Time to finish up this month of witchcraft madness, as well as burn the 'ol midnight fires this Walpurgisnacht evening, and with what is, in my opinion, probably the best witch story I've posted this week-- heck, it may even be the overall best story I've posted around here in years! Don't believe me? Then read on, dear THOIA follower, and then state thy defense in yon comments below... way, way, way down below. From the August 1951 issue of Marvel Tales #102.
Dug up another good one for our "Halfway to Halloween" fest here at THOIA. And while post code Atlas / Marvel isn't exactly my favorite era comics, this fantastic little four-pager from the August 1957 issue of Marvel Tales #159 (the final issue in this long running series to boot!), has a shivery sleek set-up and ending, and benefits from some really great artwork by Al Eadeh. We have one more post to go this weekend as we take a walk on the weird, wild, --Walpurgisnacht side!
As April winds down to its final days, we're reminded that the halfway point to Halloween, aka Walpurgisnacht (aka "The Night of Witches") is nearly upon us! For the rest of the week, let us commence with the conjuring of the wickedest of witchcraftiness, summoning up a tale that is as wonderfully weird as one could possible get, a wild 'n wooly, hellish hybrid of multiple precode horror themes-- cats, bats, transformations etc.., as could only be found in the ominously oddball, Oct-November 1951 issue of Dark Mysteries #3.
Here's a fun little nightmarish quickie by the always magnificent, Mean Gene Colan, and from the July 1951 issue of Suspense #9, (script by Hank Chapman.) And wowzers, I can't believe that April is already almost over, which equally means we're already halfway to Halloween! Must start planning the upcoming posts accordingly...
Atlas proving once again that they could just as easily pour enough character development and crazy creepiness into 5 pages, to give a typical 7 page EC tale a run for its newsstand money. From the August 1952 issue of Uncanny Tales #2, with macabre art by mad Manny Stallman. Love that ending!
I was trying to remember another example of an individual horror comic story itself constructed in an anthology manner, as well as being featured within a horror anthology comic book. I'm coming up empty though, does anyone else remember one? This tale from the September 1954 issue of Weird Chills #2 is a lot of fun and actually pretty good, reaching for a horror high despite a writer / artist not quite up to par with the concept, (see also focal requirement for better fluidity!) Could be worse, it could be better, and it's still as 100% entertaining as anything Amicus Studios released...
After a week in the old wild west, let's hyperdrive into the freaky future by taking to the stars for a scary Sci-Fi Saturday shocker, via the October 1952 debut issue of Weird Mysteries #1! Art possibly by THOIA favorite, Larry Woromay, who did a ton of great work for Atlas. Someone at GCD spotted his initials in the splash, which may or may not even be initials, so the whole thing is still a debatable mystery. And while the human character illustrations here don't look very much like his style to me, those wonderfully creepy, organically curvy plants totally do, so maybe it was a collaborative venture with another artist. Check the Woromay archive HERE to compare.
Blogger's acting glitchy again, and I've been trying to get this one up for a few days-- anyway, I guess it's working now, so here's the final weird west horror post as promised, finally... another spooky fun "Tales of the Ghost Rider" double feature, both by Dick Ayers and both from the March 1953 issue of The Ghost Rider #11. Has anyone ever seen (or have) one of those cool mail-away Ghost Rider masks in the ad below?
