From the Aug-Sept. 1954 issue of Strange Fantasy #13.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
The Murder Pool
I mentioned filmmaker William Castle in the last THOIA post "Monsters for Rent" because of the gimmick angle to that story (we all know Castle was The Master at goofishly grand gimmicktry), and I'm going to mention him again today too because of the House on Haunted Hill-esque, skeleton-producing, acid pool angle to today's lurid Iger Shop classic. Castle could have made a real doozy out of this one--- Filmed in Dissolvo-Vision!©
From the Aug-Sept. 1954 issue of Strange Fantasy #13.
From the Aug-Sept. 1954 issue of Strange Fantasy #13.
A fine depiction of Jim. I could almost hear his evil laugh. I have to admit a sneaking liking for his wicked ways.
ReplyDeleteWow... Gorse was kind of a dick!
ReplyDeleteThe splash is priceless! And this isn't Ajax's only story with skeleton's embracing in the last panel, is it? Doesn't "Black Death" end that way?
AWESOME POST!!!!! LOVE THE BLOOD RED WATER AND THAT AD WRAPS IT UP PERFECTLY TOO!
ReplyDeleteThe art is (chuckle) really well done. I liked the panel where he's holding up the (ha-ha) fish skeleton. A great diabolical look on his face.
ReplyDeleteEven if Castle filmed this in black & white, I bet he would have found a way to tint the pool red.
>I bet he would have found a way to tint the pool red.
ReplyDeleteHaha, excellent point!
>The splash is priceless!
Yeah, any splash not containing Vincent Price would be-- wah wah! (The splash also sorta reminds me of the scene in Poltergeist when Jo Beth falls into the mud hole looking for Carole Ann.)
I also wanted to mention that there's a very similar story in the 2008 THOIA Archive called "Pool of Skeletons", don't miss it if you're new around here:
http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2008/10/pool-of-skeletons.html
You are my worst enemy in the world, so I will accept your invitation to come over to your house and take off all my clothes and dive into your blood-red water as you rub your hands together in anticipation.
ReplyDeleteYeah, hard for me to feel sorry for any of these nimrods. I am curious, however, how he emptied his pool of its gruesome contents.
>Thank you Mr Karswell and now i will be able to write love letters to Pia Isadora.
ReplyDeleteYour welcome my friend, let me know how it turns out, haha.
> I am curious, however, how he emptied his pool of its gruesome contents.
I like to think that he sold the skeletons to an evil wax museum, where they were then covered in real human flesh suits and then with the use of diabolical black magic they were brought back to evil, screaming, murderous life.
And now that you all know what I like to think, I guess maybe it's time to post another story...
this blog rules!!!
ReplyDeleteThis story is all varieties of awesome!
ReplyDeleteYeah, what Todd said. As written, this seems more like a Monty Python sketch than a William Castle tingler.
ReplyDeleteCleese: "You are the fat, despicable, worthless little potato who stole my bank and made me marry my mother and burned all my children to the ground and left me for dead in a refrigerator filled with burning garbage spiders. I hate you. You make my eyes bleed. I will kill you on sight tomorrow. Right. Now what say we have a shot at that refreshing pool?"
Never swim in a red pool.
ReplyDeleteI just want to note the relationship between this story and the earlier “Pool of Skeletons”.
ReplyDeleteThanks, oeconomist. I really enjoyed the invitation to thoroughly read all these comments again.
ReplyDelete