Saturday, April 6, 2019

The Conqueror Worm

If anybody reading this blog ever plans to double-cross an icky earthworm of its rightful, decomposing dinner, might I remind you of today's wiggly weird tale from the July 1952 issue of Worlds of Fear #5, --and with this warning-- DON'T DO IT!



















10 comments:

Nequam said...

I suppose we should be glad that the writer and artist took "worm" to mean earthworm and not what it probably meant: maggots!

Mr. Karswell said...

You’ve never heard “the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out” song?

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

I had to re-read the poem first. I had read it in 1980( "complete works of") but without understanding/remembering it. All I could hear were the bells bells bells. Wow what insane coloring. Though it does work on a few of the close-ups. Good art with a nice fever pitch paced story. Thank you Mr. K. for this enjoyable story of Dr. K.

JMR777 said...

Is 'Tutti Frutti coloring' a term used to describe comics? If so then this comic falls under that category, though "This Magazine is Haunted" practically invented its use.

Brian Barnes said...

10 pages of technicolor craziness!

The yellow and green usage is really over the top, but I enjoy it. Page 8 panel 6 has to be one of the more interesting coloring choices, which gets a thumbs up from me.

Lots of fun here -- the worms in the bed, the worms crawling under the door -- but I just can't buy worms as a menace. The story moves at an incredibly brisk pace and for 10 pages, which I've always considered a little long, but it works here and is over quickly. A very fun read.

I also enjoy pre-code stories where somebody takes a poem title or other statement and takes it to it's more extreme conclusions.

Mr. Cavin said...

I love the art here: Those long, suave contours and shadows on the ground, the expressive faces. This guy's line is very smooth indeed. I like the overdrive colors, too. I mean, this colorist is working really hard, mixing colors, making psychedelia. To me, it's effective enough that, when the occasional realistically-colored square pops-up here and there (like that disappointing splash), they just landed with a thud. Like the end of a great show when the house lights come up. I'm head over heels about page two (until the last panel--wonder what happened?), frames 3-5 of page five (squish!), and that second panel on page nine--which is the image that should have been retasked for the splash.

Robert Dinsmore has terrible luck. Not only did he die, but he gets brought back to life by a jerk who seems to think he's overreacting to his resurrection. A jerk who locks him in the basement and then decides to clean up the house by burning him back to death later the very same night. Sheesh.

Fracadactyl said...

How does he compare to Mr. Mind (new and old)?

Grant said...

It's easy to take this a step farther. What about doctors who "bring back" clinically dead people? Are they asking for the same "retribution"?

Jordan179 said...

You Fail Biology Forever from TV Tropes.

Earthworms don't eat carrion. Nor do they have any effective attacks against mammals. Nor, of course, can they teleport.

Bats have nothing to do with dead ANYTHING.