Saturday, January 25, 2020

Gredown's Bite of the Scorpion


Gredown's Bite of the Scorpion was published in 1982:


The cover is a modified version of the cover to Panico #44, 1972 series:


Panico covers were often recycled by Vilmar so it is possible this cover appeared on previous or subsequent issues, or other titles such as Escorpion.

The male figure on Bite of the Scorpion interests me. Firstly, it appears to have been intentionally modified to reflect the opening story - the longhaired bearded male bears a strong resemblance to the narrator of Lonely Like a Scorpion (see scan of sample page below).

Further, the male figure looks to me like it may be the work of Phil Belbin. Something about the lighting and the whites of the eyes reminds me of other cover art attributed to Belbin. Now, my understanding is Belbin wasn't actively involved with Gredown in the early 1980's, but it is possible this figure was transplanted from a previously published cover and repurposed for this issue - but I have not identified such an earlier piece.

The script on the cover is from the opening lines of the story Lonely Like A Scorpion (see scan below).

The contents are as follows:

Lonely Like a Scorpion
The Avenger!, originally published in Forbidden Worlds #19, July 1953 
Shipwrecked
Satan's Man, originally published in Terror Tales #v4#3, April 1972 
The Haunt of Evil, originally published in Adventures into the Unknown #32, June 1952 
Temple of Fire, originally published in Haunted #25, January 1976
Demons and Skeletons, originally published in Horror Tales #v6#2, April 1974 
The Devil's a Businessman!, originally published in Gasp #1, March 1967, ACG 
The Chains of Repentance 

Some, if not all of these stories appeared in other Australian comics published by Gredown and/or K.G. Murray. For example, Temple of Fire appeared in Gredown's Blade of Fear #1 and Tales of the Mystic, and in Planet Comics' Monster Hunters #3. Temple of Fire is a 6-page story. I note the GCD entry for Haunted #25 designates this as a 7-page story, but I can confirm it is a 6-page story as per the reprint in Haunted #57  and the Australian reprints.

The three unidentified stories are of Spanish origin. Here's scans of the first page to each of these stories:




I'll update this post once these are identified.

5 comments:

MarcusB said...

The last story is from the Spanish comic Escorpion #10, from about 1974: https://it.todocoleccion.net/giornalini-classichi/relatos-terror-grafico-escorpion-n-10-66-pgs~x114479891

spiros xenos said...

Thanks Marcus - well spotted! One down, two to go...

MarcusB said...

I've found the first story. It appeared in the Spanish comic Panico #52 from 1981 under the title "SOLITARIO COMO UN ESCORPIÓN". There is some information at the website below. which describes a rebound edition of Panico #51-55 from 1982... https://www.abebooks.com/comics/PANICO-RELATOS-TERROR-ADULTOS-RETAPADO-N%C2%BAS/30433690952/bd

spiros xenos said...

Keep 'em coming, Marcus - one to go...

spiros xenos said...

James Zanotto has identified the source of Shipwrecked. It's from Escorpion #11, October 1974. The original title is El Naufragio.