Friday, August 13, 2021

The Record of Doom

Some songs are like instant time capsules, sending you back to a certain place, full of great memories, and sometimes even not-so-great ones too. Yep, some songs are like a bullet through the heart, take for example this dirty little ditty from the April - May 1956 issue of Tales of the Unexpected #2. It's not freedom rock, maaaan-- but turn it up anyway!

7 comments:

Mr. Cavin said...

Awesome. I love the the Gloomy Sunday urban legend got the fifties comic book treatment. I think it's pretty neat that they turned it into a crime procedural with a Scooby ending, too. The perfect analog for a legend, widely told as true, and its eventual debunking.

It's funny that you would would say "some songs are like a bullet through the heart" when talking bout how something like this can whisk us back. One of the first loves of this high scholar's teenage heart used to practice drill team after school every weekday to that very Jon Bon Jovi anthem; and now, every time I hear it, I am reminded of a dozen sixteen-year-old girls in sequence, clad in latex tights and sequined vests, grinning their sweaty way though a calisthenic dance routine blaring over and over out of a foot-tall boom box in the Western Guilford High School gym. Sigh. It's bittersweet now, but I was very close to killing myself back then.

Nequam said...

I wonder if this was inspired by the legend surrounding the song "Gloomy Sunday"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloomy_Sunday#Urban_legends

top_cat_james said...

Your "Freedom Rock" reference gave me the biggest laugh I've had all week.

Brian Barnes said...

So we go from Gloomy Sunday to Blue Monday, I fear for Dismal Tuesday and I don't know if I'll even make it to Depressing Wednesday!

I like this one, a fun little procedural -- with that thing that vexes all short comic story about how utterly improbable it is -- with a good ironic ending. As a composer and musician, I feel our disc jokey's pain!

Guy Callaway said...

Best Post Ever!

Eric said...

Poor, poor Marshall. If it wasn't for his misfortune, he'd be a heavenly person today. And now he can't tell anyone how does it feel.

Mr. Karswell said...

I have to let you all in on something sneaky I did with this post, because I wasn't super happy with the way this story originally ends. The Inspector's original word balloon dialog in the second to last panel on the last page was "Stop, Marshall-- Whew! Got him just in time!" and yes, the Inspector is actually catching him by the arm as Marshall begins to break through the window. Anyone else like that the bad guy lives in this one? I don't, but of course post code 50's DC requirements did... that's why I changed it to a more properly fitting ending. Hope everyone likes my edit :)

UP NEXT: Is that the sound of wedding bells ringing in your ears, or the sound of a shotgun blast, umm, ringing in your ears? Stay tuned...