Saturday, September 12, 2015
Time to Die
HAUNTED HORROR #18 finally landed in stores this week-- two weeks late, but better late than never! And today it's time for another preview of a spooky story contained in that issue, (making its debut here at THOIA as well), and originally presented in the February 1954 issue of Dark Mysteries #16. Anyone wanna take a stab at what the Hell the story host is supposed to be-- and why he has two gun barrels sticking out of his forehead?!!
I didn't even notice those when reading this in Haunted Horror, and wouldn't have noticed without blowing up the scan!
ReplyDeleteI think they are bullets. And based on the cigarette, I suspect this might be some kind of dead private eye?
From what I can see on Comic Book Plus, skeletal figures with bullet holes in the head, used as narrators/hosts were a constant in Dark Mysteries. This one looks a bit different, though. In some pictures he seems to have scales on his face. And he's a heavy smoker.
ReplyDeleteI think D.M's. hosts had the irritating habit of not introducing themselves to the readers.
So far, I found no clues about the guy. I stumbled into a very interesting article about horror hosts. You probably know all this stuff already, anyway here's the link
http://ghastlyyarns.blogspot.it/2010/05/tribute-to-horror-comic-hosts.html
Anyway, it doesn't clarify the nature of our friend at all.
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ReplyDeleteMy best theory: It's a combination living skull and liquid soap dispenser. Possibly a forgotten relative of Chemo, late of DC's Metal Men.
ReplyDeleteAfrica American? Really interesting.
ReplyDeleteInteresting tale! There is a lot of feelings in that story. I read it with pleasure! Thanks for posting!
ReplyDeleteThis is flipping great! Seriously, what an odd downer (?) of a story, where the twist ending is that they really actually seriously ended-up taking things so very far. And this brazen ending, after the new-to-me conceit of the newly-undead hero actually physically reversing the processes of not only his interment, but also the rest of the funerary processes. I think a movie of this would be super: The scene could include the excruciating draining of his embalming fluid. Then finding the necessary amount of blood, un-stitching his mouth and other orifices, carefully replacing his possibly autopsied organs into his Y incision, etc. Frankenstein create thyself!
ReplyDeleteTotally weirdo writing here at the line level, though. What gives? "Yours is not the time to die, Timmy!" Yoda wouldn't even say that.