Number 2563: Pappy pimps “The Bottle Imp”

“The Bottle Imp” is a short story written in 1889 by Robert Louis Stevenson. I read the original story in high school and was impressed. The imp in a bottle can grant wishes, but if the owner of the bottle dies with it in his possession he will end up in hell for eternity. Or so it is said. From Stevenson’s original story, the man selling the Bottle Imp to the main character tells him, “. . . the glass of it was tempered in the flames of hell. The imp lives in it, and that is his shadow we behold there moving . . .” The way the buyer goes for it reminds me of stories of naïve country bumpkins, in the big city for the first time, buying the Golden Gate Bridge or lead bars painted gold. The difference is in this case the Bottle Imp is real.

The adaptation is from Classics Illustrated #116, published in 1954. Artwork is done by Lou Cameron, whose distinctive artwork is seen a lot in comics of the era.