Thursday, June 29, 2017
Curse of the Horrible Hangman
Some horror chums and I were talking about the good 'ol Ace WoM horror series in a Facebook group earlier today, and I thought I'd pull out some issues to share, as well as deliver a swingin' cover story from the Dec '52 issue of Web of Mystery #16, featuring art by Charles Nicholas. And please don't judge me by the condition of this cover, it's as water damaged and brittle as ancient hangman's bones as you can get-- I seriously will take whatever I can find on these old 50's books!
I know he's protecting his home, but when the current baron threatens the two of them with a bullwhip, and makes a speech about disloyal servants "feeling the bite" of it, it makes me wonder how completely different he's supposed to be from his "hanging judge" ancestor!
ReplyDeleteI liked it, but it needed some editing -- our married couple disappearing for nearly all of the tale and how jumbled the ending were could have been fixed up a bit.
ReplyDeleteI like how our hangman was always framed against his hung victims.
I always wondered if the 50s didn't cause a lot of kids to stop making deals with the devil ... honestly, these are like instruction manuals on how you will get screwed in the end!
So..... The Nick Nolte origin story...... :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's hard not to be charmed by a story that has in its third from last panel a sudden appearance of a red Satan's head, complete with widow's peak and goatee and little horns. I often wonder if anybody really thought that would be what the devil would look like back then? Maybe even today?
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