Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Garden of Horror

Sometimes the scariest place on your entire eerie estate can be that gosh-dang 'ol garden out back! Don't believe me? Check out this overgrown creeper from the April 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #7. And if you need further proof, CLICK HERE for even more ghastly gardens of hellacious horror!

5 comments:

Brian Barnes said...

I absolutely love how this is described: "within a few seconds the housekeeper becomes a repulsive and decaying skeleton."

Within a few seconds! Imagine that, you take one step in and 2 seconds later you are a skeleton, in your current pose. Literally instant-a-skeleton. That would make one great b-movie reel -- like Teenagers from Outer Space where said teenager aims his disintegrator and boom -- skeleton!

The artist draws wonderful skeletons. Page 4 is especially great, with the naturalist skeleton poses and the giant pile of skeletons.

This one really warms my black heart. I just love the concept. Normally killer plants strangle somebody ... but here, nope. *Pop* Skeleton!

JMR777 said...

And homeowners think poison ivy is a pain!

This tale is what 50's horror comics are all about- a milquetoast type guy becomes drunk with power, he eliminates people in the most gruesome way possible and is destroyed by his own evil in the end.

As to why Bailey didn't ask the antiques dealer about the vase's history was the first mistake leading to Bailey's doom. I wonder if the antiques dealer was running a special on cursed or haunted antiques, buy two artifacts of doom for the price of one, get a third for free.

Now comes the question, how would this tale be portrayed by Eerie or Creepy? Would we see the entrails fall away from the skeleton, the heart and lungs fall away while still beating? Just the thought is the stuff of nightmares.

Mr. Cavin said...

I feel like the story might have gone the Return of the Living Dead way. Distraught that the garden has skeletonized his housekeeper and neighbors, the Old Man rents a rototiller and churns those plants into green salad, bags it all up, and... yeah burns it. The Old Man never learns. And the next day the whole neighborhood is overgrown, littered with the color-coded remains of walking dogs, necking teens, responding cops, grocery shoppers, the works.

I love this art too. I imagine sinister foliage is hard to effectively draw (I've never tried), but this guy totally nails it. And I love the skeletons in their clothing in the splash. The only thing as good as a skeleton in some costume is a monster in a lab coat.

JMR777 said...

I knew I had seen these hooded and cloaked skeletons before. They made an earlier appearance in Chamber of Chills Comics in the tale 'Black Knights of Evil' featured in THOIA back in August 28, 2007.
I guess hoodies help keep skeletons warm. Too bad 'The Ghost of John' never thought of it (wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on?)

Here's to many more bone chilling tales to be added to THOIA in the years to come.

Grant said...

If Eerie, Creepy or Vampirella had done it, I'm guessing either the housekeeper or that random female visitor (maybe each of them) would be built a certain way and dressed a certain way.