The Man. The Men. The Morgue.

Showin' you how they do it down at the morgue by bustin' outta June 2010 with a double shot of Atlas crime horror! Our first stiff is from the March 1953 issue of Mystery Tales #9, and fyi: this completes this entire issue here at THOIA (just check the archives), followed by a similarly titled Gene Colan gem of doom from the February 1954 issue of Adventures into Terror #28.

The Specimen! / Lost!

Creature Double Feature Day, with two eerie horrors from the March 1953 issue of Mystery Tales #9. It's wet and slimy Joe Maneely creeps from the deep, vs. a fanged 'n hairy murderin' monstrosity by Jim Mooney (maybe?) [atlastales.com says Pete Tumlinson -- Nequam]--hold onto your money bags!

Which is Witch? / The Mousetrap

Today we present the last two terror tales from the September 1952 issue of Amazing Detective #14 (also see: "The Weasel Returns" in our last post, as well as "Hands Off" and "Drop Dead" posted together HERE!) ...and just to satisfy the sadistic issue completist inside of you, I promise to have more complete pre-code horror comics primed and bloodied for posting all this summer.

The Black Shadow / The Weasel Returns!

After spending some time in the black 'n white paperback 60's, we now return to the 4-color days of 1950's supernatural pre-code horror! Kicking things off with Fred Kida's "The Black Shadow" from the March 1952 issue of Amazing Detective #11, followed by Joe Sinnot's "The Weasel Returns!" from the September 1952 issue of Amazing Detective #14 (this one was a request from THOIA reader Mark Borbas.) More Atlas all this week... stay tuned!

Wentworth's Day (H.P. Lovecraft)

Another classic from Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror paperback (Pyramid Books, 1966), this time from the great H. P. Lovecraft, (a story actually completed after his death by August Derleth), and here adapted / illustrated by Russ Jones. Says Lee in the introduction: "...we are enchanted by the whirling mists of HPL's unmentionable world, with its horrendous song of the whippoorwills, all set amidst the lurking trolls of witch-haunted Arkham. The immortal creator of the mighty Cthulhu Mythos has written nothing more eerie than Wentworth's Day." Actually, I can think of a few HPL tales that are more eerie than this one, but who am I to argue with Dracula?!

We'll be heading back into the 1950's pre-code horror next, but I promise to return to Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror later this summer with the remaining Robert Bloch and Ambrose Bierce tales, (fyi: it's a royal pain in the ass scanning stories out of an old paperback, and the main reason why it's taking so long to get this stuff posted-- the clean-up alone is murder!)