Shoe-Button Eyes

[cyberghostface]

 

Posted this two years ago, same amount of pages.

Warning: Child abuse is in this story

Here's a Christmas-themed story from EC comics, from the Vault of Horror #35. The story opens with a little boy by a Christmas tree saying that this is the best Christmas he's ever had and that he can "see everything".






The mother has to start working again and in the process she comes down with a cold. The father continues to be an asshole, mocking the boy for being blind and generally being abusive towards the wife. At one point he tries to defend his mother and in the process he rips the bear's eyes out, saying that now the bear is blind too.

Comments

[sagrada]

I really admire the directness of that content warning. Just straight-up "Child abuse is in this story." No messing around.

[dr_archeville]

I know I've read this before, but it somehow never clicked with me that the little boy's dead at the end, too.

[drtechnobabel]

Same here. I always assumed that the bear tore out the stepfather's eyes and gave them to the kid.

[kamino_neko]

That's what I was assuming at first...then... '... Oh.'

[drtechnobabel]

Only in the Golden Age of comics could bad guys look almost exactly like Snidely Whiplash without any hint of irony whatsoever.

[alicemacher]

Yikes. This reminds me of that Chick tract, "Somebody Loves Me."

[espanolbot]

Huh, somehow I thought this was going to go in a Coraliney direction.

Didn't really.

[selke]

The teddy bear was creepy before it became a killer bear.