First published back in May of 1974, Issue 82 of the ‘Pocket Chiller Library’ comic series was titled ‘The Devil’s Servant’.
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 issue 83 and then from issue 86 onwards, the publishers started reprinting the earlier stories. Of these reprints, the first 29 reprints (issues 83 and then 86 – 113) retitled the story. As such, there were only ever a total of 84 unique stories within the series, despite there being more titles. This particular issue was one of the 33 issues which were not reprinted.
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).
Count Wekov had spent far too long hidden away in his castle. A fire had ravaged his features, the hump upon his back, deforming his figure to hideous proportions. His appearance was enough to lead him to hide away from all those in the nearby village.
However, his loyal servant’s mother who remained in his charge had a proposition for the Count. If he dedicates himself entirely to Satan’s service, then she will see that Wekov regains his appearance from before the fire and that he loses the hump which now deforms him so.
To achieve this, he must take command of all inhabitants of the local village. After which a terrible ritual must also be performed. However, the old hag requires various offerings for the ritual. First, he must uproot a mandrake flower, which has grown at the feet of a hanged man. Next, he must retrieve the only flower which remains fresh, when others around it have burned in fire. After that she requires the heart of a young and beautiful woman. And finally, they must take the villagers’ most treasured possessions before sacrificing a beautiful woman at their satanic alter.
To assist with the accomplishing the intricacies of this black ritual, the woman commands her son, Ernst, to undertake each of the acts. From Count Wekov’s Castle, she will set the wheels in motion to summon the one they worship into their world.
But despite all these promises made to Count Wekov, the old hag has her own agenda within this dark task. A selfish hand to play within the despicable deeds, which could very well lead to her own terrible undoing…
DLS Review:
My, my, my…aren’t these PCL’s getting darker by the issue?! Here we have a story drenched from head to toe in satanism. Furthermore, enacting the various stages of the black ritual involves Ernst undertaking some pretty darn gruesome scenes of murder and mayhem.
So yeah, early on we have the hanging of a poor defenceless local. Then we have the cold-blooded murder of a girl as she strolls through the nearby woods, the subsequent removal of her heart, followed by the random attack upon another villager by a raven who we’re to presume is a beastly disciple of Satan.
However, it’s in the grand finale at Count Wekov’s Castle where the horror really ramps up. The black mass is a gloriously depicted vision of wicked satanism. Here we see horrific visions of monsters, awakened from their slumber, in an almost Lovecraftian otherworldly climatic sequence. Yeah, this issue has really gone to town on delivering the horror alright!
Interestingly, we don’t really have much of a principal protagonist within the whole plot, other than a villager named Celia who kind of creeps into the storyline. For the most part it’s just this old hag laying down the commands of the black ritual, and her son, Ernst, following out these elaborate orders with Count Wekov just going along with it all.
But by gum, is it an exquisitely entertaining read which has you lapping up the horror within each and every page. That said, there’s not really that much in the way of either dialogue or narration. Often the amount of text is sparse, instead relying on the (often quite visceral) imagery of the illustrations. As such, this particular issue is a one of the faster PCL reads.
Furthermore, the illustrative artwork isn’t the best. It’s a tad sketchy, and kind of reminds you of the more bareboned art of 1970s / 1980s TV animation series’. Only here the artwork is in stills, rather than painstaking frame-by-frame drawings.
Nevertheless, the comic is a fabulously horror-soaked read. It’s definitely one of the darker PCLs, with plenty of murder, mayhem and bloodshed, as well as ghouls and beasts awakened from the dangerous satanic rites on display. A classic PCL comic.
The comic book runs for a total of 64 pages.
© DLS Reviews
