Murder in Wax "Starring: A Corpse"

It's Midweek Murder-thon time again, so lets crack open another perfect pair-up of crime horror mystery cases guaranteed to knock your nylons off and well into next week! Hollywood dick, Dan Turner has himself a heckuva of handful trying to straighten out a murderous screwy angle or two while on a macabre movie set in, "Murder in Wax", from the July 1953 issue of Crime Mysteries #8. But first, Hollywood glamor girl, Queenie Starr starrs in the new Sam Wilde horror picture over at Paragram Studios, (via the July 1952 issue of Crime Mysteries #2), and if she's not careful, she too could find herself playing the lead corpse! Heater bangs, head bops, horror chops, and heavenly babes a'plenty-- what more could you ask for in a THOIA Double Feature, anyway?

Mystery Master

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.

House of Wax!

APRIL FOOLS! It's not "House of Wax" at all-- it's "House of Whacks!" hahaha from the December 1953 debut issue of Mad #1! APRIL FOOLS! It's not from the December 1953 issue of Mad #1 at all either, it's actually from the December 1953 issue of Eh! #1 published by EC-- errr, April Fools uhhgain, --from Charlton. Eh! ran 700 issues... April Foo... ehhhh... that's to say, 7 issues total before calling it quits, just like I'm calling it quits with this rather annoyingly foolish gag o'my own! And if you think this intro is full of tired attempts at humor, wait'll you get a load of this vampire story, because it's incredibly funny, and totally unique and oooo boy... April freakin' Fools for probably the last goddamn time ever. Yeesh, even the Sam Spade Wild-Root hair tonic advertisment that I tossed onto the end of this post is somehow way sillier!

The Wax Museum

I have nine, weird wax museum stories in the THOIA Archive-- the last one added back in 2019. So let's make it an even odd tenth terrifyin'  tale today, and this time with Don Rico turning up the hellacious, haunting heat! From the February 1951 issue of Marvel Tales #99!

I Was Trapped in Horror House!

Again with a first person titled post-code freak-out tale this week, --because it's all about YOU, dear doomed reader, muhhh-hahah, --featuring awesome art by yet another pre-code horror legend, and this time it's petrifyin' Paul Reinman leading the journey into jolting terror! We'll definitely be visiting a few more haunted houses before the month is out, so get ready for some serious spook overload! From the July 1960 issue of Journey into Mystery #59.