Originally Published In Issue 36
Reprinted In Issue 95
First published back in June of 1972, Issue 36 of the ‘Pocket Chiller Library’ comic series was titled ‘The Dead Don't Always Sleep’. The comic was later reprinted under the alternative title ‘Decayed Dead’ within Issue 95.
During the 1970s the ‘Pocket Chiller Library’ was a pocket-sized mainstream horror comic which ran for a total of 137 issues between 1971 and 1977. Each month, two issues of the comic were published, amounting to a total of twenty-four issues of the comic published each year.
However, it should be noted that from issue 86 onwards, the publishers started reprinting the earlier stories. Of these reprints, the first 28 reprints (issues 86 – 113) retitled the story. As such, there were only a total of 86 different stories within the series, despite there being more titles.
Unfortunately, each issue was undated, making it difficult to be sure of the date for first publication of each issue. However, it is widely understood the comics were monthly publications, with two publications released simultaneously each month, with the original stories running from January 1971. Therefore, the above date of publication is a relatively reasonable assumption.
Additionally, each issue was unfortunately uncredited to either the writer or the comic artist(s).
England, 1850 and two middleclass men are stalking through the darkened woodlands, heading towards a dilapidated old shack. Their names are Robert Teniel and Daniel Cooper; the shack belongs to a hermit named Amos.
The pair had run into financial issues. The bank where they work is likely to give them the sack when it finds out the pair have been milking the customer’s deposits. Their only way out of this mess rests with Amos. Rumour has it the bitter old man has vast amounts of cash which as a young man he’d won at casino but simply couldn’t bear to part with.
The pair’s plan is to steal the money whilst Amos is out foraging the surrounding woodland for roots or whatever the old man lived off. However, when they enter the old shack, they find the dead body of Amos slumped over a table. Piles of gold coins laid out before the rotting corpse.
Cooper only sees the good fortune within the predicament. They can make off with the cash and none will be the wiser. But Teniel isn’t so sure. His conscience tells him not to. He senses something wrong.
After making off with all the money, Teniel’s worry over the theft is enough to convince him to return to the old shack, to put back his half of the stolen funds. However, when he returns, Teniel finds the old shack empty. Amos’ corpse nowhere to be found.
Things quickly spiral from there for the desperate duo. For even in death, Amos won’t let the pair’s theft of his precious winnings pass. Amos might be deceased, his body decayed and rotten, but that’s not enough to keep the old hermit from stalking the pair, to take his ghastly revenge…
DLS Review:
Here we have a classic PCL plot. A couple of desperate middleclass guys stealing from a dead hermit, who’s decaying corpse then proceeds to haunt them. Yeah, there’s more than a few PCLs which utilise a very similar plot.
Despite being a well-used narrative for some horror shenanigans, it’s nevertheless a fun and relatively fast-paced story. The character of Robert Teniel doesn’t really play much of a role beyond becoming Amos’ first victim. Instead, the brunt of the story is more about Cooper and his desperate attempts to get away from Amos.
Poor old Cooper’s close family quickly become the target of Amos’ supernatural torment. Cooper takes them to Venice, and guess who’s steering a gondola! Oh yes, Amos is quite happy to travel to keep up his ghastly stalking activities.
But the best bits are involving Cooper’s daughter, who’s absolutely oblivious to what’s going on. She thinks its just a local tramp hiding out in the nearby woods. Of course, Cooper himself doesn’t help the situation, not wanting his fair daughter to know the full extent of the horror. The end result is a wonderfully contrived finale with a hilariously wacky ending.
As I said, the story’s a fun one, but the whole ‘horror’ aspect is basically a floating corpse which just randomly appears and proceeds to chase Cooper around. Honestly, the undead Amos doesn’t actually do much other than scare the bejesus out of people. Or at least that’s all we ever see him do. Of course, being a PCL story, the reaction is plenty of fainting or being scared to death.
As such, the actual horror in the comic is somewhat mild, although the artwork depicting our floating antagonist is wonderfully creepy. In fact, the depictions of Amos as he terrorises the family is what really makes the story. But yeah…it’s all good fun!
The comic book runs for a total of 64 pages.
© DLS Reviews
