Friday, April 3, 2015

Escape to Death!

A sneak escape from jail, via hiding in a coffin, is an oft-told theme in horror comics with an oft-familiar conclusion. We've seen it happen oft-times here at THOIA over the years, and this time it's from the Oct '53 issue of Dark Mysteries #14, art by Jon D'Agostino.








7 comments:

  1. Obviously the big technical question is, how did Gimpy become deaf AND mute from being boxed on the ears?

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  2. Yup, it's the same old "surprise cremation" story I've seen repeated, but to their credit, the deaf guy addition does change it up a little.

    Another thing about this tale -- the addition of Honey. It's believable enough to think that a con wants to break out of jail; the addition of the woman isn't really a necessary element. Somebody didn't get a date that week, it seems!

    The light and shadow work is really good on this one.

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  3. @Grant: Because of the emotional shock he got: "Oh God! That guy made me deaf with a Karate-style thing! I LOVE him. I want to be his slave"
    We're on the border between horror and crime story, but anyway the bad guy getting his medicine BEFORE he can have his revenge on the redheaded slut is actually another "faux pas" for this kind of story. At least, the mute guy should have switched tags on purpose. I'll hit the "funny" button... with both my hands.

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  5. I wonder how many of these stories (including non-horror ones, I mean) have the convict wanting revenge on a wife or girlfriend, as opposed to a partner. One that I can think of is the movie SITTING TARGET, which had Oliver Reed as the convict and (surprisingly, for such a grim story) Jill St. John as the wife. (Speaking of untrustworthy redhead characters.)

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  6. The only thing I don't get is, I mean, is there something wrong with Gimpy's hearing? Seriously, maybe they should have mentioned his hearing troubles one or two more times? Honestly, maybe eleven times wasn't quite enough?

    I love that splash panel with the dinosaur and the satyr family.

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  7. It was a safe bet that the characters in the splash panel wouldn't figure in the story, but like you, I thought they were entertaining. Especially the slightly "cute" (instead of threatening) dinosaur.

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