LORD OF DEATH

And so, we kick off this excursion into the weird depths with an encounter with a fellow who is something of a repeat offender in these explorations...

Now then, in a bizarre twist of fate, this card very nearly has a title that matches the image! I know, shocking isn't it! Anyhow, this ghoulish dandy presented above is a representation of The Red Death from Edgar Allen Poe's classic terror tale. To be more precise, this is actually our old friend Lon Chaney Snr. yet again, for this Red Death, like The Hangman, is also taken from his classic silent version of The Phantom of the Opera too. For in that seminal silent movie, the hideous Erik attends a masque ball at the opera and comes dressed as Poe's personification of death, decay and disease...

Once again Chaney created his own startling make-up for this scene. Truly the press of the day dubbed him, "the Man of the Thousand Faces"!