Who would've guessed that one of the simplest, most eerie precode horror stories of all time could come from a crime comic book? Yep, buried within the pages of the February 1955 issue of Crime and Punishment #71 (to be exact), lurks this crumblin' corpse classic of isolation and insanity. Ya know, sometimes less is more as Big Bad Bill Walton slugs every perfectly efficient panel right outta the park with just 4 suspense-packed pages, in a way that would typically take EC comics nearly twice as many words and pages to do...
7 comments:
I swear this comes from something else -- a short horror story or something but I can't place it.
As you said, this is one tight story. No panel is wasted and the pacing is near perfection, and the panel at the end where it looks like the corpses are looking directly at him is creepy to the extreme, and satisfying as vengeance is completed.
I love Emily. She's completely bonkers by the end but it's never played that way. She remains sweet and oblivious.
Page 1, panel 3 is really a good bit of composition, with the car and house framing the two figures. This is a great one!
This is the original story to the tale 'The Mummies' posted here back in September 12, 2017.
This version is a bit more chilling since Emily took her 'friends' out shopping with her, wrapped in blankets to keep them hidden from prying eyes.
In both versions we are left to wonder if Emily might have become mentally unbalanced, first from her need to get away from people and then from her self imposed isolation. Having corpses as friends and taking them on out shopping isn't exactly normal behavior, at least I would think so.
The white pupiled black eyes of the murder victims just adds to the horror. I guess giving the killer the same type of eyes was a bit of foreshadowing towards his fate.
This was a killer tale, Karswell.
AIEEE!! You’re right! I completely forgot about this one. Good eye, my friend!
https://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-mummies.html?m=1
The only reason I remembered the newer version was it appealed to the introvert in me. Being alone has its benefits, no drama, no stress, unless it is self imposed stress (Where did I put that thing I need?!? Where did I read that quite from?!? etc.)
Rest assured I don't have any corpses keeping me company, my social life is dead enough already.
I do agree with Brian, this story might have been lifted from somewhere else, possibly from Weird Tales pulp magazine or one of its competitors.
quickie jokes-
Crime does not pay! Does that mean my job is a crime?
Crime does not pay-as well as politics.
It's amazing how forgettable the Eerie Pubs version of this story is when compared to the original. I'd forgotten all about it.
Looking back through the archives I see that I always fanboy Bill Walton's artwork, and today will be no exception. I am constantly delighted by comics illustrators who apparently come from a place of fine arts rather than advertising or cartooning,* and this guy is just that kind of illustrator. The bottom row of page one, the first panel of page three--this art was informed by impressionist painting. It's elegant, effective, and shows a desire for visual discovery ahead of simple by-the-book articulation of the script. In this way Walton reminds me of Jesse Marsh.
I don't mean to imply the other panels aren't just as great, of course. I love the spare splash, so rich in textural detail. I love the big corpse reveal and the first two panels of the murderer. I want the "LET ME OUT!" panel on a tee shirt so bad I'm squirming in my seat like a Beatlemaniac.
*I also don't mean to imply that there's anything wrong with commercial artists and cartoonists, many of whom also come from a background of fine art--not that even that is any kind of prerequisite for my eternal fandom or whatever.
>It's amazing how forgettable the Eerie Pubs version of this story is when compared to the original
I tend to feel this way about nearly every Eerie Pub reworked 50's classic... they just don't come close to the originals. That doesn't mean I still don't enjoy 'em, I just think they did a lot of extra work updating or gorifyin' em up, and usually it wasn't for the better. For me, it was always about those Eerie Pub covers, --now that's where they're pretty much unbeatable!
I like Emily's understated way of reacting to things. Sure, it's largely in thought balloons not speaking, so the rules might be a little different, but it's still understated. She finds two walled-up bodies in her new home and it's "Good gracious!""
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