Very appreciative to the commenter from earlier this week who supplied an answer regarding another possible Ouija board themed comic story. And like our previous post, this one is also from the same weird Western series, the October 1963 issue of Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #5 to be exact. It's an eerie Peppe / Toth team-up with very nice art, though with a title like "Possessed" it's kind of a shame it's not just a wee bit more scary. Still, it's a fun look at adult party games gone wrong, or is it really a blistering expose about sexual 60's pent-up housewife frustrations? Hmmm...
What if they all possess her together? Then she'd be a slovenly rash driver who flirts with the cop who pulls her over!
ReplyDeleteSo ... I appreciate everything you post and this is the best blog on the internet ... but this one really read meh for me.
ReplyDeleteThe paneling is boring, the artists are great and do their best with the material but there's not a lot to do one what is pretty much a talking head story, which spends a lot of pages for a pretty silly snap ending.
That said I like the day glo bright 60s panels and fashions!
Western / Gold Key / Dell always used conservative, traditional paneling, which really stood out in an era when, over at Eerie and Warren, things were about to get a whole lot... stranger. I've seen their colored boxes method of doing borderless panels before--and liked it--but I think this is the first time I've ever seen anything like these colored gutters. I love them. It gives room for the panels themselves to have white frames, like Polaroids. Perhaps it makes the rigid squares of the story seem even more confining, but it's really wonderfully mod.
ReplyDeleteWow but Fred was an asshat. I got a bad vibe of that guy's pompous, dictatorial attitude right from square three--and he never once let up after that. Why he's eventually rewarded with a randy, carefree daredevil is completely beyond me, but I do understand why Betty's three ghosts are trying to head home with anybody else at the party.
Cool Brian, I have a few more of these lined up that I hope you hate as well… coming asap
ReplyDeleteNerodart says
ReplyDeleteWhat aboutt the rest of the alphabet spirits
All the same a cute tale thanks!
Not that it's so useful to your purposes, I think, but I also remembered that Alan Moore made use of a ouija board in his Swamp Thing/Demon/Monkey King storyline.
ReplyDeleteWould you ever post anything by Jack T. Chick? There must be some ouija boards scattered around in his oeuvre.
By the way, I would agree that this is kinda meh as a story. The ending almost cries out for a wah-wah trumpet, but--if not inventive--it is very nice-looking art with solid story-telling. Flashy is nice, but if I had choose, I'd choose story-telling.
I’ve posted chick tracts on my other blog before and received cease-and-desist emails from them so I had to take them down
ReplyDelete@Karswell:
ReplyDeleteWhat,they didn't threaten you with hell? They're slipping.
I always like stories that mess with the cliches, and just when you're about to expect this one to keep picturing Fred as being patient with his weird-acting wife, you get the psychologist telling him HE might be the neurotic one! Anyone expecting an entirely SEXIST early ' 60s story might find that surprising.
ReplyDeleteThis story reminds me of Bob Newhart's "Abner Doubleday" routine. He plays an early ' 60s game manufacturer, and when Doubleday calls him, his first lines are "You've got a game? How many couples? Well, you see, the ideal game is, two or three couples come over to the house, they get a little smashed...."