Monday, March 23, 2026

Curse of Karnak

Wow, it's already Mummy Monday again, --time to open up another time-rotted tomb of ancient horrors! And this one is absolutely loaded with eerie Egyptian god freaks, as well as various bad decisions on the parts of our heroes. But it's a fast paced, fun yarn none the less, plus Bob Forgione (again already, too!) adds a healthy dose of cleavage to the chase so that kooky Mr. Karswak doesn't have to! On top of all that, dig the ghastly cover decap design, and rather lovely B/W table of contents page, both courtesy of Lou Morales. From the October - November 1952 issue of The Thing #5.

3 comments:

Bill the Butcher said...

Well, at least the Egyptians look fairly normal and real (bar Pasha's unfortunate Ottoman title and fez), which was fairly unusual for the 1950s. And I always love a story where the villain gets away with it.

Brian Barnes said...

This is one of those horror stories that really straddles the line between adventure / superhero / horror, which goes to show how moldable adventure is in comics. Small tweaks separate horror from crime, etc.

The monsters were all basically bruisers with cool monster animals heads, and might as well have been the ani-men from Daredevil!

I love these tales with professors that not only poo-poo the ancient curse but go about running spells for laughs. Nobody deserves to get murdered by an ancient pharaoh more than these guys!

I like how the monsters rip open Mona's shirt but doesn't muss a single strand of her hair!

Lot of fun. Love the monsters, love the bizarre Egyptian mishmash of time periods and locations, etc. My favorite bit is page 4, panel 1, there's a FRAMED PAINTING of King Mentu (and the already lit torches!)

JMR777 said...

We're getting mixed signals from the professor, he claims that the Egyptian curse is bunk, then decides to try to bring the mummy back to life with the aid of Egyptian magic. It's either believer or non believer, prof, pick a side and stick with it.

Concerning Howard Carter, who uncovered and opened King Tut's tomb, the supposed curse of violating the tomb never seemed to find him. If a curse can't even strike down the guy who violated the tomb, then what good is an Egyptian curse anyway?

It seems to me that the Fifties were the golden age of Charlton, art and story wise.

As always, thanks for the great posts.