Saturday, May 30, 2015

When Voodoo Drums Rumble

We haven't invoked any voodoo evil around here in a while, so howz'about a weird 'n tricky one from the April 1954 issue of Baffling Mysteries #20, plus a baffling bonus quickie from the same issue. We may as well finish out this issue with our next post too, it's an even more bizarre story featuring art by Lou Cameron--stay tombed for it later this week!










5 comments:

J_D_La_Rue_67 said...

So, what's so "baffling" with this story?
I happen to know a couple of guys, maybe more, who realized that their wife was Veldamma only after they went back from honeymoon. Very common witchcraft!
The "Indian Voodoo" is less common, though. And also the "Fire Zombie" (Afreet?), very nice.
And of course Stefan "Hang those friggin' natives" Hootner is as dumb as can be.

JMR777 said...

I really liked this one. Even though it portrayed the natives as being from India with turbans and all, it was a great revenge against the evil unbeliever story.

Since Sago was the son of Veldamma, I wonder who his father is/was? Maybe Veldamma has a harem of unlucky-arrogant-stupid Westerners who crossed her path and lost.

The one page quickie gets the job done nicely, though with a more talented writer it could have been stretched out to two or three pages.

Great find as always, Karswell!

Grant said...

One line I can't help liking in the one-page story is " It will be the talk of the Universe." Not exactly a soft sell.

Brian Barnes said...

I love this one. I'm all endeared to the stories that are deck-stacked. He's evil, through and through, there isn't a nice thing he does in the entire story that isn't selfish. And, of course, he get's his comeuppance. There's no real arc or any real character development, but it's very much the popcorn type flick of horror stories.

This one is slightly different, though, usually when the guy finds out his wife is an ugly witch, it's only a panel or two away from his death. In this one, see actually stays married to him! They are a married couple, and he's a hen-pecked slave to a witch! It's great!

Mr. Cavin said...

All those years I spent running a Kinko's in Greensboro, NC, and it never once dawned on me to hang somebody for mismanaging supplies.