Sunday, January 4, 2015

Army of Scorpions!

I'm guessing scorpion reference material was hard to come by in 1952-- cuz seriously, can anyone guess what Tom Hickey was thinking when he illustrated this Harvey quickie from the February 1952 issue of Black Cat Mystery #33?! It's still a fun, gruesome, little tale, and while it probably won't rock you like a hurricane or anything, it might just get you in the mood to use that Red Lobster gift certificate that you recently got for xmas.





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8 comments:

  1. Morbid1/04/2015

    I love the image of this deranged bespectacled scientist running around the countryside with this giant glass jar full of huge lobsterish scorpions and sicking them on people -- to defend the rights of flies! That was pretty funny. One of the most amusing quickies I've read in a while.

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  2. J_D_La_Rue_671/04/2015

    This is probably the first time I use the "funny" tag.
    Those may be south african flat rock scorpions (Hadogenes troglodytes, 20 cm.), but I don't think they're poisonous as they're sold as (quite expensive) exotic pets. And certainly they're not red.
    I like the Clark Kent look-alike, showing him gradually going insane in 1-2 pages would have been cute but hey, why bother if you can just write "his new power caused the delicate fibres of his brain to SNAP" (!)
    The old sadistic goat just deserved it. Really.
    Ah, those misfits... misfits of Science...

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  3. Mestiere1/04/2015

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Grant1/04/2015

    I'm glad J_D_La_Rue mentions the kinds of scorpions that AREN'T a threat to people, because with some kinds of animal that can't be mentioned too many times. (I'm very attached to SNAKES, so the generalizing that happens with OTHER kinds of animal bothers me too.)

    As entertaining as this story is, it ALMOST reminds me of propaganda, the kind that would like you to think that an animal rights person is automatically an "animal rights NUT." (Usually pictured as a stereotyped hippie!)

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  5. Brian Barnes1/04/2015

    Very much the B-movie version of a horror comic, entertaining, a bit sadistic, and always one or two interesting panels or ideas.

    The "scorpions" crawling up the chair to get the old lady is a gem of a panel, but the rounded borders are a bit distracting.

    Spider-man villain The Scorpion looks more like a scorpion than these!

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  6. J_D_La_Rue_671/04/2015

    Personally, I'd like to see an army of monkeys, dogs, cats and guinea pigs in such a story.

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  7. Mr. Cavin1/05/2015

    This is four pages of absolute magic! The artist isn't the only one who doesn't seem to know what a scorpion is--even the scientists here seem to think these things are mere insects when they are obviously zombies. I mean, scorpions don't even turn red till you cook 'em.

    Fantastic! Happy New Year.

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  8. Brad S.1/05/2015

    Didn't EC do a bunch of stories where vivisectionists or people killing bugs end up being done in by the friends of the poor animal/bug victim?

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