Saturday, July 21, 2007

Skin 'em Alive!

If rotting demons and quivering brains aren’t sickening enough for you then maybe you’ll find this one “a’peeling.” But try not to laugh too hard when the guy unintentionally talks about how his “old balls were getting a little worn out!”

From the February 1954 issue of Mysterious Adventures #18 comes--- Skin 'em Alive!




6 comments:

Anonymous said...

awwwwwwwwwwwesome a whole new genre of sports horror!!!!! if you got more like this please post it

Mr. Karswell said...

I'll check, I'm sure there's more "sports horror" somewhere... I know I have a spooky boxing story, does that count?

Actually this entire issue of Mysterious Adventures with Skin 'Em Alive is great, there's 3 other stories from this one issue that I want to eventually post too. Stay tuned...

Anonymous said...

And you should see the magic football's air nozzle!

Mr. Karswell said...

And why can't Reynold's keep it out of his mouth? Surely the damned ball doesn't need to be blown up every 5 seconds!

Brian Barnes said...

Hmmm ... the coffin-keeper. He seems to be ... somewhat like somebody else ... just can't put my finger on it!

Fun little tale, though a little janky in it's pacing for how short it is. The title gives it away, but it's interesting to see there's no curse or black magic involved -- the guy is still incredibly skilled he just kicks better with human skin!

nutsilica.blogspot.com said...

These cheerful tales seem the creepiest to me. The story's almost a parody of fifties horror comics.
The ultimate alpha male football champion doing what he loves best... dominating.
The football wasn't magic. He just uses them for pleasure. That lucky ball stuff doesn't really explain it. it is like the horror comic reality is struggling inside of the story to give the villain the motive of possessing a magic football but he gives away his true motive later in the story when he says, "I like human skin!"
He is just empowered by his fetish.
"I like human skin!... human skin!...Take it from me. Human skin is the best!"
I understand the knives, but the needles?
Is he Cosbying them first?
There's an earlier sexual suggestion, "remind me to give you a big fat kiss."
He doesn't refuse the kiss because he is homophobic. He just doesn't desire kissing.
This guy is scarier than any werewolf or vampire!
Of course the testicles metaphor is probably unavoidable: "My old balls were getting a little worn out."
The sad faces of the victims intensifies the horror. Without the gory drawings of those de-skinned heads, the story would be maybe seem to favour the villain, which would make it much worse morally. The reader empathizes with the two sad and sorry heads, and becomes the victim as well.