I remember reading this story when I was a kid and thinking it was really cool, very clever, and super creepy-- see what you guys think! And for obvious reasons, I'm always reminded of it every time I watch Creepshow (1982.) From the April-May 1974 issue of House of Mystery #224, with ghastly art by Gerry Talaoc, and a good script by Sheldon Mayer.
7 comments:
Molly is right about one thing. SF and superhero stories are full of villains who invent things that could make them billions, and use them to steal millions or less.
Maybe they don't settle for something like selling vacuum cleaners in droves, but they definitely settle.
The weirdest thing to me is that the ring isn’t even supernatural, it’s based on science to some sort of degree. Also, Molly’s dress in the flashback, Blossom from the Powerpuff Girls would like it back. I kind of wonder how Molly was going to use Jackson’s fear of rats as blackmail now that he knows that the ones produced by her ring were just an illusion. Would she have brought over some real ones next time? Also, I like that we never fully see Peter’s dead rotting body. Just a closeup of his flesh eaten hands is enough to do the job.
The strangest thing about the ring is that it’s not supernatural but based upon science to some extent. Also, Molly’s dress in the flashback reminds me of Blossom’s from the Powerpuff Girls. I wonder how Molly planned to use Jackson’s fear of rats as blackmail now that he knows they were an illusion produced by the ring. Would she have produced a live rat afterwards? Also I like how we never fully see Brock’s rotting corpse. Just a closeup of his flesh eaten hands is enough to do the job.
When Molly found out about the ring she should have kept it and made Brock build a duplicate. She could have made the excuse that if there was only one ring like that in existence it would be terrible if it were lost or destroyed.
This tale could have taken a supernatural path, with the ring being the home of a Jinn or demon instead of a technological marvel. The end result would have been just as bad Molly, with the spirit of the ring demanding payment for its services, payment worse than a loss of sanity.
If there isn't a KarswellShop(tm) edit here, Talaoc was certainly having way too much fun on page 2.
OK let's talk about the story, it's a neat way to do the "was it real" ending, but if you logic it out, it must all be an illusion for ... overuse of the ring?
For one, obviously we have a zombie; that's supernatural, but the ring still works on it (we see the rats drawn, so they are part of the story.) That's a little sus; especially as we know he real fear (his father) and he died in a swamp; anybody that shambles out of a swamp and has magical powers is probably not rat food.
Also the maid was supposedly there the whole time.
That said, if it was her fears creating this scenario, she went to a lot of trouble; a zombie pretending to be a detective who knows when phone calls are coming in and has magical corpse hiding powers ...
... I'm reading way too much into this!
Art: Great! Story: Fun! Nice on from DC. Extra fun for me, because I like to puzzle these out, even though I doubt Mayer did that much thought into it!
It's definitely... intriguing... attempting to mine down through the layers of illusion, here. The bony hands coming though the walls and the undead wrestler at the end, those are all imagined. Well so is the ersatz detective then, yeah? Well, then how about the real detective? Was that in her mind too? And if not, who slashed that guy's tires? My theory is that this lady dreamed every single facet of this story from the moment she got ensorcelled by the vacuum salesman. She only thought she got away. Her greatest fear was killing someone and suffering the ramifications. And also having some kind of kinky French maid. Don't worry dear, it's all a dream.
I really like the terrified eyes panel on the last page. The hand and nose shadows don't match up, but what can you do? It's still effective.
It never occurred to me before, but there's a whole category of weird story like this. There's a femme fatale, and instead of ending with her getting killed or arrested, the story ends with her going crazy.
The only reason that occurred to me is because of two pretty famous ones, the OUTR LIMITS episode "The Bellero Shield" and the THRILLER episode "The Hollow Watcher."
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