Witch Killer vs. Deadliest Witch

Live! From our Coven of 13 witches in beautiful downtown Gehenna, THOIA presents the 13th post of April 2019, and we're doing it on Walpurgis Night too! Now if for some reason you don't believe that's black magical enough, it's a damned double header, doomed double dose of Rudy Palais as well-- and both stories deal directly with ::drum roll:: witches! The first is a drippy trippy classic from the September 1952 issue of Black Cat #39, closely followed by a REALLY tasty terror tale from the July 1954 issue of Horrific #12.

Everyone have a wonderful evening, burn the midnight fires-- and celebrate wisely!

Bad Blood!

Despite one horrifically huge, glaring plothole, Dick Ayers and Ernie Bache really knock it out of the bloody 'ol ballpark with this terrific tale of a brutal acid murder / underserving inheritance, from the November 1954 issue of The Thing #17.

Bottoms up, fiends!











Need more Bad Blood? CLICK HERE!

The Curse of Monk Mauley + Woozy!

I always get requests for "More Jack Cole!", but I think I've pretty much exhausted my precode Cole horror supply at this point-- so what's the next best thing to do? Why, we dig into the supernatural superhero shenanigans of everyone's favorite laffy taffy human spazzy-- Plastic Man! That's what we do! I've even included a quickie bonus tale featuring his silly sidekick, Woozy Winks running into some kooky spooks! Now, GCD doesn't list either of these stories as being illustrated by Cole, but look at those rotten living dead, the skeletons, the Devil, the lay-outs etc... --just look! See what you guys think, as our first story is from the Nov '52 issue of Plastic Man #38, (with creepy cover recycling by Alex Kozky), and the second tale is from the Jan '53 issue of Plastic Man #39.

The Immortal Brain!

Another out of context panel leaving a disturbingly gory trail along the tumblr interwebs lately, comes from this spooky story in the April 1954 issue of Mister Mystery #16, (page 5, panel 2), and if you've seen it, you've never forgotten it, and if you haven't-- you never will forget it-- guaranteed! It's bloody 'n brutal, and it will definitely give you a horrific, splitting headache just by looking at it. Overall nice, creepily concise, easy read art from "Loffredo", who, to be honest, I'm not really sure that I'm at all familiar with... the title treatment makes it look like an ACG story, but this is definitely Stanley Morse material all the way!

The Forbidden Tomb

On this day of things returning from tombs, let's add another horrifically hopeless tale to the mix about just that, scraping it's weird way up from the bottom of the May 1954 bargain barrel that is Startling Terror Tales #9. Artist unknown (and they probably choose to remain that way), though we have a superbly sinister L. B. Cole cover that thankfully most of these silly Star Publications comic monstrosities seem unnaturally graced with. Happy horror-day, fiends...

The Man in Black

Some people are familiar with the December 1944 issue one-shot of Tally-Ho Comics because of the cool Snowman story inked by Frank Frazetta in one of his earliest comic book gigs. Now what most people are not familiar with though is that there's a real spooky corker of a severed hand ghost story in this issue as well (not illustrated by Frazetta)-- and well, here it is! So sit back by the crackling fire... relax... and try not to focus on the subtle "pat pat" you hear somewhere off in a darkened corner of the room, as tonight's shivery little tale of terror unfolds before you...

The Butcher / The Strangler

--and if you think you need a story about a candlestick maker to round out your trilogy of terror, just click HERE after today's deadly double detective feature! Our first tale fresh off the chopping block is from the August 1952 issue of Suspense Detective #2, with art by Mike Sekowsky, followed by one guaranteed to really choke you up, from the January 1954 issue of Crime Mysteries #11.