One for the Money... Two for the Show!

It's been a very long time since we ventured into the excellent era of 80's Eclipse terror-tory stories, so here's a fun little two-parter featuring the same story set-up in each, but with two brutally different, outrageous outcomes! Written by Bruce Jones (of course), and featuring some really great cartooning by Bill Wray, this short but sweet "Choose Your Favorite Climax" combo is still packed with plenty of meat, and is a real horror hoot for you giggling gore fans! From the December 1984 issue of Twisted Tales #10, and highlighted with a perfectly putrid cover painting by joltin' John Pound!

Banjo Lessons / Terminated

Twisted Tales Weekend concludes with two tales from the startlingly controversial October 1983 issue of Twisted Tales #5. Both stories were written by Bruce Jones of course, with art on the first story by Rand Holmes, while the second story features the wonderfully chunky art of Richard Corban (who also provided the cover art for this issue.) Jones daringly entered EC Shock SuspenStories territory with the first tale here today, but I’ll leave it to Pacific Comics’ editor April Campbell to set this one up for you with her Special Editorial:

TOMORROW: Back to the 50's!

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Terminated

by Bruce Jones and Richard Corben

Shut-In

Ah, what the Hell… after Friday’s great response to Holly’s Hobby let’s just make it a Twisted Tales Weekend. So from the same March 1984 issue of Twisted Tales #7, also written by Bruce Jones but this time illustrated by Liberatore, it’s a disturbing, look into the mundane existence of a helpless, disabled old man. This one comes with a THOIA “ADULTS ONLY” warning, and contains very graphic violence, some mature and immature situations, and sexy bare boobs.

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If you want to see a movie that is very similar to this tale, check out Crispin Glover's It Is Fine! Everthing Is Fine (2007.) It's a semi-autobiographical, psycho-sexual tale about a man with severe cerebral palsy and a fetish for girls with long hair. Part horror film, part exploitation picture and part documentary of a man who cannot express his sexuality in the way he desires.

Holly’s Hobby

“Flash Forward Time Machine Days” will be a little different than before, as one day each week this month we’ll be looking at the influence pre-code comics had on more modern comics and creators. And today we'll start it off with a look at one of my favorite stories from the wild March 1984 issue of Twisted Tales #7, written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by John Bolton.

Other artists to look for this month: Mike Ploog, Bernie Wrightson and more!

TOMORROW: Horror Leaps From the Pages!

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Last month I plugged Craig Yoe’s upcoming book "Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster" (available in April) and last night Craig himself emailed in with more info. Craig says:
“I recently discovered incredible, previously unknown, fetish art by the creator of Superman, Joe Shuster. The artist and his writing partner, Jerry Siegel, had sold Superman for 130 dollars. When they sued to get the rights back they lost and got drummed out of the comic book industry and Shuster fell on hard times. It was unknown that to get by and/or because of a personal interest in the subject, Shuster then did S&M porn for under-the-counter booklets called "Nights of Horror," sold in Times Square in the early fifties.

The back story I uncovered involves the Mob, showgirls, neo-Nazi Jewish juvenile delinquents, inspired by Shuster's art, known as the Brooklyn Thrill Killers, the famed anti-comic book crusader Dr. Frederic Wertham, Senate investigations, cops on payola, the books being banned by the Supreme Court, teenage girls being horse-whipped in the park, two murders...and dare I say MORE?

I have a full color coffee table art book I wrote and designed coming out April 1 (no fooling!) about all this, "Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster". The publisher is the number one leading art book publisher in the world, the prestigious Abrams. I'm blogging about the book and revealing lots of rare art and info that didn't fit in "between the covers": http://secret-identity.net“Thanks for the update Craig!
---Karswell

All Hallows

Countdown to Halloween: Post #4A! In the 80’s and early 90’s there were several excellent attempts by independent comic book publishers to re-capture the spirit of Golden Age pre-code horror. Some were successful; many were not, but what matters most is that at least someone gave it a shot. And with that here's two Modern Age halloween horror story posts, our first for today from Bruce Jones’s terrific Twisted Tales #1, released by Pacific Comics in November 1982.