R.I.P. Tura Satana (1935 - 2011)

Design for Death / Honeymoon Horror

Double Header Day at THOIA, with two more tales from the September 1952 issue of The Tormented #2. "Design for Death" is a typically insane pre-code story with nice art from Bill Ely... this one really reaches hard for the big twist ending but I'll leave it to you on whether it succeeds or not. Followed by Mike Sekowsky's second story in this issue "Honeymoon Horror", yet another re-telling of the classic Samuel Blas revenge tale, as previously told by EC (of course) and also as the very first fantastic episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) television
series called "Revenge."

[While working through the archives, I was surprised to find that a story posted about 3 years earlier, "The Store by the Cemetery", appears to be a close remake of "Design for Death"-- they definitely share the same central premise, and "The Store..." was published roughly a year after "Design..."! Coincidence? Deliberate swipe? Read it here and let us know what you think! -- Nequam]

The Devil's Circus

After recently posting some stories from The Tormented #1 issue, I had an inquiry / request for something from the September 1952 issue of The Tormented #2, and with that we kick off a new month with another FULL ISSUE PRESENTATION! And, because the cover demands that "You Must Read The Devil's Carnival", we'll start it off with this screwball classic (pencils by Mike Sekowsky.) And don't forget-- more Tormented tales all week... thanks again to Brian Hirsch for the scans!

The Ghost Bell of Terror Valley!

I've been promising to post a horror western tale for a few a months no (per request), so here's a good'un from Bobby Benson's B-BAR-B Riders Vol. 1 #14 from 1952. This pre-Marvel cowboy "Ghost Rider" by the king of severed heads himself Dick Ayers is certainly no Johnny Blaze, but his quest for justice is just as thrilling and hair-raisingly hellbent.

For a much more gruesome old west horror story from this issue click HERE! And if westerns aren't really your cup of tea, head over to AEET for some lovely pulp luridness courtesy of Man's Book Periodical!

Cursing Skulls!

Got a nifty back-up feature from the June-July 1953 issue of Frankenstein #25 today... it seems kind of obvious, but does anyone wanna take a stab at who worked on this one? I also want to apologize about the gutter on a few of the pages, this issue is badly stapled and this was the best I could do with the scan/editing.

COLORAMA

Larry "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" Blamire recently wrote in requesting Bob Powell's classic "Colorama" tale from the August 1953 issue of Black Cat Mystery #45 ...so, being a huge fan of Larry's fantastic output of fine film, I of course said "yes, sir!" And despite the fact that this tale has been reprinted countless times over the years in multiple forms and easy to find versions, I (in fact) did not actually have a copy of it-- argh! Soooo, once again I turn my blog over to the terrifying scans of Mr. Brian Hirsch, the one man on the planet who undoubtably owns every comic book ever made.

PLEASE NOTE: These scans are actually the later reprint and slightly modified version of this story from the January 1958 issue of Black Cat Mystery #61. (see comments)

The Sealed Coffin!

I challenged myself to find a Standard Comics story that was more deranged than our previous dances with wolves post, and I do believe we have a contender-- and from the same August 1953 issue of The Unseen #11 even! Yes, it's a pre-code classic with all the right (or wrong) elements: a jungle curse, a pretty blonde (who doesn't stay that way for long), murder, grotesque deformity, a dame socked in the kisser, a vengeful spirit, and so on... I think you're definitely gonna like (or despise) this one!

(BONUS!)