Monday, July 1, 2019

A Host of Horrors

All three HAUNTED HORROR hosts recently found themselves in splendid creepy company in this amazing illustration by Tampa teacher / librarian, Lou Russo, featuring legendary horror hosts (old and new) and classic monsters alike! Mr. Karswell, Madame Clizia, and Forelock appear on the left hand side of the piece, just above Vampira and Svengoolie. And speaking of, this wonderful piece was also recently featured on an episode of Svengoolie, CLICK HERE to see an excerpt!

Thanks again to Lou for including us in the fun, and also to JMR for pointing out all of this to us in the first place! Can anyone put a name to all of the faces? First person to do so could win a special THOIA prize!

10 comments:

Brian Barnes said...

Some of them I'm going to have a hard time telling if they are horror hosts I don't know (there were many more than in this picture, local horror hosts were everywhere, and some are even second versions at this point.)

For instance middle right -- is that Grandpa Munster or a host I don't know?

Rich Koz was always my guy, it's nice to see Sven so up front and he's in good company with Karswell!

Is that the ghost from House in the middle? That's kind of an interesting choice!

JMR777 said...

There are a few horror host from the comics, the trio from EC comics on the bottom right corner and Charlton horror hosts near the back. Hepzibah from Grim Ghost Stories is behind Sven himself. Thank goodness for the internet, it keeps the horror hosts alive for future generations to enjoy.

Glowworm said...

It's the same with me. I recognize some right off the bat such as Winnie the Witch, Elvira, Vampira, Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie, Cain and Abel, the Mad Mod Witch--even Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Drusilia the obscure fourth EC horror host (who was only in the last four issues of Vault of Horror and never spoke) is in there. However, I can't possible name them all--some I have to track down to recall their names yet I recognize a lot of the Charlton comics hosts. Others look rather generic--there's a bunch at the top that look a lot like classic Universal monsters such as the Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, the Creature--AKA Frankenstein's Monster, the Wolfman and quite possibly the phantom of the opera.I also swear I see Grandpa Munster!

Glowworm said...

A few more I'm familiar with are Cynthia, Mildred and Mordred--from the Witching Hour, Destiny, Eve,Death from DC's Weird War Tales, Dr. Graves, Mr. I. M. Dead, The Crypt-Keeper, The Vault-Keeper, The Old Witch--all from the EG comics, Baroness R.H. Von Bludd, Professor Cyrus Coffin and his niece Arachne,Baron Weirwulf, Mr. Bones,Colonel Whiteshroud, Impy the Imp (almost didn't see him there.)and Dr. Haunt from "This Magazine is Haunted" However, most of the Charlton ones I had to look up the names of--was more familiar with their faces--Dr.Haunt is a bonus as I looked him up and noticed he matched on of the hosts here too. Everyone else--I honestly can't name off the top of my head without giving them some goofy names--One even looks a lot like Marvel's Scarlet Witch.

Mr. Karswell said...

>one even looks a lot like Marvel's Scarlet Witch

Yeah, that would be Madame Clizia.

Thanks to everyone who gave it a shot, and thanks again to Lou for the great illustration! More precode madness up shortly...

Mr. Cavin said...

I see Bernie Wrightson's freaky spider-thing from Web of Horror didn't make the cut, alas.

That is definitely Grampa Munster. I think there are a lot of characters included here just to fill the crowd out in a legacy kinda way (like Rondo Hatton and Tor Johnson up in the corner), but that's not the case with Al Lewis, who hosted Super Scary Saturday on TBS for several years. Has anybody called-out Rod Serling and Boris Karloff yet? (Which means that's Glenn Strange up there with the Universal party, I guess....)

Daniel Young said...

Where is television's crypt Keeper?

JMR777 said...

I will take a crack at this and try to figure out some of the monsters/ horror hosts that were not mentioned yet, (I don't want a prize, figuring out the hosts is fun enough)-
back row- Phantom of the opera, Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein's bride, Frankenstein, ?Forrest J Ackerman?, Kolchak, not sure who, Tor Johnson, Rondo Hatton-

Front row, right of Elvira-Zacherley, behind him to his left is Vincent Price and to his right Sinster Seymour,
Right of Elvira's head-Sammy Terry, Rod Serling, ?Boris Karloff?

Right of Sammy Terry is Count Scary and above him is possibly Chilly Billy.
Chilly Billy was inspiration for the creation of Count Floyd.

Below Karswell might be Bob Wilkins, the dry horror host from California

I will admit, some of these horror hosts were the ones I had seen on youtube while looking for horror hosts in different areas. I am a bit envious of those who watched horror hosts through their youth and teens. In the Philadelphia PA area all we had was the hand rising from a grave to pull away some vines to reveal the title of the show 'Creature Features' and Svengoolie for a few years. The big horror host was Doctor Shock from Channel 17, but sadly Dr. Shock lived up to his name when all of is fans were shocked when he passed away at the young age of 42 back in 1979. Gone, but never forgotten by his fans.

Next possible challenge for followers of THOIA, coloring in this picture, who is up to the task?


anthrax2525 said...

I spy Darren (Karl Kolchak) McGavin in the top row.

Mr. Cavin said...

I suspect the top row guy JMR777 doesn't know, between Kolchak and Tor, is supposed to be Ray Bradbury. I'm mostly going by the eyeglass frames, but also by the fact that it's at least as close to target as that Vincent Price portrait is, below.