Originally Published In Issue 53
Reprinted In Issue 112
First published back in March of 1973, Issue 53 of the ‘Pocket Chiller Library’ comic series was titled ‘The Devil Worshippers’. The comic was later reprinted under the alternative title ‘Everlasting Night’ within Issue 112.
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).
Betty Younger hadn’t known quite what to expect from the home of her new employer, Martin Rixley, but it hadn’t been the huge gothic house, isolated in the countryside which now stood before her when she pulled up in the taxi. She was there to take on the job of Rickley’s new secretary. A successful writer of ghost stories, Rixley needed someone to help transcribe his many notes.
Upon Betty’s arrival, Rixley was enthusiastic to explain how the house was his biggest inspiration. The first owner of the house was a man who’d practised in the arts of black magic. Apparently he’d called into being strange forces – demons, spirits of the dead, the lost and wandering souls of witches and warlocks put to death by the fire.
However, Cromwell’s puritans eventually executed the man for his dabblings in the black arts. Although all the ghosts he’d attracted to the house remained. Only it needed someone to make them appear. Someone strong enough to be a contact between the living and the dead.
The whole idea worried Betty. What had she gotten herself into here? This was clearly no normal secretarial job. But that first night things got even more worrying, because Rixley had guests. A group who apparently met regularly in an attempt to create an atmosphere of harmony in which the invisible beings inhabiting the old house might be able to materialise.
Before Betty knew what was what, she’d been pulled into a dark séance. One which saw the powers of darkness flood into the house. It was enough to scare Betty into retreating to her room and locking her door.
But the group couldn’t allow Betty to leave. This was the first manifestation they’d had in almost a year. Betty was clearly the contact – a natural medium, untaught, inexperienced, but with such potential.
She would be their instrument. They would use her with, or against, her will if they had to. They’d harness the great unknown forces that dwell in the outer darkness to their will. And they’d do this through her…
DLS Review:
This story has a classic occultist premise. It reminds me of all those spectacular 1970s horror novels and movies like ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ (1968), ‘The Omen’ (1976), and ‘Race With The Devil’ (1975) that amongst other things led to the ‘Satanic Panic’ of the early eighties.
Here we have the hapless young Betty who’s taken on a live-in job as the secretary for a ghost story writer. Of course, said writer is a dabbler in the black arts, who wants to utilise Betty as a human sacrifice. However, Betty’s having none of it. She’s a tough, confident and headstrong young woman who’s not gonna fall for any of their satanic crap.
What transpires is a dark and altogether quite sinister tale, with Betty held captive in this isolated old house by these satanists, along with Rixley’s withering old housekeeper – Miss Fiske, who prefers to turn a blind eye to the who affair.
Adding further worry to the situation is that this small group of devil worshippers are constantly referring to a secretary who came before Betty and implying something terrible happened to her. Oh yes, the plot certainly thickens!
Ultimately what we have is a surprisingly sinister storyline, which sees Betty trying to remain calm and together, so not to alert the group to her desire to get the hell outta dodge at the first possible opportunity.
It’s not a comic that’s particularly packed with action per se. However, the mounting suspense throughout the tale is proper edge-of-the-seat stuff. It eventually all leads up to this Black Mass of Satan, which as you’d probably expect, makes for a dramatic finale whereupon everything comes to a head in a sudden explosion of drama. Yes, drama…and not really horror!
The ending is your usual PCL downtrodden and altogether bleak affair, which is exactly as you’d want it to be (ala the three occultist movies I mentioned at the start of the review). The illustrative artwork is also some of the best I’ve seen in PCLs. The artist has made Betty to be ultra-attractive, and the group of satanists are all either rugged looking (such as Rixley), or they just look like a bit of an oddball.
The end result is one of the better PCLs. A properly gripping storyline, with plenty of tension and mounting suspense, along with one of the darker, more sinister plots to appear in a PCL.
The comic book runs for a total of 64 pages.
© DLS Reviews
