Web of Mystery was a pre-code horror comic from Ace comics.Lasting 29 issues. The first issue has a cover date of Feb 1951. And the final issue ,#29,came out in Sept 1955. The first 28 issues were all pre-code,but the final issue has the CCA stamp on it's cover. This issue published some older stories that had been changed cause of the Comics Code Authority guidelines.
The issue I read today was issue 11 from July of 1952. I picked this issue out cause of the cover.You got a giant werewolf. A well drawn beautiful woman and a guy that looks kind of like Mark Trail. There is 4 stories in this issue.
The first story is "Bride’s Dowry Of Doom" which has artwork by Louis Zansky.A douche bag is wanting to drill for oil on what is an old American Indian burial ground. He gets warned by an old lady that if he does this he will be cursed. But of course he doesn't listen.He sets fire to the caskets that have been dug up and put to the side. And in the smoke from the fire he sees a beautiful Indian maiden. The next day he is at a diner and sees a waitress that looks just like the Indian maiden.He uses his money to quickly sweep her off her feet and they are married soon. At the wedding the old lady shows up and stabs the bride. But there is no wound. The bride tells him that he must have been mistaken. That she wasn't wounded by the old lady's knife. That night they are getting ready for bed. And he ask his new wife about the old lady. She blows him off and then changes into a vampire.She knocks her new husband on the head and flies off to feed her craving for blood. After getting full she comes back home. He wakes up and sees her. But she tells him he must have been hallucinating. And that he attacked her,while fighting him off he hit his head and was knocked out. A few days later he nicks his face while shaving.She sees the blood and freaks out. He quickly wipes the blood off his face and she admits to being a vampire.She explains to him how she was an "Indian Princess" who was caught practicing "vampireism". Then burned at the stake in the burial ground. But when he burned all the old coffins the fire temporarily purified her. And she was reborn as a pretty young woman.The old lady that attacked her at the wedding is her great-great-great grandmother who is an Indian witch woman. She has her new husband tie her up,so that when that night her cravings come back she won't be able to go out and kill people. Later that night she is begging him to release her,but then the old lady enters the house.The old lady puts a spell on him that causes him to pass out. And his new wife is released to go feed.She comes back the next morning but is stuck in her vampire form. They start fighting and end up on one of his oil drilling towers. He manages to lasso her with a rope to prevent her from flying off. But this also causes him to stumble off the tower and fall to his death. His body is found by the oil workers and next to him is some old moldy bones. And the story ends with the old lady informing us he died in the exact same place as his wife did many years ago. While this isn't the best horror story I have read,it is fun. The artwork is pretty good for the era it came out in.
Up next is a one page story that is supposed to be based on true events. Nothing about it really stands out. The next full story is the one the cover is based on. "Dreaded Duo’s Blood Banquet" is the title of this story.It is about a traveling circus. Where the dog faced boy Georgie is in love with the owner's beautiful daughter Lil Damion. He will do anything for her. But she only uses him for kicks.One dark and rainy night she gets fed up with him and punches him. Then has the other carnival workers run him off.Georgie is walking through a graveyard when he runs into a mysterious man. This man offers to change Georgie's face. If Georgie will help the man dig up a grave. Georgie is told to dig up the grave and remove the stake in the corpse's heart. After being told this a bolt of lightning strikes right where the mysterious man was standing. Georgie digs and digs and finally gets down to the coffin. He opens it and is about to pull out the stake when some demonic looking things appear.They warn him that if he removes the stake his wish will be fulfilled but with a penalty. Then they disappear right when a bolt of lightning strikes the area they are in. Georgie reaches down and removes the stake. As soon as the stake is removed Georgie is struck by lightning. When Georgie wakes up the mysterious man is there and tells him he has been unconscious for weeks. During this time the man has preformed many surgeries on Georgie's face. Georgie gets up and removes the bandages from his face and sees that now he is a handsome man. So he leaves and goes back to the circus. He finds Lil and ask her out on a date. She agrees,and then he spots the mysterious man in the crowd. He runs over to the man and is told "No! Not now! It is almost midnight!Leave me alone!" And the mysterious man started turning into a werewolf. Georgie sees the werewolf attacking Lil and goes to protect her. The werewolf attacks him,but some of the carnival's roustabouts come up and drive off the werewolf. Georgie heads back to his home and when he gets there he turns into a werewolf. As the werewolf he runs off to the hospital where Lil has been taken. He attacks and kills her. At her funeral he figures out that maybe if he kills the man that turned him into a werewolf is killed he might lose the curse of the werewolf. Georgie goes to the house where the mysterious man performed the surgeries and waits for him to show back up.They both fight and Georgie manages to kill the man. But as the fight is going on the demons show back up and inform us that after the fight Georgie will have to face the penalty they mentioned earlier. It seems the penalty is that Georgie's face has changed back to it's dog like appearance.The old house burns down and the story ends with some people finding Georgie's body in the ruins of the old house. Pretty good story with some very well done artwork.
