Friday, November 15, 2019

Cadaver's Revenge

It's carnivals, crypts, corpses, and cadavers this week here at THOIA, and today we have another tale from the April 1953 issue of Strange Fantasy #5. Like every story in this issue, it also received the Eerie Pub remake / reworkin' over, and was reprinted no less than 5 times in the decades to come. And you can certainly see why, as it's hilariously off beat with a great splash, ruthless grave spittin', slimy rats, and a tombstone that is apparently more deadly than any actual cadaver! *Insert squashed melon sound FX here*













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10 comments:

  1. Mestiere11/15/2019

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Brian Barnes11/15/2019

    There is some really striking panels in this one. The splash would be OK but the giant blazing laser-eyed skull is awesome and looks like it was traced from an anatomy book. The walking with the skeleton is a clever image, and last page panel 3 is staged really well, and the glow on the tombstone (done so you can see the head) actually adds to the suspense of the panel. It really gives the idea of the shifting being in motion.

    The rat on page 6 is also very good. This is a real change from the usually 6 legged spiders or other wacky bits we see.

    The story is a lot of fun, the ending is pretty much set by the time he sinks into the grave but the entertainment comes from waiting out the grisly end. I suspect in the Eerie pubs one there was an entire lake of blood coming out from under the tombstone!

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  3. JBM11/15/2019

    Thank you Mr.K. that certainly is a fun splash. I love the footsteps panel. The green spit was well done. I thought for a second that our hero was going to be forgiven.

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  4. JMR77711/15/2019

    The splash! That splash! A skull with lightning eyes and a macabre yellow glow, it deserves to be an emblem for a rock band or Ghost Rider!

    I hereby nominate lightning skull to be an horrorary mascot of THOIA, or one of several mascots since there are so many memorable horror icons found in the archives of THOIA.

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  5. Todd11/16/2019

    This might be the dumbest way I've seen somebody die in one of these. Impossible to feel sorry for him, but he could've been trying to blow his head off and ended up better than this.

    I love the idiosyncracies of lesser known pre-Code horror titles.

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  6. Mr. Cavin11/16/2019

    Uh, yeah, I believe Stephen Kind probably did read this one. His own story only incorporates the visuals here of course, and does away with the trim moralizing. It's also more mean-spirited.

    Of course I loved all the same stuff everybody else did: Lightning sockets, bats-n-owls, the allegorical footsteps panel. I'll add the really impressive character art here, too (I really dig that Jack Davisish caretaker). I would love to see the Eerie Pubs version if it's easy to dig that one up.

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  7. Mr. Karswell11/17/2019

    >This was better than any episode of the recent Creepshow TV show

    Forgot to address this in the previous post (sorry!), but I'm right there with ya... I stuck with it and watched them all, but my overall impression is that while I found it mildly entertaining enough, it felt about as well made and scary as "horror" shows created for kids, like Goosebumps. Certainly hoping they can amp up the quality in stories, acting, and FX in season two.

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  8. Mr Randall4/19/2024

    Hi there.
    Did Cadaver’s Revenge appear in any late 70s/early 80s horror comics or reprints? I had a comic with this in when I was a kid around 1980 but can’t remember what the comic was called. I very much doubt that it would have been an early 70s comic due to what I think the newsagent I got it from would have stocked.

    Thanks,
    Kieran

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  9. Mr. Karswell4/19/2024

    Yes, this story was reprinted and reworked quite a few times (see below.)

    FTI You can always click the link I provide in the intros to every post here which takes you to the Grand Comics Database which usually contains all the info you could ever possibly want about practically every comic book story ever (when available)

    Reprints
    US in Tales of Voodoo (Eerie Publications, 1968 series) #v2#1 (February 1969)
    US in Witches Tales (Eerie Publications, 1969 series) #v2#3 (June 1970)
    US in Horror Tales (Eerie Publications, 1969 series) #v3#5 (September 1971)
    US in Witches Tales (Eerie Publications, 1969 series) #v6#3 (May 1974) [reworked]
    which is reprinted
    US in Weird (Eerie Publications, 1966 series) #v11#1 (March 1978)

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  10. Mr Randall4/19/2024

    Many thanks!

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