I can't really think of many examples with religion, or religious overtones, playing a key role in a 50's precode horror comic tale. I mean, yeah, crosses and holy water are used on vampires, and Satan is a big bad bible villain, but in the case of today's dramatic Don Heck story... well... howz'about you just read it and let us all know what you think in the comments. If anything, it's a unique take for sure. Now some of you may have already seen this story when we first reprinted it in our Horror By Heck hardcover collection back in 2015, but this also seemed like a good xmas post since it's never made an appearance here at THOIA. So, happy holiday eve everyone-- I hope you all get what you wanted. From the December 1954 one-shot issue of Comic Media's Terrific #1, (which would have actually been Horrific #14 except for all of the SOTI baloney killing off Golden Age horror comics!)
6 comments:
Loved the poster, the holidays can be a real nightmare at times.
Mother Jones had her hands full - running a country inn, taking care of her guests, fighting off the forces of darkness, a woman's work is never done.
…. Not to mention Mother Jones running a leftist magazine named after her as a side hustle…..
Whoa, that Phantasm poster is awesome!
Merry Christmas! As is the norm of late, I am totally behind and might not be able to catch up with reading this for a day or so. But I wanted to step in now and get the seasonal greetings out while they are still relevant!
HO HO HO!
I knew I overlooked something, doesn't Mother Jones ever slow down or sleep?
One thing about this story is there really isn't a sense of peril as Mother Jones pretty much has it covered, and you can sense from the beginning that she does.
That said, I think the human cross is her just pranking the husband -- why didn't she just give him a bible and holy water, too? That seemed to work a lot better!
Plot oddity -- the wife just absolutely disappears from the story, and the ending feels abrupt. But, yeah, I don't remember as overtly good vs evil, in a biblical sense, as this one. Good vs Evil is kind of always in these tales, but usually in "love conquers" or "cops vs criminals" sort of way.
Happy Holidays!
I really love the penciling/inking here. Don Heck always blows me away. It looks so much more like the style of animation cels than work by other people in precode horror, with strong steady lines marking-out features of faces and clothing and the very judicious use of pitch black contrast in pockets of shading otherwise. It's a slick style that not everybody was able to pull off (I'm thinking Alex Toth and Ogden Whitney are two more); a look I love, neat and modern.
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