Whoa... I just realized that two posts ago
THOIA delivered post
#2,000! And for those that care,
AEET finally hit
1,000 posts about 20 posts ago as well! (Man, I really need to pay more attention to that sort of milestoney thing!) So ok, not only are we celebrating
Halloween today, we're also celebrating
2,000(+) posts at
THOIA, or over
3,000 posts when combined with my other blog. And now it's totally time to turn these gnarly numbers into a festival, and of course there's no greater host of horrors (besides me!) than the
King of Hell himself--
Satan! It is, in fact, a
Devil Double Feature, the first story from the July 1953 issue of
Strange Mysteries #12, plus a bonus half page quickie from the April 1953 issue of
Out of the Shadows #8, with art possibly by
Vince Coletta!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PLUS! Mr. Karswell, Halloween '71
Happy Halloween everyone, stay safe and warm (it's freakin' snowing and freezing rain here in the midwest --arghh!), and have yourselves an enchantingly evil evening of sinful celebration --and most importantly--
CANDY CANDY CANDY!!
One of the most important elements in any horror story/film/etc is the victims. The plot will attempt to make you like the victims (and then you hope they make it out) or hate the victim (and then you can't wait for them to be killed.)
ReplyDeleteThe horror that fails is the one that doesn't give you any feelings towards the victims and therefore it's all meh.
I wanted these two to die from panel 3! What dopes! Can you get a clue? Can you get a clue where you basically have a dump truck of clues dropped on you on nearly every panel? This story needs an extension where their car blows up and they finally get it!
I like how the artist gave us a pin-up hanged victim (!!) and couldn't resist breaking panels to give us the sexy leg pin-up!
Happy Halloween Karswell and from my years (and years) or reading this blog, where every post was entertaining for me and work for you, thank you!
I don't hate them, but almost every time they try to identify themselves, it's hard to tell whether they're just surprised to hear these people have never heard of America, or deeply offended. As in "American Exceptionalism." I guess it's the first thing, but it's a little tricky by the third time you read one of those lines.
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ReplyDeleteCongrats! Hope you enjoy the evening despite the weather. Trick or treaters very thin on the ground here this year. But I'm ok with that! Listening to spooky tunes, enjoying my decorations, and slow cooking pumpkin seeds. This year I'm trying sour cream and onion flavouring.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I just found this blog thanks to a Seanbaby article making fun of pre code horror and I AM HOOKED. This is a treat and a delight, especially on a cold, crappy ( fellow Midwesterner here, what-what!��) Halloween night after work. With 2000+ posts, looks like I got some reading to do. Awesome. ��
ReplyDeleteOh wow! I just stumbled on this blog due to a Seanbaby article making fun of some of the absurdities of pre code horror and I am hooked! This is a great find, especially on this cold, nasty (fellow Midwesterner here, what-what!😁) Halloween night. With 2000 posts it looks like I’ve got some reading to do. 😉
ReplyDeleteNice grand guignol post for Halloween! Well into this story (the top of page four, I guess) I was really charmed to realize that our protagonists were still sitting in their car. They'd been rolling past episodic horror dioramas for pages by then, basically a comic book dark ride. Splendid holiday fare! And as someone who lives in a hemisphere where the seasons are swapped from my usual Halloween associations, I appreciate the fact that this story references the witchy springtime traditions of Walpurgis. A Halloween for every time of the year!
ReplyDeleteI might have included a panel, right at the end there, where we see the other ensorceled travelers on the roadside, hung and stoned and burned in their cars. But I'm mean-spirited that way.
Happy belated holiday, Karswell and everybody! Here's to the next couple thousand posts! 364 more days till Halloween!
Love your snapshot!
ReplyDeleteHope everyone had a great halloween this year, thanks for stopping by all this month-- and to you newcomers remember that every day is Halloween at THOIA! See ya in November!!
ReplyDelete"Devil's Town" has a plot similar to Herschell Gordon Lewis's "Two Thousand Maniacs!" I wonder if one influenced the other?
ReplyDelete"We're Americans! You can't do this!"
ReplyDeleteRight, just for that, they can not only do this, but should.