We get another one page "based on a true story" story that again isn't worth reading. Then the third story "Satan And The Devil-Bull" starts which has artwork by Lou Cameron and Rocco Mastroserio.Set in Central America,this is a story about a bullfighter. It seems this small town is right at the foot of a volcano. And they have a ceremony ,where a stuffed "devil-bull" is hung in the town square and it is stabbed many time with swords and knives. This supposedly keeps the volcano from erupting. There is a jealous bullfighter in the town. He receives a visit from the devil and is told that on the next day he will become the master bullfighter of the town. He tells the devil this won't happen cause of a better bullfighter in the town. But the devil informs him if he goes and removes a special sword from the stuffed "devil-bull" he will win the bullfighter event. The devil tell him that after he removes the sword he must take it to a certain cave. Then the devil disappears. Miguel ,the bullfighter,goes and removes the sword and takes it to the cave. But once he is in there lightning comes in and hits some stones that look like demons. These stones come alive and tell Miguel he must take the sword and throw it into the lava of the volcano. When he does this he sees the devil. He tells him by destroying the sword the Devil is now free from his imprisonment. Miguel passes out and when he wakes up he is back in his hotel room.The villagers see that the sword has been removed and believe this means they are all doomed to death.At the arena,Miguel watches as a bull kills the rival bullfighter. Satan appears to Miguel and tells him he has given him some of his powers. Miguel uses this to kill the bull and become the villages new master bullfighter. All the women of village start flirting with Miguel. Miguel knows that this is cause of his new satanic powers. And he starts making plans to use his powers to get rich. But Satan appears and warns him to not use the powers he has. Miguel of course doesn't listen.Satan uses a car to kill Miguel. But at Miguel's funeral he rises up from his casket. Satan tells him he is now cursed to be one of the devil's minions He is told the only way to get out of this is to get all the villages to surrender their souls to Satan. At this same moment the volcano erupts and lava is headed to the village.The villagers start to run away but Miguel stops them. He tells them to only way to save the village and their lives is to sell their souls to the Devil. They don't believe him. So to prove he now has powers he walks out into the lava. Then all of the sudden the sword from earlier appears and stabs Miguel throw his heart. He dies and now that the sword is back in the village Satan is again imprisoned in the volcano. This was a fun story but the ending gets a bit wonky. But artwork is really well done and helps make up for some of the wonky parts of the story.
Up next is a two page text only story. Followed by the final story. Titled "The Druid Dirge" it has artwork by Bill Molno.Set in England at Stonehenge. This story while it has beautiful artwork is pretty badly written.It is about a guy who has a song that causes Druids to reappear. And the Druids start sacrificing people at Stonehenge. Sadly like I said the story is pretty much crap. But it does have the best artwork in this issue.
Since this comic is in the public domain it can legally be downloaded. I found my copy at
Digital comic museum . Which is a great site filled with lots of scans of public domain comics. Web of Mystery #11 gets a C+.
Posts
