The Church Steeple Murders / The Case of the Crucified Policeman

A new month of macabre posts now begins, and we pick up where we left off back in June-- with more bloody 'n brutal Bentley of Scotland Yard cases directly from the crumbly 'ol crypt of crime! And this is a great 1942 double feature via Pep Comics #29 and #31 featuring some creepy cop crucifixion, -PLUS- a truly horrific church steeple impaling! Oooo that's gotta hurt! Can you solve both mysteries before Bentley himself reveals the terrifyin' truths? See for yourself! And each story features some of my absolute favorite Paul Reinman art ever, especially both of those jaw-dropping splash pages!

The Dancing Ghost

The putrid past collides with a perplexed present in this oddball tango with terror in a haunted house, via the December 1952 issue of Strange Fantasy #3. Being a Farrell story, the art feels distinctly non-Iger Shopish in a few places, (and GCD lists no credit), so this may have actually been illustrated by a combination of artists. Now the wonderfully clunky story telling / unintentional humor on the other hand...

The Pale Light of... Death!

Valentine's Day is finally upon us, but we're far from the bitter end of our doomed love stories fest for the morbid month of February. And it doesn't get much more doomy than a whirlwind romance that suddenly turns murderous and suicidal in the simple span of 5 comic book pages, but here ya go none the less. From the December 1951 issue of Chamber of Chills #4, PLUS! a real gem from the Karswell Kard Kollection-- aka the saddest sunken lunk Valentine of all time! And if you're still hangin' around after that, an appropriate, though not very Valentiney, one-page bonus "True Tale of the Supernatural" from the Sept. 1950 issue of Challenge of the Unknown #6.

A Fate Worse Than Death

We've got love taking the 'ol plunge over at AEET today (click the last image below in today's post for it.) Meanwhile, here at THOIA we're shooting for the scary 'ol stars! So yeah, speaking of a "match made in heaven" --eeek! From the May 1954 issue of Menace #11, (final issue), with art by Sy Moskowitz.

Still Life

The October 1962 one-shot issue of Tales from the Tomb #1 (published by Dell) is 84 freaky pages of varied anthology horror about ghosts, monsters, and all manner of eerie bumps 'n boos in the night. It's a fun, though somewhat mixed bag, with the real stand-out story for me being this engagingly casual 8-pager about an artist and his friendly female neighbor discussing the man's recent return from the cursed countryside. Their breezy cool, flirty conversation in a big city loft feels nothing short of a spooky stage play, slowly turning more and more ominous with each chilly page turn, until that single... final... panel...

Portrait of Doom

Here's another whack-a-doodle story from the December 1953 issue of Strange Fantasy #9 (see previous post), concerning a very mad artist who-- to be honest-- doesn't seem that much different than most of the actual mad artists that I know in real life! As noted in the comments of the last post, every tale from this issue was reprinted, and a few even reworked a few decades later for the Eerie Pubs... I'll try to dig those out and we'll take a look at them sometime in the coming new year. Also of note: before becoming a doomed studio model for Tony in today's yarn, beautiful blonde Susan also appeared in various advertisements featured in Golden Age comics. I've included a few below after the story...

Hemlock Shomes and Dr. Potsam in "The Morgue Moider Mystery", and "The Case of Tintype's Will", and finally (whew!) Spookington Castle!

After the mention of "comedy gold" in our previous post comments, I thought that it was finally time to maybe put together a "Funny Friday Frolic of Frights" here at THOIA. But then I ran out of time yesterday, and decided that "Spoofy Slapstick Silly Saturdays" had a better ring to it (but does it?) So here we go with 3 highly hysterical Hemlock Shomes and Dr. Potsum Golden Age filler stories from Fox Publications-- because who of course is better to spoof and slap silly than everyone's favorite detective duo-- Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson! The stories (in scrollin' order below) originate from: The Green Mask #2, Mystery Men Comics #1 and #2, and are all funtastically written and illustrated by Fred Schwab.