Haunt of Fear #18
"Pipe Down!" from Haunt of Fear #18 (1953) delivers a chilling twist on time and deception, penned by Ray Bradbury and Albert B. Feldstein and brought to life with sharp, eerie art by Jack Davis, whose inks and Marie Severin’s colors heighten the story’s unsettling mood. The tale centers on a sinister carnival ride that bends time with each spin, as a man uses it to reverse his age and assume a child’s form to exploit a kind-hearted woman—only for two skeptical boys to intervene in a way that defies logic. Graham Ingels’ cover, a masterclass in gothic dread, captures the story’s eerie spirit with its haunting imagery of the Ferris wheel and the shadowed figures beneath.
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Two boys witness a Ferris wheel at a creepy carnival that can make time go forwards or backwards for the rider depending on which way the wheel spins. A man tries to take advantage of this by riding the wheel backwards 24 times until he is a 10 year boy and then posing as an orphan in order to find and steal a kindly old woman's money who has taken him in. He plans to then ride the wheel forwards 24 times so no one will ever find the culprit. The boys tell the woman, but are not believed, so they wait until the man is on the Ferris wheel and sends it into the future....with amazing results.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).