Well, we racked up another monstrously macabre month of comic horror classics, and with one final tale to go it surely doesn't come more horrific than this! Hy Fleischman seriously knocks it way out of the park here with 7 taut 'n tense pages of perfect pacing and atmosphere, --and that iconic cover design is absolutely one of precode's finest moments ever. From the August 1954 issue of Dark Mysteries #19. We'll be back in August for lots rots more, so stay tombed as always!
A few of you seemed on the fence about the hot pink horrors of our previous post, so I thought maybe we'd take another stab at it with a fun, old-time oddity from the March 1939 issue of Amazing Mystery Funnies V2 #3. Of the 7 pages, 3 of them are overlayed with a variety of perplexing pink hues, while the other 4 pages are in black and white. Not sure why they did it like this exactly, but I think it adds a screaming surrealness to the sinister setting, as well as to the masked murderer and their spooky dungeon of brain swappin', scientific madcappery. GCD notes that artist/writer, E.F. Webster was actually Ethel Felder Webster, and she was rockin' the Richard Sala-esque murder mystery style tale a few decades before he was even born. Man I miss that guy...
As promised, here comes another DC Movie Comic adaptation of a creaky, old Universal fright film classic (see our previous post for Son of Frankenstein in case you missed it!) And this time it's a spooky detective mystery set in a haunted theatre --where murder hath taken the stage! From the August 1939 issue of Movie Comics #5, "The House of Fear" '39 film (not to be confused with the great Sherlock Holmes movie of the same name from 1945) was actually a silver scream remake of Paul Leni's "The Last Warning" from 1928, which was, in turn, an apparent follow-up to Leni's superb 1927 old dark horror house hit, "The Cat and the Canary" --whew! Fun stuff, and just like the Movie Comics version of Son of Frankenstein, hot pink House of Fear here contains the same condensed, cut 'n paste process of colorized, cropped film stills, combined with added artistic elements to keep things as comic book cartoony as possible.
Gale forces are still blowin' strong here at THOIA, as we re-enter Earth's atmosphere, leaving behind Gale Allen and her space-age Girl Squadron (see our previous post HERE), thus, landing once more back on solid, blood-soaked soil to find not one, but TWO great, horror-tinged, Gail Ford murder mysteries awaiting us! Yep, someone's dumped a dead dame amongst the dummies in a department store window display. Now it's up to Gail (and her Bettie Page bangs 'n legs) to bring the baddie to justice! From the October 1950 debut issue of Crime Smashers #1, plus fun art and fast paced script from Gene Leslie! But first, Gail gasps it up in a graveyard at midnight as someone has once again turned a gal into a ghost! Gene Leslie delivers another daring, detective doozy, this time via the December 1950 issue of Crime Smashers #2! And just because it's been awhile, it's casting call time again: Starring Broderick Crawford as Inspector Madson, and Jean Brooks as beautiful, bad ass-- Gail "Girl Friday" Ford!
Croydon Publishing Co. delivered to us a pair of nifty 1940's "Mystery Master" horror tales, both of which can be found in the pages of the equally short-lived Variety Comics series. Running a mere 3 "mixed bag" issues, Mystery Master may have looked more like Ben Franklin than The Cryptkeeper, but he still stood out among the superhero, cops 'n robbers, and comedy selections featured in 2 of the 3 issues --and managed to spin a couple of superb chillers as well! A mad science experiment turns truly monstrous in "The Web", from the dynamic debut issue of Variety Comics #1 (1944), followed by a sinisterly swingin' old dark house set-up in "The Mystery of the Eccentric Collector", via Variety Comics #3 from 1946. According to GCD, the latter story artwork is credited to Leo Bachle, the first tale remains uncredited.
