Along with the occasional hero vs. horror themed posts that I promised you throughout the month of April, you'll also notice a terrifying trend leaning towards flames and higher temps-- and that's because we'll be slowly turning up the heat the closer we get to Walpurgisnact 2024! Yep, things will definitely get a bit warm around here as we approach May, but maybe not quite as extra crispy as this crematorium classic from the sizzlin' September 1953 issue of The Thing #10.
4 comments:
I wonder why the writer decided on that ending? Having the final panel being the roasted corpse seems like a perfectly fine ending; yet they decide to tack on the "joke" call.
Did Flagg pretend to call the parole board to get Charley in line? Did he dial the wrong number? So many questions and "The Thing" isn't answering them!
It's such a weird choice; this is 1953 the mechanics of a pre-code horror story and already really established -- but I appreciate trying something different!
I love Charley in this; he looks like a gargoyle have the time! And then the colorist with the bright red and bright purple faces, and, as always with this mag, the floating faces, and the Tardis like furnace!
The last page and the last panel at the bottom- we finally get to see what 'The Thing' looks like! Another mystery solved by Sherlock Karswell from THOIA Detective Agency.
Charley looked like he could have been a horror host without need of any makeup, it almost looked like he had fangs.
Flagg should have known if you want anything done right you have to do it yourself, or hire a professional to do the job right instead of leaving it to the incompetent hired help.
Whether Flagg was bluffing or not, why do people in suspense stories always ANNOUNCE that they're going to get you in trouble instead of just DOING it?
Of course, I know the answer - otherwise a big part of the story would be missing.
And besides, sometimes it doesn't sound as reckless as other times. But when the other person is Charlie Burns, it is reckless.
See, but Mr. Flagg is totally the heavy here. Poor desperate Charlie is a murderer, sure--on top of whatever crime it was landed him in prison to begin with--but it's the fatcat mortuary taskmaster, leveraging his position of power over Charlie (who is evidently indentured to shoulder all the crappy grunt work of the local crematorium), berating him, threatening him, and at long last sending him over the edge with a completely creditable performance of his readiness, his willingness!, to destroy Charlie's future. Flagg was an abuser, a willing participant in his state's punitive labor trafficking practices. Also he just left skulls laying around the office, which is pretty weird for that kind of business. Screw that guy.
I do feel like Charlie spent too much time gloating to a corpse over his plans, and was kind of an inept klutz besides. And I guess slowly roasting to death taught him a lesson about that. I know I'll try to be less klutzy and inept from now on.
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