"Meet the Haunted Horror!"

It seems hard to believe, but on this day 14 years ago in 2012, Haunted Horror (IDW / Yoe Books) was unleashed upon the world. Running 35 issues until its final breath in June of 2018, Haunted Horror wasn't just your typical, run of the mill reprint comic series. Nope, it literally captured the beating heart and blackened soul of The Horrors of it All blog, producing a scary spin-off series or two, as well as a handful of great hard and soft cover collections to boot. And the countless hours of gore, sweat, 'n fears in the 'ol horror hosting / editing processes be damned, because despite all of the headaches and soul crushing financial aggravations, it still feels oddly "worth it" today. Plus, it's still a blast to hear from the many collector fans out there who continue to write in asking what's next. I wish I had some answers for you, cuz apparently it's just this blog for now. Anyway, I thought I'd repost a few of the better stories from the landmark HH #1 here today, but ya know, why retread old ground? I mean, all of those stories are already in the THOIA Archive after all! Instead, let's meet a very different kind of fun, "Haunted Horror" from the July 1944 issue of Wow Comics #27. We haven't done a silly super hero story yet this month anyway, --so here goes! And once again, a big Happy Birthday salute to the very late, eternally great Haunted Horror series too!

Web of Horror

The world wide web can be a horrible place for sure, --but so can a cemetery! And that's why today it's time to oopsie-daisy on the old "bury 'em now / dig 'em up later for money" routine. And as usual, we archival specialists of THOIA trickster atrocities discover (yet again, sigh) that this fatally flawed "fast one" rarely ever actually works. From the same revolting, jolting, July - August 1951 issue of Weird Adventures #2 as our previous post. GCD believes the art here is by eerie Ed Moline, unfortunately, nobody has a clue about that great flaming dungeon cover design. We'll be back shortly tho because OMG it's already almost September again! Where does the time go as we lay here pondering what comes next? Under 6 feet of dirt. Air growing thinner. The sound of worms churning. So dark. Are my eyes open, or closed? When did I last clear my web browser history cache? Stay. Tombed.

The Night the Statues Walked

Time for one of Lou Cameron's better, oft reprinted / reworked Ace classics, originally from the July 1953 issue of Web of Mystery #19 (as seen here.) This is a fast paced, ferocious tale of rampaging statues in a spooky old museum, and is seriously as funny at times as it is brutal. Tales of grotesque golems on the loose are no stranger to THOIA, or Hollywood for that matter, because once the military get involved here this story begins to remind me of IT! (1967) starring Roddy McDowell. Thinking about it even more, this Cameron crusher would have been a fun project for Ray Harryhausen to bring to life upon the silver screen-- what he created with the terrifying Talos statue in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) is unforgettable and forever frightening.

Rack of Terror!

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!

The Madhouse Murder Mystery

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...

The House of Fear!

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.

"Ghostly Killer" / "Death on Display"

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!