[FinFangFoom]

"Process of Elimination" love the artwork & story. I really enjoy how the Pre-code Werewolf & Vampires were depicted back then.

Link to the book: Out of the Night 13

[dwilt]

This has some subtle, possibly unintentional aspects. [Spoilers] The werewolf is a woman, and is depicted apparently nude (no Universal-Wolfman tattered trousers) but the artist carefully conceals the monster's torso almost entirely (until the next to last panel).  Not that a comic book in this period would show monster-genitals or even monster-boobs, but this is drawn almost as if to suggest that the monster might have female secondary sexual characteristics.  On the other hand, if it did (and we just aren't shown them), then Michael would have realised that Paul couldn't be the werewolf, since he was male.  So I've run rings around myself logically!   The cover is also interesting: in the interior story, the witch in the well has only one eye but wears a dress and has no eye-patch, whereas the cover has the creature dressed in men's clothing and with an eye-patch, as if the monster in the well was a supernatural pirate or something (the well on the cover is also different than in the interior story).  Covers don't have be faithful to the interior story, but the cover artist must have had access to the story because of the similarities, but then just decided to make changes on his own, I guess.

[crashryan]

the cover artist must have had access to the story because of the similarities, but then just decided to make changes on his own, I guess.

Comic book covers were usually put together some time in advance of the insides. My guess--just a guess!--is that editor Hughes told the cover artist, "Give me something with a witch coming out of a well scaring a woman" and the artist ran with it. By the time the story was completed Hughes preferred the non-piratical witch and didn't have the time or the inclination to change the cover.

As far as the werewolf/gender thing, you make a good point. Looking at the various drawings the artist seems to have decided that werewolves are androgynous...it/he/she is definitely flat-chested. Heaven knows what equipment if any was present below the equator. Maybe it was hidden by fur! For some reason this reminds me of Fin Fang Foom's diaper or, even more so, of the way The Silver Surfer got silver Speedos after his first couple of appearances.