Voyage to DEAAAATH!!!

I love the sound of that train!

Hey, just thought I'd share an old Werewolf story with you from a really old... Werewolf comic. Look these scans were laying around on my hard drive, dammit.

Okay okay, so this story is from issue 3 of  Weird Tales of Werewolves, an Australian comic book produced by Gredon, in... ahh... the 1970s. They're reprints of what appear to be Spanish comic stories. If you look at the first page right at the bottom it says, "Editorial Vilmar -- Barcelona -- the Illustrated".

More than that, I can't actually tell you at this point, the comic has no creator credits. But damn it's a rollickin' good story.

There were a tonne of these books put out in the 70s here in Australia. I'll be getting more of them, I'm sure. In the meanwhile, enjoy the voyage.


THE VOYAGE TO DEATH.

The number of times I've been on a train, and suddenly been overcome by the fear of exposing myself I honestly just can't tell you. Oh well.

As you can see at this stage things are a bit plain. The images barely seem like a strong interconnected narrative, and you really, desperately need to read all the caption boxes to understand what the hell is going on. But don't worry, trust me, this shit gets better.

I like to think that the utter bluntness of the metaphor in the last panel is a really good indicator of the fact that these were in fact translated in Australia -- and weren't just imports from some UK reprint house.

See? I told you this shit could only get better. I love the juxtaposition here of the image of the Werewolf with the image of the driver about to stop the train. It's a beautiful piece of visual storytelling. 

Uh-oh, the Werewolf just killed that Cossack's travelling companion! Now you KNOW shit is about to get real. No one fucks with a Cossack. You know why? Because that bastard is Russian. And we all know what happens when Russians get pissed off:

That's right. Bear-Mans happen! Now this is goddamn awesome.

Of course in this battle you know who wins:

ANIMALITY!

Sorry, I should have restrained myself. No more Mortal Kombat references in the future, I promise. So from here the story takes yet another twist, with the Cossak being pursued by real wolves through the snowy night. I really love the picture of that house, wonderfully illustrated. So textured.

That final line is actually a nice, subtle piece of writing. Obviously if they'd known there was a man, they still might not have gone to his aid, and yet for the characters themselves it justifies their passivity. Too bad that's not enough for them to be forgiven!

These sorts of comic horror stories always have twist endings, but this has to be one of my favourites of all time. Because he didn't come out to save the bear, the dude is cursed for all eternity! But the great bit is, he's got a curse that will keep his damn bitch wife in check!

Take that, wife of random Russian dude!

Well, I  hope you enjoyed this little Werewolf romp, there's plenty more where this came from!

--Andrew S.

(Be Vigilant.)