Tuesday, August 30, 2022

The Garden of Horror

A way better than average Star tale from the September 1953 issue of Ghostly Weird Tales #120. Typically poor publication printing and badly aged, yellowed paper aside, Lee Loeb's art still shines through and is wildly imaginative at times, always supernaturally spooky, and with some downright terrifying panels scattered throughout, --of special note that incredible splash and nearly most of page six.

Sunday, August 28, 2022

R.I.P. Lily Renée / Priestess of the Spider Death

We love reading the many great tributes online about eternally lovely, legendary golden era artist, Lily Renee, who passed away last week on August 24th at the age of 101. And we celebrate her incredible real life story HERE at THOIA as well as with another superbly illustrated tale from the February 1944 issue of Rangers Comics #15. Be sure to check out more of Lily's sexy / spooky art HERE in the Archive!

Thursday, August 25, 2022

Scare at Sea!

Here's a fun little quickie illustrated by the ever unmistakable master of watery weirdness, Bill Everett, and from the December 1956 issue of Marvel Tales #153. I guess it's been awhile since we had ourselves a creep from the deep post, -- it's a typical post code type tale, but highly enjoyable none the less thanks to Big Bad Bill's sweet sense of visual humor...

Sunday, August 21, 2022

The Stone of the Dying Druid / Maid in the Morgue

Sprinkled among the macabre mix of assorted monsters, horrors, and mind numbing murder posts all this month, we've also been occasionally visiting the ominous, occult "Manhunt" case file adventures of Kirk of Scotland Yard, and this time it's a tale concerning a centuries spanning cursed object that could possibly spell doom for our 'ol crime bustin', pipe chompin' chap! From the March 1948 issue of Manhunt #6, and yesss, I am forced to post yet another great Ogden Whitney cover illustration too, one that ties in with the terrific text story inside the front and back cover-- and just like our last post is also written by Gardner Fox. And hey, after today's post, head over to AEET HERE for yet ANOTHER great tale from the pages of Manhunt! You won't be sorry...

Friday, August 19, 2022

The Avenging Axe

It's been ten years since I've posted a comic book text only story, and while some of you will probably feel cheated or scream bloody murder about it, let's first take a look at who the actual accomplished author of it is, as well as how it accompanies that rather spectacular cover illustration by Ogden Whitney. That's right, the cover art from the October 1947 issue of Manhunt! #1 follows the Gardner Fox TEXT STORY of this issue, --and not one of the illustrated tales! It's actually a pretty good yarn to boot, not to mention it's also a Kirk of Scotland Yard adventure which I promised more of this month (and any excuse to post that great cover is of course actually no excuse at all.) But FYI another illustrated Kirk tale will be up shortly for those of you still feeling cheated and / or still screaming bloody axe murder...

Tuesday, August 16, 2022

A Rampage of Demons!

Ahhh, the life of a comic book artist! It's all fun and games (and rockin' redheads) until your boss spoils it with those darn pesky deadlines! So yeah, today's terror tale from the June 1976 issue of The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #57 would probably have benefitted a bit from a few additional pages of story to really flesh out that panel jumbled story, but it still has a nice twist ending and the ominously groovy art adds a wild, nightmarish, surreal flair as only Charlton could do it...

Friday, August 12, 2022

Teddy Doesn't Seem to Smile Anymore!

Wow, we haven't had a Frank Robbins story around here since 2016. Time to fix that with a funny little 3-page chiller from the August - September 1974 issue of House of Mystery #226. Nobody draws cute women quite like 'ol Frank did, and here's a perfect example...

Tuesday, August 9, 2022

The Werewolf Takes a Wife / Her Other Face

Double Header Day again, and get ready for two of my all-time favorite loony tune Atlas tales, both of which can be found in the April 1954 issue of Astonishing #32. It's a duelin' dose of monster maiden mayhem featuring hilarious horror twists on two creeps the likes of which I'm not sure any of us have seen around here in a while, --if ever! And yes, Werewolf Wednesday is a day early because I'll be busy for the next few, but also because I want to give everyone a chance to read these before posting again. And one more thing: even though it's still technically incorrect, please read BOTH tales before screamin' "cover blurb mix-up!" haha, wtf...

Saturday, August 6, 2022

The Monster in the Mist!

Brian wrote in squawkin' for more sexy snake lady tales as featured here a bit towards the end of last month. So while I dig around for more of those, let's take care of another very long over due request from Shannon Walsh who wrote to me back in January asking for more creepy Kirk of Scotland Yard action! Sounds good to me as the other Kirk posts in the THOIA ARCHIVE HERE are some of my absolute most favorite precode detective horror stories of all time! And to make matters even cooler, Shannon's grandfather is actually Paul Parker-- the fabulous artist of these great golden age fright classics! I sincerely apologize for the delay-- please enjoy! From the June 1948 issue of Manhunt #9.