Wolves of Midnight / The Horrible Trade

We've got a double shot of horrific animal horrors for you today from the Jan. '54 issue of Horrific #9. First, sink your weird fangs into the long awaited return of Rudy Palais to THOIA with "The Wolves of Midnight", followed by the jolting jungle jitters of "The Horrible Trade" from Marty Elkin. This will be another full issue for you completists, click HERE for Pete Morisi's "A Glimpse of the Pit" and more Elkin HERE for "Claws of Horror", as originally presented over at Killer Kittens back in 2009.

Singing Slaves

The already horrific concept of slavery becomes even more horrific in this Don Perlin and Abe Simon classic, our last tale (featuring a dynamite final panel) from the May 1953 issue of Horrific #5.

Vintage AD

Smoke Spirit

Another superbly simple, efficient tale of supernatural vengeance from the May 1953 issue of Horrific #5, featuring smokin' hot art from Kenneth Landau. Come back later this week for the last story from this issue "Singing Slaves", (and if you missed it, we posted Rudy Palais' "Death Kiss" back in January 2009, which will eventually make this another THOIA FULL-ISSUE Presentation, --including "Murder Mountain" from our last post.)

Vintage AD

Murder Mountain

"Evil, like history, repeats itself..." says the intro to today's post, and coincidently enough, so do the plots of many pre-code horror stories. I particularly like this set-up though: two crooked thugs on the run unknowingly wander into a realm of supernatural terror, only to find there is no escape from their evil deeds, or in this case, from evil history. We've seen it before, we'll see it again, and I love it just the same everytime. From the May 1953 issue of Horrific #5.

Vampires Two

Every so often there comes a tale that actually deserves the crummy print job to match the equally crummy story... this is not to say it's worthless reading though, no sir-- as we've all seen with most ramshackle Superior Publishers pre-code stories over the years here at THOIA, the badder the better, right? You'll see what I mean, (and thanks to Brian Hirsch for the last two pages of this one which are unfortunately missing from my  copy.) From the January 1954 issue of Journey into Fear #17.

Beast of Bedlam

Ask and you shall receive, (actually, I had planned to post this one next anyway, but yes, thanks for asking anyway!) The "Beast of Bedlam" is an ugly, centuries-spanning tale of cruelty, possession, and hair-pulling... as well as the last story to be posted from the January 1953 issue of Journey into Fear #11, (see our previous post "Miser in the Coffin", as well as "Terror in the Night" in our archive, and the excellent "Blood on Her Lips" that I donated to Killer Kittens back in 2008.)