It recently occurred to me that I've never posted this whack-a-doodle tale in its original, July 1954 Weird Chills #1 color version here at THOIA. Sure, you can read the black 'n white repo version HERE in the 2012 Archive, and also believe to yourself that it's good enough-- but what are ya, CRAAAAZY?!! (Story art by Eugene Hughes, cover art by Bernard Baily.)
In horror comics, there's nothing quite like gold-digger wives and fortune hunter husbands.
ReplyDeleteI didn't say much about this as the original had a number of stories put together, but let's correct that now. This is a pretty standard horror story and the question is how does the husband get revenge? Is it from the grave, or before it, or does the lover's plan just come undone and they do themselves in?
ReplyDeleteI always like it when the husband has some agency, i.e., he's actually handing out the revenge. It's stretches the imagination a slight bit because after 5 days of no water or food they are going to have bigger problems than the dripping sound and trippy wallpaper!
I like old Winthrop and his google-y eyed crazy looks and all the sfx. Fun comic art!
In this instance, the wife and her lover had a clever plan to drive the old man insane. Unlike so many other plans in horror comics, this plan made sense and was well thought out. Until we reached the Alfred Hitchcock type surprise ending, there was a good chance they would have succeeded.
ReplyDelete"Where am I going? I'm going insane."
That reminds me if the slogan I saw once - "Gone crazy, back soon."
Was it a competition in which husband and wife were both plotting in parallel to drive the other round the bend?
ReplyDeleteI pretty much stand by my old comment: Nice costumes. I'm sad to say that I feel like 2012-era Cavin would have been less impressed than he wanted to be with the color on those last five or six panels, but I don't mind them. I mean, I'd prefer a really psychotronic freakout just like him, but there's nothing wrong with this--and it sure does beat the black and white six ways to Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI find the art refreshingly under-produced, like a beloved garage band, with frames here and there that almost look like they were inked over a rough pencil test. See panel three, last page, for an example (and maybe my favorite frame in the story, despite all the groovy insanity warp there at the end). I could do without the hesitant, scratchy face shadowing seen in a few panels. Hughes(?) works better for me when he's really digging in on those pitch blacks.
Reading this classic gaslighting scenario, I had to wonder what it might have been like if this story had been the primary source of the idea that someone could manipulate a spouse into insanity for a profit. Since the scheme is enacted against a man instead of a women here, do you think it would have ever become a recognized metonym for domestic abuse? Do you think it would have become one sooner? And what do you think we would have called it besides "gaslighting", since that is not an element of this story? The mind boggles.
That last black and white illustration puts me in the mood to read some Shirley Jackson.