Saturday, August 20, 2016
The Treacherous Genie
Have I ever posted a story about an evil genie here? I was asked if I had from someone looking for a particular tale, so I quickly went through my archive to check, and low and behold it's hard to believe that with over 1,900 posts I somehow haven't at this point-- I mean, it really does appear that this subject matter has indeed eluded the haunted halls of Mr. Karswell's domain-- but if someone knows otherwise, please let us know in the comments! In the meantime, here's a good one from the August 1953 issue of Tales of Horror #6, art by Rocco Masterserio... and I'll see what other gruesome genies I have bottled up in my collection for future posts too! ::POOF!::
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8 comments:
I believe there were some evil genies given by the devil in your post on "The Devil's Bottles" here. http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-devils-bottles.html
Yeah that story came up when I searched but I was thinking they were more like bottled demons... though it does say genie
Well, it never really felt like there was anything missing, I must say. But here we have it: Genii. I do remember several wish-fulfillment type stories, but they were all devils and demons I guess. This one too, technically, what with that shopkeeper's tail. I find it really interesting he didn't, you know, vaporize back to Hades the moment he'd played his diabolical little trick on Edgar. For a small business devil, he was kind of an upstanding fellow, frankly.
Man, the top couple of rows on page two are really stunning work. The artist really piled extra story-telling value into that sequence.
There's great art all over this thing, as Mr. Cavin said, the top panels of page 2 are great pieces of work, though I'm not sold on the coloring (though it's obvious why it's done that way.)
This is a fun little story, the Devil taking a roundabout way of dealing with Edgar is one of the fun parts of any good devil tale; though the subplot of the genie shipping is kind of enduring. Which means the Devil actually brought together two trapped souls, which is the opposite of torment. I guess the Devil really does always lose in one way or another!
I especially like the trident tail!
Truth be told if I was a genie bottled up in a small bottle for 4,000 years thanks to the Devil and separated from the one I'd love, I'd probably pull a trick like that to get my freedom and lover back too. Besides, seeing as who the genie got for a master, well, if you ask me, I'd say Edgar was more evil than the genie. Seriously, stealing from a blind man is downright diabolical, Edgar!
It's a complete ripoff from a John Collier story - "Bottle Party"...
Wouldn't be the first time Collier got the comic book redux, check the THOIA Archive here:
https://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-bag-x2.html
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