Just like it wouldn't be Halloween without Frankenstein, monster masks, and Edgar Allan Poe (check out the previously themed posts featured here this month if you haven't already!), but it also wouldn't be Halloween without a spooky murder mystery set in a big haunted house on a hill! We've equally been looking at whack ass wicked Halloween witches throughout the month of October, and here comes one more! And okay, we've also called in Bentley of Scotland Yard a few freakin' times here already too, why, just this past summer even, (HERE) --but whoa Nelly, here he comes again already to help solve a centuries old death curse! So hang on tight to that burning, torturous flame wheel, cuz this one might leave you scratchin' your hollow noggins' while trying to name the killer before 'ol pipe puss Bentley can! From the September 1941 issue of Pep Comics #19, art by Paul Reinman, --natch!
8 comments:
That's a.....really useful drug. In fact that drug could fetch anyone marketing it more than using it to murder fur a buried treasure. Someone tell me where in India I can get this drug.
Page 4, Panel 1: is that the approved Scotland Yard method of holding your cup of tea?
Bentley being the expert on Indian drugs is highly suspicious!
OK this one plays where absolutely nothing is fair, and it would have been an easy fix for the editor. When Bentley does his little ghostly sword fighting, adding in a caption that Bentley's sword caught and tore part of the "witches cloak" would have made it more solvable.
Even worse, we get a drug that basically makes all of reality questionable and easily molded by ... will power?? ... by the person giving it. Then we have characters who have next to no dialog or part in the story. This was not the best Bentley episode.
That said, it certainly has it's charms. The concept that in his drugged out state Bentley is sword fighting an floating knife is actually a spooky little image, and I love the old comic style of getting right to the plot. People just barge into Bentley's apartment (he leaves the door unlocked specifically for this), scream at him about witches and he's off on a case!
I actually solved this one myself and I’m usually not good at these things. I mean when someone is suggesting that they should all have some tea, and they aren’t the butter, it’s pretty obvious that it’s been poisoned. Okay, in this case, it was drugged, but still, close enough. However, note that even though Bentley mentioned that Sir Roderick changed his suit, until the reveal of who did it, he’s wearing the same gray suit! The orange checked one doesn’t even come into play until the reveal, making it look like a coloring error- so it’s not even something we could figure out ourselves. I do love that handy cane sword though.
First off, the witch images are great. Pep comics should have printed up the witch image as a Halloween decoration and sold them, an opportunity missed.
The Indian drug mentioned in the story- India was for a long time looked upon by the West as a land of mysteries, and a drug of great hypnotic effect from the sub-continent wasn't something to be unexpected. The writer failed to mention how Bentley knew of the drug's existence or its effects, a panel mentioning Bentley serving in India would have helped.
"A man has been murdered! Let's have a spot of tea" how stereotypically British.
This was a great whodunnit with a touch of the supernatural, great find.
"I know the drug myself" can easily be taken in more than one way.
I don't know their correct name, but these detective stories with the multiple choice question at the end always remind me of a Woody Allen short story called "Match Wits With Inspector Ford."
Any fan of detective story parodies should check it out.
Quite the drug, didn't realize you could also control WHAT people imagined they were seeing! Hope you had a great Halloween!
It's interesting that there are two panels where this story gets really dark. Visually. That's page three (panel three) and page five (panel five). I'm not sure what is intended by this coloration. It isn't as if the lights have gone out or anything. I'm not even sure it wasn't a mistake. But it's an interesting look, and I would kind of like to see more like it.
That said, my favorite page is two, that cursed flashback to the duke's fateful Halloween party. Spotted some great costumes: A pilgrim, a nun with a baby, the Jack from a deck of playing cards.
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