Your sucky Saturday just got a whole lot swampier with another creepy crime horror classic, this time from Myron Fass and the murky mucky March 1954 issue of Crime Mysteries #12. Yes sir, if cute college dames getting drained to death by icky leeches is your jam, then your car has definitely broken down in the right place! There's also an ouch-inducin' muck monster maniac on the loose-- or is there?! Ugh! Those of you who picked up my wonderously water-logged SWAMP MONSTERS collection (via Yoe Books) back in 2019 might remember this ominous highpoint, though oddly enough, I somehow have never posted it here at THOIA-- so, prepare to get sucked in if you're unfamiliar with it!
10 comments:
Lovely art. Pity that the creators apparently didn't know that those are actually quite modest sized "leeches" (they look not much like leeches) compared to, you know, actual real life leeches, especially from Asia and South America.
Professor Leach clearly states at the bottom of page 7 that he had developed a breed of leeches, so since they’re his life work creation, they can pretty much look anyway he (and the artist ) want
I like this one. It's super pulpy, the art is pretty much aimed specifically at teenage boys -- he-man punching action and lots of good girl art -- and a jeepers girl! That said, I don't know if I'd randomly stick a corpse in my car, first, that's probably pretty illegal and I'd already be messing with the investigation and ... in the end, they remember and put both the college women in the front seat!
One thing I love about the art is the constant heavy rain doesn't mess with any of the hairdos. That's some really strong hair spray!
The creature is fun, getting head butted is even better, but this is another scooby-doo-ish mystery where there's only one suspect. It's pretty obvious from the first panel he's mentioned that he's the bad guy but at least throw in a red herring somewhere!
Also: Give Fass a lot of credit for this. As mentioned, it's got all the elements for a young man's adventure but the leeches aren't great but he at least did a bit of research and they look pretty ok. He didn't give them like big spider legs or stalk eyes or something!
In 1959 "Attack of the Giant Leeches" would be shown in drive-ins across the country, but of course this comic story is more action packed and better written than that movie.
This story could have been reused in men's adventure comic, with the leeches abnormal size explained away by radiation from a meteorite or lost atomic capsule.
Thanks for this crime/horror/mad science tale.
This sure is excellent work by Fass. Just totally as off the wall in just the way you really want him to be. The energy of all that pounding rain on page two is amazing, and check out the puddle in the woman's hair in the last panel of that page! That's so weird! The coloring is genuinely bizarre enough for me to think Myron designed that, too.I just love the half-red woman in the bottom corner of the splash.
I really dig all the leach-spotted corpse images, especially the one with the body in the back of the car. I also love that first frame of page five, in which our hero breaks down a door. I like the rather oblique looks we get at the protagonist's mud suit (?) too, and the occasional use of the rare reverse dot screen application. White dots on black really stand out.
If I was born with a name like Professor Leach, I guess I'd have a similar career track. Doomed from the beginning. Names hold particular weight in this one. Note how Burke steals the dead body? I wonder what Betsy's surname was? Gorey?
Maybe Leach was working on a hybrid leech / centipede? Nothing creepier than not being able to outrun something that wants to suck your blood!
I still love Attack of the Giant Leeches, haha!
>White dots on black really stand out.
BURKE: Well, we survived this whole ordeal, but we still have to drive all the way back into the city with a gross drained corpse sliding around in the backseat! Here's a couple of clothes pins for your noses!
(everyone crams into the front seat.)
SALLY: And try not to look in the rearview mirror! ::shivers::
Worst cast of nominative determinism of all time.
Maybe you aren't supposed to approve of "swinging" college professors in stories (or in this case, an athletic director), but regardless, Sally and Doris are going to be very "grateful" toward Tom when they all three get back.
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