Number 1556: Sucked down into a grave!

Here’s an example of why you shouldn’t speak ill of anyone...even the dead. Especially the dead.

“Cadaver’s Revenge” is from Strange Fantasy #5 (1953). Art by the Iger Shop.

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Number 1253: Journey into Halloween fear!

As I mentioned yesterday, Wednesday is Halloween, and despite being the Ebeneezer Scrooge of Halloween, I feel obligated to show some Halloween stories. But obligated is the wrong word. I love horror stories, I'm just not thrilled about Halloween. It's the kids you know...the kids who come to the door and yell “Trick or Treat!” and make Ebeneezer Pappy get off the comfy couch, from which I’ll be watching some old horror movie on TV, no doubt.

I also told you yesterday I found a long-forgotten bag of jelly beans in a drawer. I will give them out to the kids. I opened the bag and poured them into a bowl to keep by the front door. I sampled one of the j.b.'s and it was a bit hard. I nearly broke a tooth. I'll have to issue a disclaimer when I put them in the kids' trick or treat bags. “Make sure you suck on these jelly beans for a half hour or so before biting into them, kiddies! Heh-heh. And don't send me a dentist's bill!”

So what have we for our fear-fare today? We have two stories I've showed before, way back when in the early days of this blog. They're both from the Canadian publisher, Superior Comics, which got their pre-packaged material from the Jerry Iger Studios. Iger had some demented people writing and drawing terror tales in those days. 

Hey, you know what's funny? Halloween candy may rot your teeth, but horror stories like these will definitely rot your brain!

From  Journey Into Fear #19 (1954):

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Number 57

The Flat Man

Since I'm writing this on Thanksgiving Day, 2006, it seems appropriate that I inaugurate a new series I'll be running occasionally: The Comic Book Turkey Awards. Rules are strictly arbitrary, judgment is all mine and will be strictly subjective.

The award will be given to the story I think best exemplifies comic book stupidity at its worst. Just as turkeys are reputed to stand looking up at rain until they drown, so do these stories exhibit similar lack of intelligence. First up is a story I mentioned in a Frankenstein Friday entry a couple of weeks ago, "The Flat Man," from Journey Into Fear #19, May 1954.

Most comic book horror stories are by default pretty dumb because the plots depend on wild occurrences that can't happen in real life. Still, with most horror stories we suspend disbelief and just accept the premise or the plot and ride it out until the end, enjoying it for what it is, dumb or not. "The Flat Man" seems to fail on the suspension of disbelief angle. I can suspend disbelief when it comes to rotting corpses rising from the grave, vampires, werewolves, or people making pacts with the devil, but I just can't accept a guy run over by a steamroller, mashed flat, and still living.

It's all a joke, really, because the story ends where it begins, under a steamroller. The artwork was done by the Iger shop for the publisher, Superior, which was a Canadian company. In an industry full of poorly-printed products Superior was definitely inferior to even its poorly-printed competition. I've seen quite a few Superior comics and none of them were printed well. They were sleazy publishers, going for the fast buck with a really crummy product. That's one of the reasons I love them so much!

On this Thanksgiving Day, "The Flat Man" earns 3 ½ turkeys out of a possible 4.

[Note: I have re-scanned artwork, slightly edited and replaced the original posting with this post in August 2012.]

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