If that scary skeleton cover on the March 1978 issue of Grimm's Ghost Story #43 didn't clue you in, it actually has not one, but two boney tales within! Todays post, to me, is the better of the two, and features art by Golden Age great, Joe Certa. I think we'll save Sam's bones for another day though...
Hephzibah deserves a comeback; she is perfect as a teller of terror tales.
ReplyDeleteImagine what the likes of Eerie or Creepy could have done with her as a narrator.
Always loved Gold Key, they did their best under the yoke of the comics code but still turned out great horror yarns.
These kinds of stories get a lot of criticism for how the native helpers are pictured, and for how the explorers are allowed to treat them by the story. This one kind of goes back and forth, since "poor, mad Spyros" is actually mentioned at the end.
ReplyDeleteThus concludes the sad parable of Takis of Yakos and his faithful mule, Archimedes. The moral: Think twice before you prank somebody to death lest you wish to be pranked to death in turn--at least don't do it when you've already been damned in the course of the daily grind. I mean, I don't know for sure that the mule got snuffed too, but since Takis was cursed for the perversity of his colonial employer, then it just follows that his own employee is also marked.
ReplyDeleteImagine how cool this story would have been in they'd been in Utah digging up dinosaur bones instead.
Yeah, the colonial aspect of this ... isn't great, but it's an older comic and it wasn't meant to do harm so I don't have a problem letting it pass.
ReplyDeleteAll of page 5 is great, keeping the moon in the center of every panel, turning it bright yellow for the last "death" panel, and the great panel in the middle, everything is framed and exciting. That's really great comic work!