Did anyone from Metallica ever read this story from the January - February 1954 issue of Eerie #14? Asking for a fiend. Nice work as always from Nodel and Alascia, in fact, I liked this story so much back in 2016 that I included it in my Chilling Archives of Horror Comics hardcover collection, The Return of the Zombies. Get your copy HERE if you haven't already...
He learned too late the deceased want peace, not war.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this could be considered the first of Weird War Tales Comics since their catchphrase for a long time was 'Make War No More'.
It's a clever ending, but I also wish he'd succeeded (without the murders). SOMETHING needs to disillusion all those soldiers, especially since he wants to do it with EVERY country.
ReplyDeleteGood message, I suppose. But boy, that Jarnac had no luck in is quest.
ReplyDeleteThe change from "I will use the dead to end war" to "I will use the dead to conquer the world" was as sudden as "kill the witnesses" to "let's march my army across the land to show everyone that it exists and is unstoppable."
ReplyDeleteI like how there's no ambiguity about Jarnac; he's drawn "crazy" and acts crazy throughout the entire page count. Does a story like this need ambiguity? No, but they are really stacking the deck here!
ReplyDeleteI love the corpses on the right in the splash, they really look like they are rocketing out of the grave!
Page 4, panel 2 is a really striking image!
One thing I noticed about Pierre Jarnac, as mad as he was, he had flashes of intelligence and/or reason-
ReplyDelete'My talk about raising the dead convinces everybody I'm mad! I'll play it smart! I'll persuade the doctors I've only suffered a nervous breakdown!
I've got it! I'm getting nowhere because I'm asking the dead to come to life for my own selfish reasons!'
It's not often we see a mad doctor change his approach to accomplish his goals. Usually "Its 'my way or the highway" instead of "I'll change my tune throw them all off track."
Kinda like the cops in this one. Typically, small town gendarmerie would be presented as mistakenly superstitious or rigid. But this guy was right all along. Pierre was not dangerous because he wanted to do something impossible, like raise the dead--he was dangerous because he wanted to do something antisocial, like develop unfathomable power over his fellow peoples. Is it more insane to have an crazy process or a crazy goal? The captain isn't concerned with the trappings, he is focused on the outcome.
ReplyDeleteI dig the expressionistic art here. Page six is tons of gnarly fun from top to bottom.