Number 345


The doomed frat boys



My son and his family moved to another state earlier this year. The plan is for him to finish his schooling. I'm in the stands cheering him on, waving the ol' college flag, yelling, "Go, Dave, go!" Luckily he's taking his classes online, because after reading this story, I'm sure I don't want him joining any fraternities.

This story is from a really bad copy of Superior's Strange Mysteries #13. A previous owner shot a BB hole through it. Someone stuck some tape over some of the holes. One page has a corner missing. Those are all problems with my particular copy, but a worse problem, the really crappy printing, is thanks to the Canadian publisher's printer.

Number 294


Mr. Sardonicus


Author Ray Russell wrote the short story, "Sardonicus," which was made into the 1961 William Castle film, Mr. Sardonicus. It has nothing to do with this story, "Death Takes Four," from Strange Mysteries #13, October, 1953, but I thought I'd impress you with my knowledge of arcane medical conditions. Risus sardonicus, called rictus sardonicus in this strip, is a pretty horrible condition that contorts and freezes the face into a smile. You know, like all of the contestants on American Idol when they're being ripped a new blowhole by one of those idiot judges.

The sardonicus sufferer in "Death Takes Four" is a murderer who fakes — or think he's faking — insanity. It's by the Jerry Iger shop, and it's published by Superior, which used the worst printer in comic book history. My copy of this issue was a target. It has a couple of b-b holes through it, which shows what the previous owner thought of it.

Number 82


The Dead Who Walk


Comic book companies usually try to capture readers' attention and get them to keep coming back to ongoing titles. This comic, The Dead Who Walk, under the imprint Realistic Comics, is an unnumbered, one-shot title.

The Dead Who Walk was released in 1952 as part of the horror comics boom of the era. It must've sold pretty well because it's not an uncommon title to find.

The artwork for The Dead Who Walk is credited by the Grand Comics Database to Joe Orlando, pencils and inks.

The story moves at a breakneck pace. For such a short story there are a lot of characters: Kent, his fiancée, Anne, her brother Jack, Dr.French, a "man of cold, scientific logic," and the evil brothers who are stealing bodies, George and Walt Bacon. That isn't even counting the named corpses animated by the pair of body snatchers: Juan Fernandez, Foley the mechanic, Torelli the importer…talk about packing a lot into a small space! The story, which concerns "egos," (i.e., "souls") jumping from body to body, reads like a weird menace pulp magazine tale of the 1930s and '40s, where plots like this were common. A Realistic Comic it might have been, but realistic it wasn't.