Who Goes There?

Everyone's driving me crazy with their endless babble about the unbearable weather this summer. I guess we should all be glad we're not in Iran right now, where apparently it got up to a record breaking 165 degrees today! At least you could cook a kebab right ON the street. So, to help cool things down a bit, THOIA presents this finely frozen Whitman comic adaptation of John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?", found in the pages of Starstream #1 from 1976-- art by Jack Abel. The contents page states: "The original, un-Hollywoodized version of the story on which the classic horror movie THE THING was based." Of course, a few years later we got the fantastic John Carpenter film, which is much closer to the Campbell version than the still cool Hawk's '51 version. (FYI: For a golden age ACG comic spin on this tale, check out "Beast from the Beyond" posted HERE waaaay back in 2007.) Anyway, maybe someday we'll get some more imitation visitations from The Thing on the big screen, but in the meantime, break-out the thermals and mittens, kittens, things are gonna get really chilly-willy around here!

Down to Death!

The final post from the Nov '52 issue of Chamber of Chills #14 is also the cover story, though the hairy creature on the cover wearing lipstick, and the green alien in the actual tale inside couldn't possibly be any different. And mixing a bit of sci-fi with horror for an oddly familiar plot we've seen around here a few times before, it gets a bit muddled towards the end but that just qualifies it even more for this superbly crazy ass issue. Rounded-out with a one-page bonus about superstitions and I'd say we've got ourselves another full issue presentation under our belts --check the previous three posts for all of them! Hope you enjoyed it!

The Devil's Necklace!

We're sticking with the November 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #14 for a few more posts cuz it's full of icky insanity and frightening fun, and this one from visual freak-out master, Rudy Palais is no exception! Oh, speaking of The Devil, I'll have some very unholy news for all of you in the coming weeks-- hang on to your horny pitchforks!

IT!!!

Another terrific tale from the Nov. '52 issue of Chamber of Chills #14 --see our last post for another one-- featuring Vic Donahue art (his eerie undead remind me of Joe Maneely's a bit), plus a spooky story with tons of atmosphere. Maybe we'll take a look at this entire issue, cuz OMG it's all pretty freakin' insane...

The Spider Man!

In our last post we saw the Bat Man, so it's only natural that in our perfectly friendly neighborhood follow-up post we pay some lavish lovin' to that other fearless fighter of crime, that wall-crawlin', web-slinging', champion of justi-- oh wait, nope, different Spider Man. Sorry! But trust me, this entire yarn is just as funny as any cornball Peter Parker line, --crazy as a half dog / half bed bug in fact! From the Nov '52 issue of Chamber of Chills #14, art by Abe Simon.

The Creature from the Green Lagoon

From one kind of killer bat story, to yet another! Yeah, what the hell, it's San Diego Comic Con weekend so why not post a superhero story that fits THOIA in theme? We did it before HERE with Sub-Mariner, and again HERE with Plastic Man in the past, so why not thrice? Todays story originally appeared in the February 1958 issue of Detective Comics #252, and despite the green scaly creature and the lagoony title, it's actually more a nod to King Kong, --and this of course makes it twice the monsterama fun! I love these colorful, goofy old Dynamic Duo stories, much more so than the grim "realism" of the modern Dark Knight. Yes, in these classic stories anything can happen! Why, it's a comic book that actually remembers that it's a comic book (unlike the "comic" con that's happening in SD this weekend, where maybe 1/3rd of it is actually dedicated to comics.) Ah, well...