As a former union member, I misread the title “The Vampires Strike!” I thought it was something like the Union of Bloodsuckers, Local 666, going out on strike for higher blood counts. But that would be silly, wouldn’t it? Actually no more silly than the striking these sharp-toothed tourist cabin terrors have in mind for a doctor and his nurse, out tracking down the source of a 15-year plague of anemia.
In this tale we find that vampires are struck dead by belladonna. Is there somewhere in vampire literature that belladonna takes the place of the more traditional garlic? Must be so, because it works here.
From
Forbidden Worlds 7 (1952). Art by George Wilhelms.
Yup. If I had access to a complete set of these ACG tales of the supernatural, then I'd write-up all the revelations that they contain, the significance of belladonna being one of them.
ReplyDeleteIn the real world, it's of course doubtful that the doctor could simply turn the old man over to a psychiatric facility. But, as much as we might like to think otherwise, civil rights and even explicit Constitutional guarantees seem to fly out the door when someone with the right sort of license declares a person to be mentally ill. There's probably a meaningful relationship between readers accepting the disposition of the character in this story and wide-spread social acceptance of what happens in fact.
(In crypt keeper voice) This doctor sucked worse than the vampire ... hee hee!
ReplyDeleteOK, first, our doctor didn't find the bite marks on the patients. Second, he did the old "I'm worried but I won't tell my nurse who will also be in extreme danger because of her tender composition." Of course, his nurse kicked butt, and he got knocked out ... BY WINGS. Bat wings, which are incredibly fragile, BTW. I know, supernatural, etc, etc.
Also: Why is the female vampire hot and the male vampire not? Oh wait, I know the answer to that!
Brian, if you are suggesting inbreeding then you have a dirty mind. Which is why I like you.
ReplyDeleteDaniel, but you do have complete access, as do I or anyone else with an internet connection...they are all at Digital Comics Museum and Comic Books Plus.
ReplyDeleteThis is yet another ' 50s story that clashes with the "helpless female character" cliche.
ReplyDelete"Why is the female vampire hot and the male vampire not?" -
It reminds me of "SANTO AND THE VAMPIRE WOMEN," where the vampire women are played by exotic actresses like Lorena Velasquez and their make helpers are played by actors with a really dowdy look.
*laugh* I'd have to spring for better Internet service for online versions of the ACG stories to be a practical resource for such a project!
ReplyDeleteI think that races of beautiful females and brutish males are a pretty common motif in popular fantasy. And note how this particular story would be affected if Noel weren't seduced by the female, or if Claire were seduced by the male. In the former case, the story would lose its implicit sexual draw; in the later case, given sexual double-standards, Claire would be rendered forever unclean.
Daniel, your note answers Grant's question, "Why is the female vampire hot and the male vampire not?" And it has to do with that old double-standard.
ReplyDelete(Grant, I also appreciated your mention of Santo...it's many years since I watched one of those, but always entertaining in a low-budget kind of way.)
Daniel, I am hoping that at some point everybody will have easy and reasonably priced access to high-speed internet. I get mine from Comcast, and it can be slow or fast, depending on how many people within range are on their devices. Unless it is real slow, downloading complete issues from Digital Comics World is relatively easy, and much better than when I was on DSL or even **shudder** dial-up. In those cases just to even low-rez meant setting the download and leaving the room for an hour while it downloaded. One of the first things I did when signing up with DCM is download the ACG files and put them on disk, as well as an external hard drive. In case of hard-drive apocalypse, hopefully I won't have to go through the process of downloading hundreds of issues again.