Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Fleshless Horror

More insane Iger Shop horror coming atcha, and this time it's an adorably boney, mad science thriller from the January 1952 issue of Strange Mysteries #3. Who agrees that the first panel on page 4 should be airbrushed on the side of a 70's van? 

7 comments:

Brian Barnes said...

Well that was Looney Tunes and I love it!

I love sexy T&A skeletons and usually these tales just show them but this one offers up an explanation -- only her arms and skull are missing skin! So go ahead and draw a full figured sexy skeleton on page 2!

Yet nobody explains how she got to be missing the skin, and then a random explosion brings them back (??) with soft, full styled hair! And now they are, what, roommates???

Last panel, page 5, second panel, page 6, somebody is really getting in the good girl art.

I love this bonkers story.

JMR777 said...

Fever dream, Giallo, Weird X-ray experiment that made Marsh look the way she did, family curse, cause unknown, all the while logic was heard screaming into the woods never to be seen or heard from again.

Sometimes less information is needed to make a story work, leave something to the imagination of the readers and listeners, though in this case a backstory would have cleared up the reason she looked like the Grim Reaper's girlfriend.

Still a unique find, and any Iger shop work offering pinup girls, or pinup bones in this case, is a welcome treat.

Charles said...

This story, and its absolute refusal to explain ANY aspect of the main plot point, is insane, and, as such, I love it dearly. Why doesn't Leda Marsh have skin? Why is she so strong? What has she been studying for years? Fuck you, you don't need to know. Look! Sexy skeleton.

BTX said...

In its own way, this is a sweet story. Other pre code stories might have ended with the “Switcheroo” working and the new “Meg” reporting to work with a sensational story and a new attitude….

Mr. Cavin said...

Meg Sims, saved by her own apathy. Actually, I guess everybody was. That's a pretty wild philosophical standpoint to venture in horror comics.

I liked the tone of this one from beginning to end. The way it often seems to skip over questions to get the exposition coming faster (one almost imagines a caption--"After hours of explanation"--between the last two panels of page two), and the sort of blase way in which Leda moves forward with her scheme ("That means nothing... this is merely an exchange..."). I love this flattened affect; that woman's face isn't the only thing that's gone bare bones.

Grant said...

The out of nowhere happy ending is fine with me.

There's a lot of talk here about "sexy skeletons," but there's also the great picture of Meg herself at the bottom of Page 5.

Glowworm said...

Oddly enough I've never even seen this story before. Usually most of the ones posted unless they're from a particular series with detectives or superheroes as the main character are ones I've seen at least once before. I'm not even familiar with this entire issue actually. Anyway, if it weren't for the year this comic was made, I would have sworn this was some kooky girl love comic. I love the spontaneous happy ending. Leda gets her face, arms and hands back and Meg gets to keep her job and gets a promotion. Also, I love that we never get an explanation as to why Leda is missing her flesh from her face and hands arms nor why Meg was almost about to be fired from her job in the first place.