Saturday, February 25, 2023

The Devil and the War Bride

One more bedeviled bride story to end out THOIA's February Freak-A-Thon, and I hope everyone enjoyed the eerie assortment we featured this month! Annnnd similar to one of our previous tales where we saw an evil voodoo witch doctor have a sudden change of heart in the climax, can it be true that even Ol Scratch himself might possibly be played and swayed as well? Read today's post from the June 1953 issue of Adventures into the Unknown #44 to find out! (And a very special thanks to Ferocious Phil for the scans too!)

6 comments:

Bill the Butcher said...

Oi'm sorproised she didn't say Begorrah. The divil take the writer!

That is an...interesting...placement of the branch in the last panel of Page 2.

Glowworm said...

I always liked the ACG horror comics because they could be equally whimsical and charming at times when not being downright morbid or creepy. Many had a romantic angle with a couple having a supernatural adventure ending with some sort of cute zinger to wrap it up. What amuses me on this one is that while Phil isn't superstitious, he's the one who actually studied under a doctor of the occult. (Okay, occult science, but still it's somebody who has knowledge in the supernatural and immediately believes the couple's story). I'm also easily amused that on the other hand, Coreen, who is a believer of the supernatural, isn't familiar with what mandrake looks like or its connection with the devil. I kind of love that Coreen's power literally stems from cursing people. Something innocent becoming something terrifying within a split second. To be honest, I don't like how pervy that customs inspector was on looking at her undergarments like that. I also thought that the guy going after Phil with the knife looked a bit too happy rather than "Mad with mob rage." Also, I love when the Devil's a good sport about the entire thing. He gives up every soul he got when he could have simply just released Coreen from his curse. Although, if you ask me, he's probably going to eventually get the souls of that angry mob man and that customs inspector anyway so no great loss there. Got to love Phil's brilliance on managing to get the drop on the Devil and "It may sound funny...but thanks!" is a great line. The last two panels closing out with Phil and Coreen being cute is light and fluffy.

Brian Barnes said...

It's always fun to try to figure out a rule set that fits these stories. Now, the whole thing are written around a single point or two, and there probably isn't much thought past that, and I'll give you the "sleep in a mandrake patch makes your an emissary of Satan" bit, but ... why does Satan get to take away people to hell (I assume, based on the ending) just because somebody yelled at them?

Satan being an invention of the Bible seems to think he'd play by those rules (and, based on this being an American comic that would be the Satan we are talking about.). But he just gets to grab people and drag them to hell willy-nilly, no matter what kind of life they led.

That said, I'm not sure he really reconsidered, he did get beat, fair and square, and by his rules.

I absolutely adore super-villain devils. Dudes in cloaks, with trunks, that fly around and use magical powers. He's a Shazam bad guy.

Splash aside there's kind of a real lack of good girl art here, which is kind of interesting. I love the imps, I love the evil forest, and I love just how outright angry Corren is.

BTW, the moral of this seems to be "be a nice girl, girls with tempers are evil." Not sure about that!

JMR777 said...

This story could have taken a different turn-

Coreen could have gone into business for herself by making people "disappear" for a price. Bye bye gold diggers, business partners, rivals, etc., all for a reasonable fee of course.

Some of these stories are open to reinterpretation for future comics artists, after all, swiping is part of comics history.

Grant said...

The Devil playin fair always reminds me of BEDAZZLED more than anything else. Including the idea of him giving a soul back when he doesn't have to.

John Mc said...

Thank you Karswell, I really enjoyed this one. I thought that the writing was spot on, and the varied panel perspectives pleasing.