Wednesday, November 15, 2017

The Witching Well

Like Rudy Palais, I also get a lot of requests for Lou Cameron stories, and here's a supernaturally charged selection from the June 1952 issue of The Beyond #12. Has everyone pre-ordered Lou Cameron's Unsleeping Dead collection coming out in Spring 2018? Click HERE for more info!















7 comments:

Grant said...

"Bat's eggs"? I could swear I've heard that before in supernatural stories, but it's still pretty wild. Especially since there aren't all that many people who think that bats are birds.

The witch ancestor falling down a well is a "welcome" variation of the witch ancestor who was burned at the stake. Or even HANGED. (I'm still a stick in the mud about stories giving you BURNED witches in AMERICA.)

Brian Barnes said...

That was totally insane! From buckets of dialog nobody would speak "I don't understand! What's caused you to turn into an evil, leering old witch? What are you going to do with that knife?" instead of "Earrghhh! What the hell?" to a plot that just spins around on a dime, to a evil witch who couldn't stab the side of a barn!

Also, our evil witch "didn't die" when she fell into a well (the same well she dove head first into) but was somehow BURIED OUTSIDE. What? How? She even leads our hero to the room with the candles! What is up with witches? Why the hell did the wicked witch of the west have buckets of water around? Just don't clean the damn castle!

I ADORE this thing. It's awesome. It's a story with ADHD and it's all the better for it.

Glowworm said...

"Oh hey, honey. The power mysteriously went out so I found these conveniently stored candles hidden away with these evil looking faces on them."
I also love how when Vera first transforms into a witch, she tells Roy not to be frightened--as she starts to hold up a knife in the next panel. Yeah, "Don't be frightened. I'm just turning into an evil old witch and now I'm going to murder you."
Oh, and what kind of logic is that that his wife must have somehow snuck out of the well during the night and returned to their city apartment?

JMR777 said...

To describe this story you need two words- Italian Giallo.

Logic? We don' need no stinkin' logic! - and that makes these wild horror comics all the more enjoyable.

Grant said...

Brian Barnes' first paragraph mentions something else I noticed about the FIRST page. Between his expressions and the lack of exclamation marks no matter what he says, watching Roy on that first page is like watching a notoriously "wooden" actor in a horror film. Luckily he gets more into the spirit of things a little later.

Mr. Cavin said...

And here I always thought people were calling me a "bad" egg. The things one learns from comics! Excellent story.

And hey, if you're taking requests, well, I'd like to dedicate a Lin Streeter story to all those wild moonlit Lobas out there. Stay feral ladies! Arooo!

Todd said...

I mistakenly thought this was a recent upload. I love all the comments here; they speak for me better than I could.

Bats' eggs.