Well, how'd everyone make out on Witches' Night? I suppose if you're here and reading this that it worked out okay-- although, there are still ways of getting around the reality of death if you actually do mess with the supernatural. And if you did do some messin' around and lost your head, well, this story is for you-- so be more careful next time, ya ding dong! From the March 1954 issue of Beware #8, art by Myron Fass.
This one is a fun twist on the regular "ugly large henpecking wife" subgenre. Usually, it's a reason for a murder plot but here her attributes actually make her a fine leader for a crypt of ghostly fiends!
ReplyDeleteWhere usually the wife would be nothing more than a macguffin she actually graduates to the boss and does in another treasure hunter! Bravo!
They even give Blake a pretty wife (which he ignores) as if to drill in the point.
Not the biggest fan of Fass who a lot of time seemed to work pretty quick on these, but he turns in a good solid couple of pages, with some good demons and some good facial expressions. Good job for the colorist who never seemed to mess up a transparent ghost.
This one's fun. What's scarier than demons or a henpecked husband's nagging wife? An undead nagging wife WITH the demons! I love how Roger just comes in and casually removes his head in front of George. My favorite panel is on page three, panel 6 where Roger asks if it's okay if he smokes. The image of his severed head just casually smoking is hilarious to me. 🤣🤣I also love the other image of it on page 5, panel 4 as well. The image of Mildred lurching over Roger with an axe is amazing as well. NGL though, that panel where Mildred calls over her demon friends, the little lizard guy is adorable and my favorite!
ReplyDelete@Glowworm
DeleteYes, doesn't he have a nice smile? I wonder which one he is, Damna, Thut, or Bleeze?
Oh I love this one. "Damna! Thut! Bleeze!" Wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the intention was to make it giggle out loud funny, but that's what they achieved. The narrator is straight out of star wars, or did he leave the comic to become a Jawa?
I love everything about this including the attempt by an American to do a comic with a British protagonist and unable to resist including Americanisms like "Say-y". I like the art, I like the wife who became a boss demon, and I absolutely love the headless ghost holding the cigarette to his head's mouth. It's like the skull in "The Last Unicorn" who remembers the taste of wine even as it pours through his jaws to the floor.
The only thing that would make this better is the fiance also becoming a ghost and trying to fight Mildred for the treasure. Pity she just exists for half a panel, never to be seen again.
Give the male protagonist a nice fiancee and I automatically hope for a happy ending, but this is one more time I didn't get it.
ReplyDeleteHis being "in league" with one of the ghosts - instead of being an enemy to all of them - was another reason to kind of expect a happy ending. Oh, well.
If this had been filmed, Mildred would've been a good supernatural character for Kathleen Freeman.
For those who have searched for The Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine, to those in Canada who look for gold in what is now known as The Nahhanni national Park Reserve, sometimes called The Headless Valley (!), their have been real life instances of those afflicted with gold fever who have literally lost their heads in the search of the yellow metal. I wonder if this story was inspired by the Dutchman's mine legend.
ReplyDeleteFass was such a wild illustrator. All of his characters seem just that side of some new psychotic break. Roger Rankin in the second panel of page two, settling himself into a cozy haunted castle yarn--but looks like he's planning to have George Blake for dinner. Blake himself, at the bottom of page five, pondering the visitor who has just departed--but acting like a character from Scanners. Even that pleasant and optimistic blood-red medium on page one has the aura of a hatchet killer.
ReplyDeleteI love pre-code stories like this. Basically dark rides, with panels that feel like Halloween decorations. The splash shows a man being menaced by scary masks. There are ghostly suits of armor and trap doors and spider webs and all sorts of things. Even the headless man gag is rigid and mannered, like stage magician who must sit just so for all the mirrors to line up. It's amazing. Extra points for the dry-transfer process on that medieval castle ghost (Mildred even gets some by page seven), the bat attack at the bottom of six, and "Hey! Ow!" that orange stoning on seven.