tales from the fridge

Kitchen Sink June 1973
This spoof of an EC horror comic takes an apparently one-joke concept (tales of terror based on refrigerated food) and turns it into a full-blown comic book. However, the “horror” in Tales from the Fridge ends up having little to do with food, but everything to do with exacting revenge upon a slick asshole who took advantage of his gullible, very obese room mate to make a fortune.

The slick asshole is named Rod Usher and the obese room mate is called Global McBlimp. A lot of the story is told in one long flashback that shows how Rod stole Global’s awesome hamburger recipe to open a successful restaurant franchise. Global is an incredibly naive and trusting soul who believed that Rod had his best interests at heart, but in order to get Global out of the way, Rod overfeeds the gluttonous Global until he kicks the bucket. But of course, Global’s death isn’t the end of the story, as he returns as a zombie to seek revenge on Rod.

The story isn’t particularly engaging because, for the most part, the characters aren’t especially compelling or relatable. It’s not that we don’t want to feel sympathetic towards the victim (Global), but he’s so dumb and such a sloppy pig we’re mostly repelled by him. Still, we’d rather the slick asshole get his just deserts than not, so it’s still nice when it happens.

As EC homages go, Tales from the Fridge isn’t especially bad, as it incorporates some of the tried-and-true comic tropes that EC pioneered, but after the novelty of tales from the fridge wears off, there’s not much happening beyond the fridge.

Russ Jones – 1-33+, 36+ • Bob Stewart – 1-33+, 36+ • Paula Clark – 36(recipe)

2 – Happy Eating • 2 – Gobal’s Baby Book • 3 – The Fridge of Fear! • 13 – Dork Tracy • 14 – Flesh Global • 15 – The Fridge of Fear!, part 2 • 29 – Global McBlimp in “Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer” • 30 – Global McBlimp in “Fiddlin’ With The Fine Tuna” • 31 – Global McBlimp in “Global Feels A Draft” • 32 – Global McBlimp in “On The Job” • 33 – Global’s Believe It or Eat! • 34 – Weird Trips Magazine (Ad) • 35 – 78rpm Records by Crumb (Ad) • 36 – How To Make And Eat Your Own Globalburger