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Feb 16, 2016

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 357: Elvira's House of Mystery #3, May 1986

http://www.comics.org/issue/41373/

I never really got Elvira. I mean, I get her. She's got the boobs, and the sassy personality, but I never really got why that character - what was it about Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, that turned so many cranks?

This comic is an interesting take on the character's main claim to fame, her role as host for macabre stories. Elvira herself doesn't really have much to do in these comics, and it really seems like she's been co-opted for her...attributes to sell a few reprint comics. Not that there's anything particularly wrong with repackaging old stories for new audiences. The two stories reprinted in this issue were good, but not great, and though I've said Elvira does little of substance in these stories, she does appear to have a story of her own being told in the framing sequence. Perhaps once she moves on from hosting to starring in later series, the character is allowed to be more than a lithe body poured into a black dress. But until that point, I really still just don't get her.

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