Friday, December 25, 2015

The Soul of Benjamin Sprague

A chilly Christmas classic from the THOIA archive returns, originally presented in Weird Thrillers #3 from 1952, and this one highlighted by a terrific terror team-up of pencil and ink artistry-- including Howard Nostrand, Martin Epp, and clearly Bob Powell!

Happy Horrordays, everyone!






5 comments:

Grant said...

This is a nice Christmas Carol variation mixed with the doppelganger idea, but being in a horror comic, I wasn't exactly waiting for that happy ending, so it was a pleasant surprise.

I know they don't get a WHOLE LOT of respect, but it makes me think of Charlton horror comics later on (late ' 60s-early ' 70s). They were very fond of showing bad people replaced by good alter egos, but they usually weren't as lucky as Mr. Sprague - they usually seemed to get replaced permanently.

Brian Barnes said...

Merry Christmas, Karswell, and thanks for bringing us presents throughout the year with these great comics, and listening to our conspiracy theories and nit-picking! :)

J_D_La_Rue_67 said...

Great writing. I love when he meets his alter ego for the second time.
Ben does not demand his wealth back, he is so changed a man that he's actually sorry for his "doppelganger", who had to live his merciless, unpleasant life, while he was given the chance to learn his lesson. He wouldn't have minded to be permanently replaced, but he knows he has to get back in the rich man's shoes and change his ways.
Strictly speaking, not much of a "horror" story maybe, but a great Christmas tale.

Mr. Cavin said...

Sorry I'm chiming in too late to wish yo--and everybody else her--a Happy Christmas. So Happy New Year's, instead! Here's to a 2016 filled end-to-end with awesome four-color horrors (and, you know, whatever number of excellent two-color horrors will fit in around the edges, too). See you all on the other side!

Mr. Karswell said...

Thanks for the comments, and happy late holiday returns to each and every one of you as well-- I'm sorry my lines of communication aren't as open as they've been in the past, but please know I appreciate everyone that stops by and takes the time to drop me a line, we'll see if we can get our act together a little more consistently around here for 2016... :)