POST UPDATE: I had a busy week (actually "traumatizing" might be a better word for it) and forgot that I had planned to make this a "dark journey" double feature, --so here's the other story I absent-mindedly left out: "The Phantom Bus" from the September 1952 issue of The Unseen #6. We repo'd this one in the July 2015 issue of Haunted Horror #18, but it somehow never made its way here to THOIA, despite being one of my George Roussos favorites. I also included a ghostly half-pager from the same issue, which may have already been posted here somewhere over the years, I fergit. And of course, from the July-August 1953 issue of Skeleton Hand #6, comes a creepy tale of witchcraft and time travel gone oh-so horribly wrong. And to be honest, that's exactly the way I like it. I also dig that this one feels more like an ironically humorous Atlas quickie, and less the typical ACG happy ending that we've seen around here so many times before.
9 comments:
Now that's one sexy witch! I mean the one at the end, not Mere S.
Uncle Roger would seem to be a lot older than 42 to start off with.
It also strikes me that if I could go 50 years into the future I could do far better than murder. I could gather valuable investor information and technology, come back to the present, and make myself infinitely richer than a sordid little murder would make me.
You know, living all alone in a cabin with only Satan for a friend can't be all that much fun, but thinking of ironic or clever ways to screw with the conga line of people coming to your door for magic has got to be a great way to pass the years!
Every time, too, you think murders would read a couple horror comics to learn that deals with (1) witches or (2) satan or (3) pretty much anything evil is a couple days away from a good hearty evil laugh from the witch's cabin.
I love the witchs expression. She knows everything, already has a plan, and is just leering at the guy, almost daring him to not go through with it. But, the dope does.
I love the whirling Thor's hammer comic book transportation fx.
Plus, does it seem as if the money and the family business is really all that? I mean fifty years in the future, mature Roger is stuck in the same old spot--now a spooky old dark house grown forlorn and dilapidated with an overgrown bayou in the old dark front yard. Oh boy, Uncle Robert thinks, one gunshot and some spurious magic nonsense later and this future could be mine all mine!
Now a comment update!
If I come back as a ghost, I want to be a "schpook!"
I like this first tale, it's very urban legend-y, and would have been exactly that if it ended a page or so early; but it tacks on the horror ending with the ghastly ghost, who has a really cool look.
I'm not sure why he is worried, just give her the 5K!
I do like how the story leads you to believe Lucy sabotaged the bridge but does not outright say it; but then it also leaves open the possibility that she didn't but was still responsible for not notifying anybody but also a third (!!) that she really got sick and left, and is in fact not responsible at all. I like that bit of mystery.
First off, I hope you managed to recover from your busy, traumatizing week. Here's hoping the crisis is over.
Interesting art in The Phantom Bus, at first Lucy seems normal looking in spite of her torn garments. Later on, she appears ragged and eyeless. I can only wonder what caused the change.
As far as what Keggler should do if Lucy returns, how about giving her five grand so she can rest in peace, and live in peace afterward, Leggler? Five thousand dollars is a small price to pay to get rid of a restless spirit.
In Ghost Portraits, the Banshee and Schpook are eerie while the poltergeist and specter have a cartoony look to them.
Darn, I posted my comment before adding a detail about the name of the town, Bedloe-
Bedloe was the name of the main character in Edgar Allen Poe's somewhat obscure tale "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" It was an early tale of reincarnation if anyone is interested.
I know it pretty well.
Any weird story set in the ' 20s gives me a kind of HUSH, HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE vibe. And with its love triangle and (as Brian Barnes says) maybe murder, The Phantom Bus is no exception.
It's a little funny that Dark Journey doesn't even give you a "token" amount of comic book futuristic stuff, just the same house.
Oops, almost missed the update.
I'm really digging Roussos' chic wavy line art here. The overlapping nature of somewhat abstracted details of the background elements (which rhyme with the hatching) make the illustration feel more like commercial art than standard comics fare. At least to me.
I love the 'tude on that ghost. She's got heal chutzpah. Coming back from the dead to demand her money, physically attempting to prevent Keggler from boarding his train--that plays pretty tongue-in-cheek, actually. Like a scene from Hellboy, maybe. I kind of want to read a sequel where the man goes from place to place, and every now and then she pops up out of a washing machine, the trunk of a car, an ice box, wherever. Hey man, you got my money yet? What a fate: Panhandled to death by the corpse of some petty heiress.
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