Hotel Infierno

This Spanish-language horror serial, first published October 1981 by Editorial Bruguera, follows Walter Lemmon, a timid man in his late thirties who operates the Serpentarium Grahame—a snake exhibition house in San Francisco. After his brutish business partner Nicholas Grahame dies in a traffic accident, Lemmon arranges a cheap funeral. That evening, the supposedly dead Grahame appears in Lemmon's apartment, claiming he has returned from Hell. According to Grahame, Hell is overcrowded, and Lucifer has selected him and others to return to Earth for three days to spread terror and violence to recruit souls for construction of a new circle of Hell called the Círculo de las Eternas Sombras. Grahame promises to reward three performers with positions as infernal guardians. Lemmon reveals he has sold the Serpentarium and its snakes to the North Platte Hotel, intending to continue as their caretaker. Grahame reacts with rage at this betrayal of the creatures.