The Moon and Some Change

This here's the last story from Eerie #15, June 1968.

With my grown-up eyes, I think of the story title, and the moon in general, and am reminded of Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You."  A guy promises her that he will be as constant as the Northern Star.  She sniffs, "Constantly in the dark? Gotcha."

The art here by Jeff Jones is a little ... how you say, impressionistic?  The angles of the girl's cleavage sure made an impression -- ahem -- on my 12-year-old self!

So the mysterious bald guy materializes from thin air to bring rescue Diane, and then vanishes after a cold dip in the Channel.

We've seen the trope a million times, people wandering off into the dangerous woods.  I guess all of those people are candidates for Darwin Awards, eh? 

Tony must have paid the gypsy a lot of moolah for her to throw six silver bullets at him!  Another fun fact:  There's a spiritualistic medium named Madame Zokar in an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.  That's "A Good Medium Is Rare," from 1972.

Tony wants Diane dead.  But why?

And who is this bald guy who keeps apporting into the action?

All of a sudden the bald guy doesn't seem so altruistic.  What about Tony then?

I guess if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!  Talk about doing anything for love!

See you on Monday for a February trip through my twisted memories!

Them Dang Doll Collectors!

This here is another tale from the fifteenth issue of Eerie, cover-dated June 1968.

Here is the cover, and below is the story that goes with it!

I can tell you, my twelve-year-old self got an education in the female form here, buddy!

The top panel is the first in several ... shall we say, "narrative inelegances."  Having grown up reading the Silver Age of comics, I can say that it IS NOT good storytelling form to have the narrator talking into a telephone, when her words are plainly addressed to the little dolls on her shelf.  Miriam should be off the phone here.

On this page, the thought-balloon narrations of the flashback images are fine ... but the narration SHOULD NOT be tied by those little bubbles down to the younger incarnations of Miriam.  The child or adolescent Miriam IS NOT having the thoughts at the top of the panel.  The ADULT MIRIAM is thinking them.  And PS note the phrase "why he committed suicided."  An indication of slapdash production! 

By now you can draw the conclusion that Miriam is a sociopath, viewing all other humans as objects, with the most desirable to be kept for a time, as it suits her.

In the middle panel we meet Mr Fantocci the proprietor.  As a pre-adolescent I did not know that a "fantocci" is a puppetry term.  A puppet show is a "fantoccini."

The fourth panel, bottom left -- look at Miriam's devious expression.  You know she's up to no good, but I for one probably could not resist some femme giving me THAT LOOK.

Panel three is another narrative goof.  WHAT is Miriam reacting to?  There should be a text box at the top, something like, "A clank in another part of the theatre surprises Miriam."

And look at the last panel on the page, specifically the words "No! This is all a nightmare!"  Tell me, WHO IS SAYING these words?  You'd think Miriam.  Then why do some of the ragged edges of this word balloon seem to point to the rioting dolls? 

I learned in college that what happens to Miriam is an example of the trope "the biter gets bit."  This was used as the title of a story by Wilkie Collins, but in general it means, "someone suffers as a result of their own actions, especially when they were trying to hurt someone else."

We'll take one more bite out of Eerie #15 on Thursday, my friends, then for February we'll switch over to a long explication of pop-culture figures I love, or that have influenced me a lot, for better or ill.

See you then!