"This is an evil day! Such things we do not understand!"

§ July 19th, 2004 § Filed under Uncategorized Comments Off on "This is an evil day! Such things we do not understand!"


Terrifying Tales #13 (June 1953) – cover by L.B. Cole


You know the story is off to a good start when the spelling of the title above the splash panel doesn’t agree with the spelling of the title in the caption box:



The remainder of the story uses the second spelling, so that’s what I’ll use here.

So anyway, the evil witch doctor (above, on the right, holding the knife), on the behalf of a tribe of enemies of Rulah the Jungle Girl, has found a way to use the blood of maidens to create big puffy white “plazma” monsters. The maiden’s blood is poured into a heated cauldron, and out pops the plazma monster in question:




“WAH!” indeed, my friend, as the witch doctor commands the tribemen to throw another helpless maiden to the creature to demonstrate its destructive ability:



This is probably some kind of fetish for somebody.

Meanwhile, at a nearby village, Rulah (our heroine) is teaching her gang of somewhat less capable jungle girls how to wash their hair:




Suddenly, Rulah’s pet black panther Saber arrives on the scene with a bloody wreath in his mouth. “This must have belonged to one of our missing maidens,” Rulah exclaims, thus implying that teaching hygiene to the jungle girls takes precendence over looking for multiple missing persons. Rulah states that the bloody wreath might be a clue to the missing girls’ whereabouts, and not, oh, say, evidence that Saber’s been eating them since the bloody wreath was in his mouth.

But then there’s no reason to go searching, as an army of plazma monsters attacks the serene jungle village of girls in fur bikinis*! Thankfully Rulah quickly determines that fire destroys the creatures, and chases them outta Dodge:




That evening, Rulah poses seductively as she ponders the day’s events in council:



Unknown to Rulah, one of the council members is a dirty rotten traitor, and sneaks off to tell Tagori (presumably of the enemy tribe) of Rulah’s plan:



(But note this character’s changed role later in the story.)

Once informed, Tagori relays to the witch doctor that Rulah has discovered the plazma beasts’ weakness against fire. The witch doctor then decides she will attack Rulah before Rulah gets a chance to attack her.

In the meantime, Rulah is searching through the forest when she happens upon a tiger. The tiger strikes, as Rulah shouts “this is your last leap, evil one!” (Why the tiger is evil simply for following its natural behavior out in the wild is unexplained.)

Rulah delivers the remarkably awkward killing blow:




Spotting the witch doctor, who is carrying a flaming torch and using it to prod a plazma beast forward through the jungle, Rulah leaps into a nearby tree. Rulah then swings by on a conveniently-placed vine and grabs the torch out of the witch doctor’s hand. The plazma creature then turns on the witch doctor and devours her:



After its meal, the creature lumbers back to its village of origin, as Rulah follows.

At this point, the writer of the story becomes confused, as the traitorous tribesman that snuck off to inform Tagori earlier is suddenly identified as Tagori himself (same red trunks, same large looped earrings)…Rulah even spots him and thinks to herself “Tagori! Why that traitor!”

The enemy tribemen spot Rulah and capture her, but as they’re about to toss her to the plazma monsters, Saber charges to the rescue, torch in mouth!




Yes, all of a sudden, the plazma creatures are loose, presumably freed by Rulah’s army of good tribemen who then set the village aflame to destroy everything within – monsters, men, women, children, grandparents, what have you.

However, the traitorous tribesman who is now Tagori tries to make his escape, but he meets an ignoble fate:




And now that Rulah has succeeded in killing everyone who has opposed her, she leaves us with this thought-provoking moral:



Yeah, so take that, parents!

* I can’t wait to see the kind of Google searches this post is going to attract.

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