DECEIVING THE DEVIL FOR HALLOWEEN! If you ever find yourself needing to outwit the Devil one of these chill October nights, you might find this old German folktale quite useful. This is taken from the 1848 tome "Norddeutsche Sagen, Märchen und Gebräuche aus Meklenburg, Pommern, der Mark, Sachsen, Thüringen, Braunschweig, Hannover, Oldenburg und Westfalen" by A. Kuhn and W. Schwartz:

"There were once three happy-go-lucky fellows who made a pact with the devil, promising their souls to him on a certain date if he would make them rich. A further condition was that he would have to grant them one last wish when he came to get them. The devil agreed to this.

The first man hauled gigantic stone blocks down from a mountain from morning until evening, and when his time was up and the devil came to get him, he told the devil to replace all the stones back on the mountain within one day. But the devil did not need a day; he finished the task in five minutes and took him away. Then the devil came for the second fellow, who following the pact had gone immediately to a tavern where he joyfully spent every day eating and drinking to his heart's content, for he had all the money he could use. When he saw the devil coming he was full of good cheer and made no sign of getting ready to leave. The latter told him to make haste, for his time was up.

The fellow said, "Now, now, I still have some time. My hour hasn't come yet." Walking back and forth in his room he finally broke wind mightily and then said to the devil, "Bring that back to me!"

The devil was not able to do this, and he left in an sour mood.

I cannot tell you what the third fellow did to defeat the devil. If you want to know, you'll have to ask the old tavern keeper at Steina. By now it will have come back to him."

And today's Halloweenie Comic Book Cover of the Day is The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #9 (1974). One of my favourites.