimes makes updating a real chore, let alone the time I'm apparently supposed to set aside to help unknown people promote their own projects because they need help getting noticed on the web. Ive been doing this since 2007, I do this for FREE because it's something I am passionate about, as I know it is for some of you others out there. But if someone feels the need to insult me and send threats for whatever reason, please note I do not give a single fuck whether you like it or not. Fuck you. This blog is for people who share similar interests in precode horror, and all related eras of horror genre comics. Idiotic comments and personal attacks upon me will never to be posted, so please feel free to continue wasting your time typing them out, it's easy to check sender locations through my notifications and then figure out who you are, just as easy as it is to send your message to my spam folder. I've said all in going to say about this.
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ReplyDeleteMr. Doortree over on Goldenagecomics had to deal with a few thin skinned morons who thought his artistic postings needed an adults only warning-but compared to the material out on the web, Doortree's postings would be considered tame by most grandmothers!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous posters/whiners/angry morons remind me of a statement a comedian made some years back- "the TV has two knobs, one to change the channel, one to turn it off. Nobody is forcing you to watch or listen"
There are a million plus websites out there, if you don't like this one, find one you do like and stop harrassing Karswell, think you can handle the thought, annoying flies out there?
Kars,
ReplyDeleteLet it be known for every one of us here that regularly posts, there are probably 1000s of lurkers who greatly appreciate the time and effort you put into this blog.
I've been here for years (lurked the early ones), and always felt bad for never putting up comments, because this blog is such a great service and adds so much entertainment to my life.
You also have a great community of regular commenters who all say interesting things, which is a sure sign of quality in your blog.
So, thanks!
That's unbelievable about the hate mail! How could anyone have a problem with this friggin' awesome blog!!?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, too much anonymity on blogs and websites has practically ruined good public discussions because people troll and spam and discourage others from even bothering.
Friggin' jerks. Let me at 'em. I'll give them the Bert beatdown!
Haha, thanks friends... I didn't want this to turn into a whine Fest about my problems. I appreciate the support of course, I just wanted to vent myself a bit, thanks for listening.
ReplyDeleteNew THOIA post tomorrow!
ebookee has haunted horror as a download probably kaskus site too.
ReplyDeletesons of black mass what are your musical influence I can hear stooges,sabbath ,mc5 punk ?
ReplyDeleteAll of the above... and Kiss, Cooper, Misfits, Cheap Trick, Black Flag, horror film scores, etc
ReplyDeleteHoly cow. My modem died while I was out of town and I just got back up to full bandwidth today. Now I feel like I should toss in a little support love. Sorry you're getting crappy comments, Karswell. That sucks. Hope the negatives get bored and stop bugging you real soon. We'll still be here!
ReplyDeleteKarswell is a rocker! Rock on, brother!
ReplyDelete