Friday, September 26, 2014
The Devil Statues
Originally titled "The Night the Statues Walked", this Lou Cameron tale appeared in the July 1953 issue of Web of Mystery #19, (sorry, don't have it!) But we do have the Oscar Fraga re-drawn version for the Eerie Pubs (as well as Gredown), retitled "The Devil Statues", from the April 1971 issue of Weird Vol. 5 #2, plus a bonus "Weird Facts" page...
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ReplyDeleteThe artists in these last couple Eerie pub stories kept missing perfectly good chances to put in flying eyeballs! Did they not get the memo?
ReplyDeleteThere's some fun gross-for-gross sake art here, but the severed heads are interesting. You could interpret it in different ways, but the either blood drip or skin pattern makes it look like the neck was connected directly to the chin!
So to cure rheumatism I have to dig up a grave? That's likely to give me rheumatism!
That's something I'm afraid I didn't notice on my own - it's a very violent Eerie Publishing story with no protruding eyes.
ReplyDeleteEven though I only owned 2-3 Eerie magazines EARLY on, that last page is one thing I associate with them, the "Ripley's" type page.
The flying eyeballs were a specialty of Dick Ayers, no?
ReplyDeleteThat's what I've heard.
ReplyDeleteI can't help liking the third panel on Page One. It might not be an incredibly rare thing, but it's nice in a horror story when a cat isn't the villain of the story (in this case, not the hero either - just a scared witness).
This story is one more instance of a man seeking revenge but getting too cocky about it and getting destroyed in the process. Why send a letter to the former judge and warn him? Just let the statues do the dirty work and have the last laugh from a safe distance. Later on, the guy could go into business for himself as the ultimate hit man, if a tank can't stop a stone assassin, nothing can.
ReplyDeletethis story was stoned immaculate to be sure.