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Friday, September 08, 2006

EC - The Maestro's Hand (Feldstein)

The Maestro's Hand
by Al Feldstein
Crypt of Terror, The #18[#2] (1950)

Some early EC horror from Feldstein, with Feldstein showing some of his plotting inspiration with a copy of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" with a skull and candle on the splash page. This is the story of Doctor Hellman, a surgeon who had lost the love his fiancee Virginia to a talented pianist. For some reason, when the pianist cuts his hand, Virginia takes him to her ex for treatment. The Doctor decides the best thing to do would be to take revenge and amputate the hand, leading to the suicides of both the pianist and Virginia (both mentioned in a rather off-hand way in the captions). Hellman goes off to a cabin to forget the whole sorry mess, but finds a package with the amputated hand, which of course attacks him.



Hate it when that happens. Anyway, Hellman struggles in vain against the hand, finding that trying to burn it or lock it out don't work. Eventually he's choked by the hand, but when his body is discovered there's no hand, and it was all a product of his guilty mind. Hey, just like in that Poe story!

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