Sadly, this is only one of them there symbolic splash pages. So no one really got gunned down by Skeletor dressed up as Willie Lumpkin (note to Johnathan Hickman--yes, you may use that idea).However, the story does include this charming bit:
Also, in the very same story, Ellery Queen nabs a man in an iron lung for murder:
It's a pretty silly (yet cool at the same time) story wherein a mysterious cult leader gets people who want to commit suicide yet are afraid to actually kill themselves to kill other people on this mysterious chain letter list, in exchange for someone later killing them --except it turns out that the victims aren't really other suicide wannabes who are higher up the chain, but are actually innocent victims that crooks hired the cult leader to kill. So he uses these foolish suicide-wanting dupes for gangland hits. Crazy, eh?Also crazy--Todd hired this "service" to knock off Bertha's husband, Bob--he was jealous, wanted her for himself, blah blah. So, the very same afternoon that Bob is murdered:
Dude, at least wait for rigor mortis to set in before you make your move. Sheesh.From Ellery Queen #1 (1952). Isn't about time that someone did an Ellery Queen comic again? Especially now that the classic 1970s TV series in out on DVD
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That (accused) murderer-in-an-iron-lung bit was later used in an episode of Mannix.
ReplyDeleteSo where the hell are all of the Mannix comics??
ReplyDeleteClever story! Surely Hollywood could make a decent thriller out of that. I never saw EQ as a kid, it was on opposite the soap Coronation Street in those pre-VHS days.
ReplyDeleteThe pain of it all seems to have turned poor Bertha green.