Tuesday, October 30, 2007

A LITTLE HALLOWEEN READING

Holy Cow! It's Halloween already!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaargh! I was so absorbed with work that I completely neglected one of the best holidays of the year! What follows is too little, too late but I refuse to let Halloween pass without at least some recognition here!



Fortunately I stumbled on a site by a guy named Karswell who has great taste in all things horrifying. I'll loot Karswell's site and shake out the bag here, on the floor of my own blog. If you like what you see check out Karswell's site:



Karswell collects pre-code horror comics. I don't have the bandwidth to reproduce whole stories at a decent size, but here are a few samples. Some of what I reproduce here gives away the ending of the story. That doesn't bother me much because I usually value set-ups more than payoffs, but that's me. If it bothers you then don't read any farther.


OK, I open up with an excerpt (above) from "The Sewer Monsters." In the part we're missing, it's the eve of the French Revolution and a man is about to be hanged for a crime he didn't commit. Fortunately for him the Revolution breaks out and he manages to crawl into the Paris sewer system with the rope still around his neck. His eyes are bulging and his neck is broken from the near-hanging but at least he's still alive. Under the streets he discovers a race of fungus people who've lived in the sewers for centuries. Here's (above) a page from the middle of the story where he rouses the fungus people to wreck havoc on Paris.


Here's (above) an excerpt from "The Greatest Horror of Them All," a story about a guy who discovers that his loving girlfriend was all along a hideous monster.



Here's (above) an excerpt from "The Flat Man" where a guy is run over by a bulldozer and survives.


Skipping a bit of story, the flattened man is so angry about what was done to him that he devotes his life to crime. He's perfect for it because he can effortlessly slip under locked doors. Eventually he becomes rich and decides that he wants a wife. The wife angle is sheer genius! As we all know, every monster wants a woman!


Here's (above) a single panel from Basil Wolverton's "Brain Bats of Venus." I include it because the idea of walking around with a brain bat on your head, controlling everything you do, is just so cool.


Here's (above) the final panels of "The Modern Designer," about a deranged lamp designer who deals with a scheming wife.


15 comments:

Kali Fontecchio said...

The girlfriend turned monster who was wearing a rubber suit is GENIUS!!!!!!! I laughed out loud pretty hard hahaha.

The last one is the only one that really scared me.....reminded me of Cannibal Holocaust......eeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhh. I detest graphic violence in entertainment.

Steven Finch, Attorney At Law said...

When you compare them to the E.C. comics, what they lack in artistic talent they certainly make up for in spades with bizarre stories. As if the flat man wasn't enough, a mad lamp-designer?!

Craig D said...

Well, I see "The Modern Designer" finally got his wife to agree to a three-way... bulb!

Mwah hah hah hah hah!

Happy Halloween, Uncle Eddie & Co.

Matthew Cruickshank said...

Eddie-what were these guys smoking in order to think up this stuff? I love it!

You would love London right now. It's extremely grey, foggy and dark. Perfect for Halloween.

Hey I'm coming to Burbank on the 12th november for 1 week-I'd love to see you and Mike one night. Even if possible meet John K?!

Please let me know if it's possible!

All the best for now,

Matt

Vincent Waller said...

Oh man do I need a squid head costume.

Badinia said...

The most distressing thing about the Brain-Bat is not the threat of a vicious parasite controlling your thoughts and actions, but that your friends and family will think that you are wearing a buboe-covered pecker on your head. Very fantastic comics frames, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pete Emslie said...

I think that flat man is just crying out to be animated in Flash! (Nyuk nyuk nyuk...)

Anonymous said...

Im assuming the brainhat guys are in outer space or something?

Cause if that parasites plan is to subtly infiltrate human society he should probably look in a mirror first

Barbasaurus Rex said...

Eddie your a genius!!!!
I died over every single one of these and your comments are outstanding!!
The wife angle is perfect!!
Eddie you make me swoon with laughter.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Matt: Hey, it'll be great to see you! Call Mike when you get in!

Kali: Yeah, I see your point. I liked it for the same reson that Craig & Steven liked it, because it's about a mad lamp designer! Lamp designers don't get to be at the center of many stories!

Freckled: I make you swoon, eh!? It's my cheetah skin suit isn't it?One of these days I'll put it in mothballs so other men will have a chance!

I'm glad you picked up on the weirdness of the flat guy advertising for a woman. I wanna buy the guy who wrote that a drink!

Pete: LOL!

Jenny Lerew said...

We had a gazillion kids last night. Did you get a lot? Do anything special? Like a Haunted Foyer or something?

pappy d said...

Thanks again, Eddie, these comics are priceless!

They give me courage to seek out the ridiculous in a job that seems merely stupid.

You're the man!

pappy d said...

Is that lamp designer post-modernist?

Anonymous said...

ha ha girlfriend suit! I hate it when that happens

Alex Whitington & Rob Turner said...

I can't believe! I spent all day looking for a place to read old horror comics lasyt night and didn't find anything except cover archives.
Thank you!