"The Haunted Love!"

A fun terror tale to spook up your Valentine's, and from the early days of precode Atlas horror too, aka the November 1949 issue of Marvel Tales #94 to be exact, (hence the wonderfully old fashionable look and tone to everything here.) Pencils on this one are attributed to the great, Gene Colan, and if the story title rings a little bell deep inside your lovely heads, I'll go ahead and make this a fine time to remind you that even though my 3 issue mini-series of the same name is long out of print, you can still occasionally find used hardcover collection copies online HERE at reasonable prices. Happy Horriday!

The Collector

Are the Febru-scary love stories this month ticklin' your lil goose-pimpled fancies so far? If not, here's one that will surely drive you to drink! Ahhh, so how about a toast to true love? May it forever warm the cockles of your blackened, beating libidos. From the September 1974 issue of The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves #47, and terrifically atmospheric art by the always awesome, Tom Sutton (cover art by Joe Staton.)

Beware the Sea Hag / The Old Hag!

It sure wouldn't be a Valentine's Massacre at The Horrors of it All without a couple of horrible old hags hangin' around here and lousin' up all the hearts 'n huggin' action. Take for example this horrendous Atlas tale of bad lovin' gone extra hilariously hideous, from the December 1952 issue of Mystery Tales #6. But first up, we'll take a lovely little boat ride out to sea, --to see how luridly love sick our sea sickness can be! From the May 1981 issue of Secrets of Haunted House #36, and yep, it's a double beheader today, one golden, and one silver --and trust me on this one, folks, it doesn't get much juicer than this! And fyi, both tales were written by Carl Wessler! Neat to see him spanning nearly 3 decades with high quality, haggish horrors!

A Scream in the Dark!

Love is in the scare all this month, and we mean it, seriously-- it's so strong you can smell it! But *yawn* maybe we've done this all before, so how about we try something different? Say, maybe a 25 cent ride through the 'ol Tunnel of Love'll do the trick? Mr. Karswell highly recommends that you give it a whirl, you might even come out the other side as a totally changed person. From the January 1953 issue of Mystic #16.

Honeymoon of Horror! / Clinging Vine

If you can remember that far back, February around here usually meant a month of rancid, rotten romance tales. We even had a term for it-- THOIA Valentine's Massacres! So let's keep that 'ol tremblin' tradition alive and kickin'... and screamin' and clawin'... and gaspin', etc., with a creepy cruel two-fer from the July 1952 issue of Amazing Detective Cases #13! Fred Kida really knocks it out of the park with his vicious vine story, highlighted by a great use of lightening washing the color right out of panels and creating a truly dynamic masterpiece of mood. But first up, let's take a little honeymoon into the realm of the sick 'n twisted supernatural with one of Atlas Comics most notoriously mean-spirited tales of all time! So okay now, if you're happy that THOIA has returned from the dead, be sure to tell your friends, families, and even your enemies, cuz to be honest-- we're happy to be back too! Stay tombed for lots more!

Back in Black-- Arts, that is!

That's right, after 15+ months of aggravating blogspot malfunctionery, it appears things are FINALLY back to normal around here (as well as over at AEET.) Hopefully it's permanent too, and not just some temporary "gotcha!" glitch set to dash our high hopes, while dematerializin' our spirits. Anyway, the less we go on about it the better, so let's do what this blog has done best since 2007, and that be deliverin' the hottest horror comics of yesterday --and beyond! And of course there's no better way to get it all off the ground (see also: out of the ground), than by conjuring up an excellent EC classic from the July - August 1950 issue of Weird Fantasy #14. You know, in a way, re-opening this blog is a lot like re-opening The Necronomicon --so let's be extra cautious and very careful what we wish for! Welcome back, everyone...

Return of the Sick Ghost Stories

 Is it true? Is Blogger actually working correctly and allowing clicked-on images to enlarge again? It only took a freakin' year and 3 months to fix it... anyway, HURRAH! A huge thank you to Mr. Cavin for pointing it out to me too, as I probably would've never noticed because it's apparently been working right since last Thursday over at AEET.

THOIA rises from the dead! More posts coming up shortly...