Number 284

A Face and no head

"The Headless Monster of Bloodrock Castle," drawn by Mart Bailey, is the second story from The Face #2, published in 1943 by Columbia Comics.

This almost looks like a storyboard for a 1940s movie. It's a potboiler, set in a "haunted" English castle with a spook ("This castle has more spooks than a wheel!" as Tony Trent/The Face puts it), a sinister butler, a bride left at the altar by a Nazi boyfriend.

The main quibble I have is something I've complained about before, The Face himself. Just because he sticks on a mask, which is actually more stupid than frightening, doesn't mean he's really disguised from anyone. They're telling me a guy Tony Trent's build, height, weight, walks like Trent, talks like Trent, wearing Trent's clothes, can put on a Halloween mask and not have people know who he is? Caw-mahhnnnn… Maybe somebody finally broke Tony's self-delusion: "Uh, Tone…you might think you're fooling us with the dopey mask business, but we all really know you're the Face." Mart Bailey might've thought that too, because Tony Trent later dropped the Face persona.

Other Face stories posted in Pappy's are here and here.