The Unexpected #128 (DC/1971)

The Unexpected #128 (DC)

Various (w) & (a)

The seventies were a great time for the fans of horror comics as every company was churning out titles particuarly DC.  One of my favourites was The Unexpected so when I get the opportunity and have a couple of spare quid I like to pick up a copy or two. In fact over the next couple of weeks there's quite a lot of DC horror to review.

Lets start with this bumper issue of The Unexpected, one of the 25 cent editions that DC published for around a year. This contains both new and reprint material starting off with Where Only The Dead Are Free in which a prisoner escapes into a forgotten valley where only a mad recluse and his brute of a manservant Munjo live. What is his secret and why would prison be better than staying here? Our villain is about to find out...

Next up is a tale of ghostly hauntings or so it would seem in The Vengeful Ghost of Glenville Gap in which Jud Harrow curses the two lawyers, Judge and Jury from his case as he heads to death row. There is however an Unexpected twist.

An old coin from ancient history comes with a surprise for whoever picks it up  as Johnathan Lathrop finds out in The Prisoner of Dead World, a reprint from an earlier issue. An ancient king is restored to life by the bearer but there is a price to pay as the finder becomes host for King Morandas. Quite "Unexpected".

Another reprint is The Haunted Violin featuring a musician who "cannot play a piece through without making a dozen mistakes" as a well known theatrical agent tells Drake. So off our protagonist goes to find a magic violin (as you do) and finds one in a cave somewhere in deepest Europe.

However the instrument comes with a warning which Drake ignores not exactly to his peril but does not achieve what he looks for and ends up back where he started.

They say save the best for last and that's certainly the case with the comics final story There's More Than One way To Get Framed which features a miserly old creep who allows his wife to live in abject poverty whilst he spends money on antiques. So little food she says not that Ivan O'Tolle cares..

Then one day he finds a magic candle that allows him to enter paintings. There he finds riches but before he can leave his wife aware of her husbands miserliness find his room empty and a candle burning for no reason. You can guess what happens next.

Oh and his missus sells off all these antiques to have a comfortable retirement. Good for her.

Seventies issues are always worth picking up.