Originally Published In Issue 28
Reprinted In Issue 87
First published back in February of 1972, Issue 28 of the ‘Pocket Chiller Library’ comic series was titled ‘The Hunchback’. The comic was later reprinted under the alternative title ‘Gibbet Of The Damned’ within Issue 87.
During the 1970s the ‘Pocket Chiller Library’ was a pocket-sized mainstream horror comic which ran for a total of 137 issues between 1971 and 1977. Each month, two issues of the comic were published, amounting to a total of twenty-four issues of the comic published each year.
However, it should be noted that from issue 86 onwards, the publishers started reprinting the earlier stories. Of these reprints, the first 28 reprints (issues 86 – 113) retitled the story. As such, there were only a total of 85 different stories within the series, despite there being more titles.
Unfortunately, each issue was undated, making it difficult to be sure of the date for first publication of each issue. However, it is widely understood the comics were monthly publications, with two publications released simultaneously each month, with the original stories running from January 1971. Therefore, the above date of publication is a relatively reasonable assumption.
Additionally, each issue was unfortunately uncredited to either the writer or the comic artist(s).
The year was 1720, and outside the town of Wolmsley in the county of Shropshire, Edmund Hunter, known to all as Edmund Crookback, was finally facing the gallows for being in league with the powers of darkness.
For some time, the vile hunchback had been terrorizing the village, tearing open the throats of his victims and drinking their blood so that he could bargain away his wicked soul with Satan in exchange for a straight and healthy body.
As the executioner prepared the gallows, old Crookback had cursed all those who’d had a hand in his hanging, as well as the very gibbet itself. His last words before his death are to curse whoever cuts the gibbet down, dooming them forever more.
More than two hundred years later and the gibbet remains standing, whilst the slow erosion of time had almost erased the memory of Edmund Crookback’s dreadful curse. That was, until Ned Chester foolishly cuts a piece of wood off the gallows to impress his fiancée, Jenny.
Now a hunchbacked figure is appearing around the town at night, whereupon he tears out the throat of his victims before disappearing into the darkness once again. After two hundred years, Edmund Crookback is back and the people of Wolmsley are paying the price for what happened to him. Paying with their lives…
We’ve seen a few hunchbacks appearing in different PCLs. There’s something inherently creepy about the stooped and crooked figures. More than just a deformity but something that’s a tad unnerving, which over the years, the horror genre has more than capitalised on.
This PCL story is relatively straightforward in its plot. Just before hunchbacked Edmund is hung he curses those involved in his death along with the hangman’s gibbet itself. A couple of centuries later and he’s back and ripping out the throats of his victims each night. Oh yes, this is an absolute textbook horror story if ever there was one!
Of course, there’s a twist nestled within the unfolding storyline, which becomes incredibly apparent to the reader a number of pages before the supposed ‘big reveal’. That’s not to say the story’s impacted much by this unfortunate predictability. It’s really not, as the principal fun in the tale is with the delightfully Hammer Horror esque storyline, the wonderfully dated dialogue, and a whole raft of hilarious cliches that accompany the narrative.
However, the whole satanic undertones within the comic are where it’s at as far as the wild 1980’s horror goes. Our pal, Edmund Crookback, is a proper deviant. Drinking the blood of his hapless victims so he can appease Satan in exchange for a non-crooked body. Bloody brilliant!
Our heroic protagonist in the piece is Ned Chester, the fiancée of Jenny. Ned remains disbelieving about carving into the gibbet and the sudden spree of murders being connected, until Jenny shouts the obvious into his face, at which point its like a wonderfully thick penny has finally dropped. From then on, he’s the man of the hour, rugged and handsome and ready to take on Edmund to end this murderous nonsense! Meanwhile, poor old Jenny flaps about the place in a constant state of distress, whilst simultaneously unearthing all the facts behind Edmund’s curse.
It all classic PCL shenanigans somehow crammed into the usual minimal page count. The sort of story where something seems to be happening at the turn of every page, which has you absolutely devouring the story until the grisly down beaten end. Classic PCL stuff!
The comic book runs for a total of 64 pages.
© DLS Reviews
