The Screaming Woman

[cyberghostface]

Here’s a story in memory of Ray Bradbury who passed away on this date in 2012.

This is from Crime Suspenstories #15.



Margaret's parents don't believe her, but her father indulges her and says he'll help dig her up after they eat lunch. Margaret gets anxious and tells him to hurry.




Her father tells her that she's probably not feeling well and goes back inside. She tries to dig a hole herself when one of her friends comes over and asks what's going on. They hear the scream again but her friend is convinced that she's throwing her voice and wants to know how she did it. She says that she'll tell him if he helps her dig.

Suddenly, Mr. Kelly, an old man who owns the lot, comes over and tells them to stop digging and makes them fill back in the hole. They hear the screaming again but he apparently ignores it. Margaret assumes that he must be the one who buried the woman, it's only until later does she realize that the man is mostly deaf.

Margaret decides to visit her neighbors to see if anyone is missing. She finally comes upon the house of her neighbors, the Nesbitts. She asks Mr. Nesbitt where his wife is and he tells her that she's off to see her mother. When he asks why, she tells him about the screams.

Comments

[mindsweeper]

Oh wow, I’ve heard the Suspense radio play for this. Ray Bradbury wrote quite a few radio shows. Didn’t realize it was made into a comic. Very cool.

[tcampbell1000]

We've never been entirely NORMAL as a people, have we?

[ladymidath]

They made this into a movie but with an older woman rather than a little girl. I love Ray Bradbury stories.

[laughing_tree]

Does anyone actually properly READ read these old EC comics? As in every single word, without skimming, in sequence instead of jumping around or ahead? Because I find that almost impossible with the incessant narration and the giant blocks of all caps typeset.

[numeronone]

Honestly, I really love the way they manage to fit in as much of Bradbury's gorgeous prose as they can - and the way the artist integrates the emotion of the scene with the lettering. Look at that first panel on the second page, where the father's words are used as a veil, obscuring him, as though implying how much he's trying to protect himself from the truth; and the way little girl's response is place above her, rather than below the father's speech bubble, necessitating a longer tail and implying a longer pause.

EC were a gorgeous artform in and of themselves.

[bradygirl_12]

EC knew kids read at a higher level than they do today. Newspapers had plenty of info crammed into a story. Dumbing down came later. EC expected kids to read the prose.

[laughing_tree]

Wow. Taste is taste and everyone’s welcome to theirs, but attributing yours to higher intelligence and reading ability than folks with a different preference is something else. Sheesh.

I‘m an avid novel reader and love good prose, but with EC stuff the prose is a) often redundant, and b) in huge blocks of all caps. I wouldn’t be enthused about a novel done entirely in all caps, either.

[bradygirl_12]

Sure, taste is taste, but reading standards were different back then. The EC editors wrote that way because of their expectations. Besides, as pointed out, this style allowed them to use more of Bradbury's prose, a big bonus.

[laughing_tree]

Being more economic with narration isn't about adapting for lower reading standards, though. It's about less sometimes being more, the power of understatement and implication, "show, don't tell," etc.

There absolutely is a place for narration-heavy comickery, but it's not a matter of "higher reading level/lower reading level."

[numeronone]

I honestly agree. I think the prose enhances the story - when it's a master like Bradbury, how could it not? He's one of the most accessible writers in American lit. - and it's a clever way, for the time, of presenting comics as "educational" in order to refute the Fredric Wertham types.

[bradygirl_12]

I agree. Using Bradbury's literary prose was a step up.

[numeronone]

The way that last caption enhances the ambiguity of the mood - or the way the opening page really does feel like the kind of run-on sentences you'd hear from a story narrated by a child...yeah, it really works :~)