In 1954, horror comics offered the grisly promise of a plague zombie poked by bill hooks and bisected by a rail...
In 1973, horror -- sorry, "suspense" -- comics offered a terryifying promise of a one-page nailbiter narrated in the first person by an oak tree...
The story is titled "DEATHBOX" and comes from DC's The Witching Hour #30 (April 1973), apparently by way of some high schooler's creative writing project...
It's scary because there's a coffin and dead people are buried inside coffins! Somebody call Count Floyd!
I'm not one of those fans who loudly proclaim that Frederic Wertham and the Comics Code Authority ruined the comics industry (mostly because the industry has shown it is more than capable of destroying itself), but the institution of the CCA did deal a blow to the horror comics genre from which it still hasn't fully recovered. Many have tried to recapture that gleefully transgressive EC horror vibe of the early 1950's, but the results have, at best, mimicked the mechanics without capturing the underlying soul.
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3 comments:
Deathbox? I think I went to High School with her.
AUGH! The horror! Next issue Did you know dairy products with calcium makes the BONES in your SKELETON?!?
GAH! Stop it, you're scaring me!
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