Saturday, October 29, 2016
The Worm Turns! / Pretty Poison
We're back with a squirmy double header of slimy fun (plus: Slim Jims for everyone!) --from the Jan-Feb 1978 issue of House of Mystery #256! Yes, 70's DC horror occasionally tapped the gag reflex nicely, as so with these two slitherin' tales of terror that'll leave you gagging for mo-- >>ARRGGHH!!<< More from this issue coming up in our next post-- see ya on Halloween!
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7 comments:
A very happy Halloween weekend to you and yours , goo Mr. Karswell...
...and Hello from Marshville...
Seems like those kids in the first story may have learned a few new words from Bill! Truthfully though, it took me a few minutes to realize that the reason he really didn't want the kids digging around in the worm pit was because he buried his brother in there. The ending doesn't make much sense to me--it's less of a karma ending as nothing is shown to make you think it was his dead brother's vengeance upon him and more like an urban legend. "Man unknowingly eats worm in his sandwich dies choking on a giant worm coming out of his mouth!"
The second tale works much better as the woman in question is a real bitch and the cook is a regular badass delivering that delicious medicine we want her to take. The constrictor being inside the room at the same time ready to swallow her whole is just the icing on that wonderful cake of vengeance.
Happy Halloween to you all!
Happy Black Mass and Sons of, Kars!
A lot of these 70 DC tales have "Art Continuity" in the credits. Certain Alcala could handle the art himself. I'm never heard a adequate explanation as to what that is. I suspect Carley drew the panels and generally sketched out the action, to be filled in by Alcala, sort of how Feldstein used to do it at EC. That's just a guess, though.
First story is all an excuse for the last panel, and what a great panel it is; not so much the worm but the form of the worm on his stomach makes it a positively fun panel. One problem is that Alex's revenge basically required the kids to feed his brother a worm. What are the chances? This, BTW, could easily be a 60s/70s Spectre story.
Second story: poor monkey!
Please don't take offense, but I kinda just skimmed these. They just don't have that '50's madness.
Hey, pretty nice little nod to Arnold Böcklin's series of Isle of the Dead paintings in the splash panel of that worm story. I think it's the stronger of the two, by the way. Nice to see so much attention paid to creating dynamic characters.
Happy Halloween!
I've been looking for this comic for decades! I bought it at the Navy Exchange back in the day and the last panel of the worm sandwich story has been etched into my brain ever since. Thanks for sharing!
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