The second story in "Blackjacked and Pistol-Whipped," the excellent Dark Horse sampler of its Crime Does Not Pay reprint series, is credited only to artist Alan Mandel. "The Fire Fiends of Missouri" starts off well by using a cool flaming font for the title. This feature presents the harrowing tale of a 1927 St. Louis hotel arson that killed 7 women.
Clearly this is not just any ordinary fire, but something otherworldly. This calamity actually makes this poor soul run so fast his feet literally aren't touching the ground:
After some more coverage of the incident and its aftermath (including screaming newspaper headlines), a clerk who was involved in the tragedy develops a guilty conscience. Or is it something more that's bothering him? Could it be something else otherworldly? Could it be...GHOSTS?
The crumb confesses that the fire was the result of an insurance scam, and the conspirators all receive "prison terms for their heartless crime."
DOES CRIME PAY? No, not at all. The culprits get jail time--we aren't told how much, but probably a lot--and they don't even get their insurance money because the hotel isn't actually destroyed.
WHAT MAKES ME CRINGE TODAY: Page 3 of this story shows trapped women in the upper floors of the hotel, then a man below shouting at them to NOT jump out of the windows, and then, in one tall, disturbing panel, ladies doing just that despite there being nothing to cushion their fall below. One of the bloodied victims is already sprawled on the ground. For obvious reasons, this image may even be more disturbing today than in 1942.
WHAT YOUNG ME WOULD SAY BACK IN 1942: I'm glad that dope got sent to jail. He was a sissy, anyway. Imagine being scared a'ghosts!
You know, this story is brief, simple, and pretty grim, and it's tough to get many chuckles out of it. As crude as it is, though, it works. The next story in the book is even cruder and maybe more shocking. Look for #3 in this installment in a few weeks.
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