As we've seen in the last few posts, a scary illustrated skeleton in your story can really elevate the eerie factor! Take for example this rotten Rudy Palais crime horror quickie --which also contains the origins of Dr. Strange! --via the January 1952 issue of Witches Tales #7. Annnnd to all you fans of Lucio Fulci's classic, ZOMBIE, -- you may be surprised to learn today that an undead guy fighting a shark underwater (CLICK HERE for it) didn't originate in his 1979 cult film feature!
We're halfway to Halloween again already, and typically on this day (aka Walpurgisnacht) I tend to feature posts themed a little more on the witchier side of things. But since this great Mack Martin: Private Investigator tale from the March 1949 issue of Super-Mystery Comics V8 #4 takes place during a costumed masquerade party, I think it still fits the holiday bill nicely. It's a super fun, super duper mystery of the highest caliber, with an assortment of diabolical suspects all dressed as Death itself! There's plenty of thrills, chills, furious fisticuffs action, and laugh out loud dialog too, along with some superb artwork from ever reliable Rudy Palais --who also created that great cover design (FYI: the added mummy themed cover at the end of the post remains uncredited.) I hope everyone enjoyed this month of posts, and I promise that May will be even more morbid than ever! Stay tombed...
Our third curse of the month is also another unearthed Four Favorites horror tale as told once again by "The Unknown" (see our previous post HERE.) And we also got a taste of 1940's Rudy Palais art with the previous post's comic cover image as well. So now here he is delivering his wonderfully colorful, --though a bit more subdued than his hellacious Harvey sweat fests-- illustrative visuals in a rather epic 10-pager. So who's afraid of a beautiful mummy? Not me! But you might be, as her creepy curse carves its way through yet another hapless group of archeologists. From the May 1946 issue of Four Favorites #23.
And here we go, kickin' off December 2024 with a fantastically fog enshrouded, fiery freak-out, --and seriously, when you need someone to kill off the cast (and even the venue itself) of a really bad theatrical play, there's no one better suited to this terrible task than rockin' Rudy Palais! How he always managed to pack so much master-class, hellish imagery into only a half dozen pages for these Harvey mags is mind bogglin', and today's cuckoo voodoo witch doctor of death post is no exception! Nice uncredited cover and bonus filler in this issue too! From the April 1952 issue of Witches Tales #9.
The weatherman says we're in for some cooler midwestern temps here starting tomorrow, and though we've spent the last two posts trapped in an incinerating chamber of CHILLS, it's now time to let 'ol Rudy Palais fling one last fistful of sweaty shade our way --and no, not that kind of shade! This is a really weird one from the August 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #11, and good lord, please read the story carefully to avoid embarrassing yourself with comments like "is the last page missing?" or "ending feels too abrupt!" or whatever... the ending is rather brilliant if you ask me. And so is the smokin' hot Lee Elias cover illustration too.
Hero Monday already again? Yep, and this time it's Frank Borth's lovely Diane Grayton donning the hideous witch mask and turning into her horrific alter hag persona, --The Spider Widow! Definitely an odd change-up from the usual comic book plain Jane who transforms herself into a gorgeous goddess to fight evil, and here The Spider Widow battles a vicious head chopper / shrinker in what would turn out to unfortunately be her final comic book appearance ever. A real shame because a creepy cutie like this (and illustrated by Rudy Palais, no less!) would've really slayed the masses in the pre-code horror boom creeping closer and closer less than a mere decade away. From the October 1943 issue of Feature Comics #72, and be sure to get your socks knocked off again as SW battles the yellow menace in a bondage bonanza, leg show-a-rama over at AEET HERE! That's right, --double feature Spider Widow!
Here we go with the last of the Edgar Allan Poe "Famous Tales of Terror" stories, and today's entry can originally be found in the December 1945 issue of Yellowjacket Comics #6. Ready for a shock? GCD credits the clunky art to a completely unrecognizable Rudy Palais. If this is indeed him, then he greatly improved stylistically in the next decade, like on a miraculous selling of his soul level. Like whoa...
