Friday, August 7, 2015

They Couldn't Die! aka: There's Peril in Perfection!

One silly story with two terrific titles, first presented in the September 1952 issue of Voodoo #3, and then later re-printed, re-titled, and slightly re-colored for the January 1954 issue of Voodoo #13. I've included both title panels from the splash pages for comparison. More BIG news about the original VOODOO series coming soon from IDW / Yoe Books too-- stayed tombed!!









10 comments:

Dr. Theda said...

Poor Guy.... did he make a "Monster"...????
a good one Mr. Karswell.....
we enjoyed this tale....
A Great weekend to as well, old Friend ("Fiend")......
I Admire (You and your great Blog)almost as much as we did "Uncle Creepy" as a kid...
you are Awesome, good Sir... !!!
And your posts are the Best in "horror entertainment" that we have found....
Please Keep up the Great work....

Mr. Karswell said...

Thank you, Doc! Very kind of you to say 😊

Mestiere said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JMR777 said...

Courtesy of Mykal's blog The Bloddy Pulp, we see the story is recycled in 1969 in Tales From The Tomb Vol. 1 No. 7.

http://www.bloodypulptales.com/2010/10/they-couldnt-die-madness-of-terror.html

Too bad they stuck to the original for the most part in the reprint, as Mestire mentioned this could have turned into a more adult tale in more capable hands in the seventies or later on.

Brian Barnes said...

I'm glad JMR777 got in here before me, because I was going to say "I swear I saw this reprinted in an Eerie pub" and now I don't have to look it up, so thanks, JMR777!

It's a very good story with a lot of interesting corners and diversions in it, but in this case, it was very rushed. As Mestiere pointed out, the saleswoman subplot seemed to go nowhere, and the affair developed in between a single panel!

"I'm a woman, I killed to become one" is a great line.

Art is pretty workman like in this one. I especially like the last panel on page 3, I'm not really sure what's going on there. A kiss? They don't seem to be occupying the same space!

Double goes for what Doc said! This blog is a gem.

Mr. Karswell said...

If you click the GCD links that I always include in the intros you'll see all of the story reprint info as well, in particular the Voodoo #13 link which shows this story was reprinted quite a few times in the Eerie Pubs. Thanks for the comments!

JMR777 said...

Oops, I didn't think to look on the GCD site, but at least I did give a mention to Mykal's site, even if it is currently in limbo.

Grant said...

Door-to-door salespeople don't have much luck in these kinds of stories. A PRETTY famous example is Dick Miller in NOT OF THIS EARTH.

Marco said...

Man your blog is simply the finest of terror comics. I appreciate the quality of the posts!I bought yesterday here in Brazil a collection in three volumes called "Creeps - Classic Horror Tales". These three issues republish the number of #1 to #15 from de american magazine "Creepy".
The collection in portuguese was published by "Devir" and "Dark Horse" publishers.
Thanks!

Mr. Cavin said...

"Again... Inevitably..."

It's true. Tale as old as the hills. If I had a nickel for every time my adulterous robo-wife's traitorous frenemy boyfriend tried to clear the way by knocking me off, I'd be, uh.... Is that really "inevitable"?

Man, this one really digs on the ellipses!

Awesome story. It totally telegraphs its own weird psycho/logical rabbit hole in the very first sentence. "She was flawless... To a point..." Is that really flawless?