Saturday, August 20, 2016

The Treacherous Genie

Have I ever posted a story about an evil genie here? I was asked if I had from someone looking for a particular tale, so I quickly went through my archive to check, and low and behold it's hard to believe that with over 1,900 posts I somehow haven't at this point-- I mean, it really does appear that this subject matter has indeed eluded the haunted halls of Mr. Karswell's domain-- but if someone knows otherwise, please let us know in the comments! In the meantime, here's a good one from the August 1953 issue of Tales of Horror #6, art by Rocco Masterserio... and I'll see what other gruesome genies I have bottled up in my collection for future posts too! ::POOF!::















8 comments:

Glowworm said...

I believe there were some evil genies given by the devil in your post on "The Devil's Bottles" here. http://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-devils-bottles.html

Mr. Karswell said...

Yeah that story came up when I searched but I was thinking they were more like bottled demons... though it does say genie

Mr. Cavin said...

Well, it never really felt like there was anything missing, I must say. But here we have it: Genii. I do remember several wish-fulfillment type stories, but they were all devils and demons I guess. This one too, technically, what with that shopkeeper's tail. I find it really interesting he didn't, you know, vaporize back to Hades the moment he'd played his diabolical little trick on Edgar. For a small business devil, he was kind of an upstanding fellow, frankly.

Man, the top couple of rows on page two are really stunning work. The artist really piled extra story-telling value into that sequence.

Mestiere said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brian Barnes said...

There's great art all over this thing, as Mr. Cavin said, the top panels of page 2 are great pieces of work, though I'm not sold on the coloring (though it's obvious why it's done that way.)

This is a fun little story, the Devil taking a roundabout way of dealing with Edgar is one of the fun parts of any good devil tale; though the subplot of the genie shipping is kind of enduring. Which means the Devil actually brought together two trapped souls, which is the opposite of torment. I guess the Devil really does always lose in one way or another!

I especially like the trident tail!

Glowworm said...

Truth be told if I was a genie bottled up in a small bottle for 4,000 years thanks to the Devil and separated from the one I'd love, I'd probably pull a trick like that to get my freedom and lover back too. Besides, seeing as who the genie got for a master, well, if you ask me, I'd say Edgar was more evil than the genie. Seriously, stealing from a blind man is downright diabolical, Edgar!

Brad S. said...

It's a complete ripoff from a John Collier story - "Bottle Party"...

Mr. Karswell said...

Wouldn't be the first time Collier got the comic book redux, check the THOIA Archive here:

https://thehorrorsofitall.blogspot.com/2010/10/in-bag-x2.html