Music of the Demons

We're still reeling from the Witches' Night aftershocks here at THOIA, and oh my, what a wonderfully wicked evening we had! Wine, women, dance, and song... witch reminds me, (I believe her name was Gillian) of one particularly popular concerto piece heard playing over and over throughout the late night party festivities. It really sent our lovin' coven into a wild frenzy! It was so popular amongst our Circle of 13, in fact, that there's even a magical story all about it, via the September 1953 issue of Beware #5. So go on, CRANK IT!

Artist of Evil

We're in the final week stretch / halfway to Halloween / Walpurgisnacht countdown celebration. And those of you who know, know exactly what I'm talkin' about! So as usual, for the next few posts leading up to it, things are gonna get extra evil around here, and that means no one more so diabolical than big bad daddy-o, Satan himself! Oh wait, sorry... this story isn't about Satan at all. It's about a guy called NATAS. Silly me, I honestly have no idea how I could've got the two confused! Oh well, it's still a frightfully fun tale none the less, and full of freaky demons and exquisite examples of my kind of eerie Robert Pious (?) art! From the October 1952 issue of Adventures into the Unknown #36.

The Manikins of Death!

I'm always surprised to find a precode horror story that hasn't already made its way into the THOIA Archive at this point. Especially considering I collect vintage department store mannequins, and why looky here-- a good one on that exact subject, no less! From the August 1951 issue of Mysterious Adventures #3, and from the glorious 'ol Golden age era of when people apparently had no idea how to even spell the word "mannequin!" I'm sure some of you will find a wee bit of pleasure knowing that Mr. Karswell is seated here at the computer and indeed surrounded by multiple mannequins, blankly staring at me, errr him, as these scans are eerily edited and meticulously put together for todays post... piece by piece... limb by limb... ohh, careful not to slip now!

Picture of Evil

And now for something completely different! Yes, it's time to adjust those peepers of yours for a 3-D horror story-- but with the annoying 3-D effect removed! Heck, we lost the goggles for this issue anyway, so whatevz! From St. John's House of Terror #1 (October 1953, debut one-shot), this is some seriously excellent examples of joltin' Joe Kubert's awesome artwork (cover and story), plus inks by Les Zakarin. And FYI: I posted a colorized / updated variation of Kubert's cursed ghost story from this issue way back --over 15 years ago-- in December of 2008 HERE! --just for those of you who haven't been hangin' around here like a picture of evil for very long!

The Wooden Woman

Time to carve out another creepy crummy, February themed love connection, this time from the October 1952 issue of Menace #8. Highlighted by some interesting art from Bob Fujitani, --but be warned, the print job here is a little murky in a few spots, so apologies to those who like to gripe about that sort of thing. I mean, I did my best to clean it up, and it's still a fun bit of hopeless doom for yet another smitten goon who gets everything he deserves for being the foolish f*#kin' fanged face freak that he is...

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...