I'm not sure what planet the creators of this story are from, but here on Earth worms don't look like a blobby grey melted bag of trash. Even the creature itself is all "wtf!" about it too. Ahhh well, putting that completely deranged detail aside, this story is still a wonderfully weird, formless mass of anxiety and color. It's the kind of thing that made early days stories from Master Comics so bizzare and surreal... and they definitely don't come much more bizarre than this one! From the October - November 1951 issue of Dark Mysteries #3.
Well now we know where the folks who did "the creeping terror" got all their ideas!
ReplyDeleteAnd don't end the story! The police need to check the bag, it eats them, grows to a giant size, and destroys the entire earth. There is the nihilistic ending we expect from horror comics!
The worm thing is weird but I wonder if there is an older meaning here -- something more biblical or demonic -- that is being used? "The conquering worm" kind of thing. That said, when looking for it, he describes it only as a worm and that can't be helpful at all.
I like the weird side note about the sound (teleportation beam, that's my guess.) There might be a trick in the story I missed, but it seems irrelevant, but it adds an interesting detail which is the thing that works well in the story.
Which this is just a deal with the devil with a garbage bag swapped in, a fine type of horror story.
BTW, Jim, dump the blonde and shack up with the maid!
I wonder how Fletcher Hanks would have drawn this one, or Basil Wolverton for that matter.
ReplyDeleteThe blob/worm, a thing not easily described, maybe the artist was thinking of one of Lovecraft's cosmic horrors when he drew this. However, no drawing of Cthulu or his kin can ever capture its likeness the same way one's imagination can.
This was *very* funny. And I'm not even talking about the "worm", who's more like a giant protozoan. From Jim thinking his mob boss' name, quite redundantly, as he stalks homewards, to his ultra rich fiancee, to the boss somehow calculating the interest on the money he borrowed, to Jim crawling into the "worm", or was comedy all through.
ReplyDeleteSince the "worm" refers to Jim as "earthling" near the end of the story, I'm pretty certain it's not supposed to be a literal worm, but a creature from another planet. Jim just calls it that because that's the best way he can describe it. I mean, calling it "Trash Bag" would just be plain rude! I'm amused at how the worm gets Jim the money and that his boss KNOWS that Jim has been taking money from him. Heck, I think he just made up the interest part on the spot to mess with Jim. Guess the Worm doesn't know about interest. Also, just wandering around looking for "The Worm" like that was the most ridiculous thing I've seen in a horror comic. It doesn't even look like a worm, he should have asked if anyone had seen a dirty trash bag blowing about lately.
ReplyDeleteIf you disregard the one instance of the word "worm" appearing in omniscient narration--the caption on the first panel of page two--then the name becomes something Jim just made up on the spot. Certainly the creature never refers to itself as "the Worm," and indeed seems to get pretty angry when other people use it. Which makes Jim's constant insistence on calling his benefactor by that pejorative seem pretty self-destructive.
ReplyDeleteThe cop, the bartender, the cabbie--I'll bet they all knew where to find the "short, obese thing" called the Master. Imagine putting out the APB on a person using only some pet name: "Officer, my wife's been kidnapped! She goes by the handle 'Sugarlumps'!"
But then again, Jim's the villain of this piece, right? I mean, he's a small-time mobster and bad gambler who is somehow foolish enough to pilfer large amounts of cash from a boss with a gunslinger's nick. This is obviously going to end up being bad news for his wealthy girlfriend, who seems nice. And on top of that he can't be bothered to treat the alien blob who is helping him out with any kind of respect? Well, why not? Oh, the story tries to force us to see the creature as somehow vile, using words like "loathsome evil spirit" and "malignant monster" to describe it. Even it's humming is somehow "ghastly".* But for Jim it's a gift from heaven, yeah? Some groovy life-form down from wherever to offer Jim easy employment as some way to turn his life around. But Jim boinks it up by being a rude SOB.
I would like to see the fine print on that deal they made though. Surely Jim can't actually bargain away his impression in other people's dreams. Wait, does Beth also have a bargain with the Master? Just why *is* she so rich?
* "ghastly humming" is a kazoo, right?
ReplyDeleteIt's a Faust kind of story, but oddly enough the "Mephistopheles" of the story doesn't even go through the motions of acting like the "Faust" character's servant, let alone just plain acting like it.
ReplyDeleteInstead, it's "Call me 'Master'!" right away!