The world wide web can be a horrible place for sure, --but so can a cemetery! And that's why today it's time to oopsie-daisy on the old "bury 'em now / dig 'em up later for money" routine. And as usual, we archival specialists of THOIA trickster atrocities discover (yet again, sigh) that this fatally flawed "fast one" rarely ever actually works. From the same revolting, jolting, July - August 1951 issue of Weird Adventures #2 as our previous post. GCD believes the art here is by eerie Ed Moline, unfortunately, nobody has a clue about that great flaming dungeon cover design. We'll be back shortly tho because OMG it's already almost September again! Where does the time go as we lay here pondering what comes next? Under 6 feet of dirt. Air growing thinner. The sound of worms churning. So dark. Are my eyes open, or closed? When did I last clear my web browser history cache? Stay. Tombed.
6 comments:
Poor First Panel Beautiful Girl! She's so scared she's running *towards* the Mildly Offended Green Zombie and about to whack herself across the midsection with a branch! Poor woman!
Has there ever been one single comic where the "pretend to be dead so you can get dug up later" trick actually worked? Even one? I would love to read it.
A story entitled “Web of Horror” and not a single spider in sight. Talk about a bait and switch. I’m still not sure how Jonathan was related to Dawn or who Henry was to any of them. Dawn and Burt keep calling him by his last name.
The only way the "buried alive" idea would work successfully would be if instead of being buried, a crypt or mausoleum was used, provided there was ventilation to prevent suffocation.
I wonder how often the 'buried alive' idea was used in horror comics, stories of terror, horror movies or eerie TV shows, in the US and globally. Horror has its fans worldwide, so I would be surprised if the premise wasn't used in horror media in different countries around the world.
I liked the art in this one. A full moon is seen in some of the panels, which provides an unspoken explanation for the outdoors lit up so well at night.
Another creepy tale to add to the THOIA archives, thanks Karswell.
This is very much in the "Old Dark House" vein of story with a small excursion to the graveyard. One thing I like about this plot is how there are side parts of it that don't really matter but add a little flavor; why the doctor is going to turn around and blackmail Dawn, something he never gets to but blurts it out as his plan (?) but at the same time isn't planning on leaving Jonathan in the ground, which is the usual plot.
It's fast paced, our bad guy is ... at worst just a con artist ... and gets self-murdered for it. I love the concept of the spooky old house with a graveyard on a spur of land around a churning sea. You don't get more spooky than that!
I also like the amateurish art. It's weird in places, especially in 3D space, but it's charming. The splash is the kind of stuff I'd doodle in class instead of paying attention.
And yeah, that's a great cover!
Yes, it's funny that Welt is "just a con artist" but he's pretty handy with that shovel.
And, yes, it's original how it wasn't ENTIRELY his fault that Jonathan was killed. It was easy to expect Welt to betray Jonathan, who "comes back" months later or was alive all along.
I certainly don't have an encyclopedic memory of all the faked death plots I've ever read here, but in this one, the race to rescue Jonathan at the end--as the man piteously beat his weakening fists against his coffin in vain--strikes me as a fairly fresh element. It certainly sells the horror in a better, more gothic way than the usual punchlines (like "oh we immediately cremated the body!" for example). I really liked the way this one played out.
I like the art too. Any time the outlines lines are so bold and aggressive, the resulting shapes can hold even bolder colors. It's the way cartoons and blacklight posters are drawn, and I dig it. I especially love the last panel on page two, where the regular line art gives way to some kind of stark woodcut look. It stands out like a sore thumb, doesn't look like anything else in the whole story, and is used for a pretty prosaic image anyway. But I love it!
I noticed the cover in the GCD link last time and forgot to mention it in my comment. Man, it's great. I'm so glad you posted a larger version of it here.
Post a Comment