"Die Laughing" is the second Ditko story from Charlton's THE THING #13 [April 1954], a 7-page story about a group of fraternity pledges sent into a haunted house as part of a hazing, with the usual complications. This is one of the less inspired of the early Ditko stories of this year, without too much for Ditko to work his visual magic on beyond some good but standard views of the interior and exterior of the decrepit house. And the story is pretty cliché. I know I've read at least two stories with the same basic plot, one of them an EC story that I'm sure pre-dates this.Most scans in this series adapted to my personal tastes from those found, and available for free download with registration, at the Golden Age Comics Download site. To buy Ditko comics and things on paper, go over here for ordering info on some wonderful creator owned material and over here for info on recent and upcoming publications from all publishers. And subscribe to Rob Imes' revival of DITKOMANIA, now accepting PayPal.
I read Tales from the Crypt after pounding down the first volume of the Steve Ditko Archives (which contains "Die Laughing!"), and yes indeed, there is a story in Tales #21 - "House of Horror" - with the EXACT same plot as this, with a different script and names for characters. I wonder what the story is behind that.
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