Sunday, March 10, 2019
The Sleepers in the Crypt
One more from Fiction House's uniquely odd Ghost Comics series, (you guys seem to be having a love/hate with these stories, so we'll move on to other stuff in our next post.) But this is a pretty decent tale-- not unlike one of our previous entries about ghosts vs. gangsters-- to round things out on a lazy Sunday morning. From the Spring 1953 issue of Ghost Stories #6. Waaaake up!
This one is still confusing regardless of the straightforward story. At first, I thought Aunt Jessica was a ghost, especially because Jeffrey kept seeing and hearing things nobody else was, and his aunt really seemed to be expecting him. Yet how was she still alive while all of his cousins were dead? What the heck was up with the great grandfather randomly possessing Jeffrey so suddenly?
ReplyDeleteWith a bit of rework this would be a great psychological thriller.
ReplyDeleteInstead of a spirit, the aunt would haunt his dreams, along with his victims.
I liked the art in this one, it has that scratchy style of art that worked so well in ghost/horror tales.
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ReplyDeletehaha, we’ll have to take your word for it!
ReplyDeleteI love/love the previous stories. Sure, they have consistency and narrative problems, some value a kitchen sink approach over a more precise approach, but they are fun. They are light reads and the people who were making them "knew" they were disposable, but still put the time in.
ReplyDeleteThis one, I still love, but the narrative is nearly impossible to read. Page 3 and 4 stopped me in my tracks and it didn't help that the introduction of our two thugs was by somebody else just introduced (and then disappeared!)
It's fun to look at structure of things that were really meant to be gotten out quickly and make a buck while moving onto the next issue.
Also some really good placement in the art. The splash is fun, and page 3, panel 3 is like a scratchy Scooby-doo background.
I can't tell if I'm just tired, but I read this beginning to end and have no idea who or what any of the characters are. I'm not sure I've ever read anything before in English and come away so unenlightened.
ReplyDeleteOh there are excellent details in this story. I like to think that the aunt is very much still alive, and that she's been attended by Parkins, the dead butler from ten years ago, the whole time she's been in France. There's a sit-com for you; Mr. Belvedere meets the Ghost and Mr. Chicken in La Ville Lumière! I love the way he seems to be serving her a whole glazed ham at family's heirloom electric organ.
ReplyDeleteThe story is neat in the way the very real haunting is also leavened by Jeffery's own guilt, to the point where the personal and literal demons make a kind of feedback loop. Between the poor boy's frequent psychotic fugues and that act three introduction of the concretely paranormal, it's hard to really tell what's what isn't it? Jeffery's loosening grasp on reality is reflected nicely in the schizophrenic narrative tone.
Also, the cover rocks. It's hard to foreshorten the human body like that. Hats off!
How did he kill four victims with two SINGLE-SHOT pistols?
ReplyDeleteIt's five and a half years later, and I just reread this and had the same reaction, only this time I'm not tired.
ReplyDelete