Evil Eye

“The Evil Eye” is a scary horror comic story from The Thing #14. It was written by Steve Ditko and it’s about a husband and wife who detest each other. It is considered one of the goriest and most vicious horror comics from the 1950s.

Warren Cairo and his wife Gerda hate each other. Warren has a raging temper and a ferocious love of gambling and liquor. Gerda is crippled and confined to a wheelchair. There are also rumors around town that she is a witch.

One day, Gerda catches her husband trying to steal her jewelry. Instead of feeling guilty or apologizing, Warren simply punches her in the mouth and knocks her out of her wheelchair.

Gerda tells him she wants a divorce. She’s going to hire an expensive lawyer and take him for every penny he’s got. Warren tells her he’s got a better plan. He’s going to murder her.

Gerda tries to fight him off, but Warren is too strong for her. In a few minutes, he has her bound and gagged and lying in the boot of his car. As they drive through the night, Warren reveals his dastardly plan. He’s going to leave his wife in the car and push it over the edge of a cliff to make it look like an accident.

All of a sudden, something goes wrong. Warren loses control of the car. It careens off the road and hurtles over the edge of the cliff, plunging into a ravine and exploding in a ball of fire.

When the smoke clears, Warren can’t believe his luck. He has been thrown clear while Gerda has perished in the blazing wreck. He picks himself up, dusts himself off and hitches a ride to the docks where he boards a ship headed on a pleasure cruise. If the police start asking questions, he will have an alibi.

Warren goes to sleep in his cabin, but in the middle of the night, he wakes up to find Gerda standing over him.

She has four little demons with her and they pin him down so he can’t move. Warren screams for help but nobody can hear him. Gerda takes a red hot poker and sticks it into his face, branding him with a red mark between his eyes as he screams in pain and begs for mercy.

“Ever since I became crippled, you taunted me and mocked me,” she says. “Now you’re going to learn what it’s like…”

She unleashes a pack of huge, hungry rats. The rodents swarm over Warren’s body, ripping and tearing his flesh with their sharp fangs. Warren passes out from the pain. When he wakes up, his arms and legs have been chewed off.

Later, the police find a body lying face-down in a pool of blood at the bottom of the ravine. It is being devoured by huge rats and the sight makes the blood run cold in their veins.

“His hands and feet have been gnawed off!” exclaims one policeman. “We better cover up the corpse before someone with a weak stomach sees it!”

The body is so mutilated, the police can’t tell if he died in the crash or was killed by the rats. When the police turn him over, they find an evil eye branded on his forehead.

Before long, Gerda arrives to make an identification. “I can’t say I didn’t expect it!” she says. “I warned him… Poor Warren!”