The Raven

It just wouldn't be October without an Edgar Allan Poe post, or in the very least, a Poe inspired tale of terror. So instead of giving you the same old beat of a Tell-Tale Heart, or yet another murder in some rue-ish morgue someplace sorrowful, let's flip open a few fun pages from the January 1943 issue of Pep Comics #35, where The Hangman (he's a super hero, by the way) tackles another bird brain bad guy who's seriously flown the coop! The dark, shadowy hospital setting is nicely realized by the ever bad ass illustrative mastery of Bob Fujitani, --there's just a lot of great action art and eerie faces, not to mention an absolute load of lurid thrills 'n chills! You've likely never seen Poe presented quite like this before here at THOIA, and fans of The Spirit, Dr. Drew, etc are sure to get a kick (and maybe a punch or two) outta this one! And of course, if you require much more legitimate presentations of Poe's works, CLICK HERE for lots rots more in our archive...

Strange Case of Henpecked Harry

While ACG is credited in creating the very first horror comic book series with Adventures into the Unknown in 1948, Avon actually beat them by one year with the first full horror comic issue one-shot with Eerie Comics #1 (1947.) Some top-notch artists joined in for the creation of this landmark title, like legendary Joe Kubert, the great George Roussos, as well as Bob Fujitani (who also illustrated that superb cover, see below!) We're actually going to take a look at the frighteningly funny Fred Kida tale today though, where his unique, organic style, and cinematic staging / character posing was really beginning to take sensational shape. And to anyone who doesn't think that you can be titillated by a woman falling on some train tracks, well, I present one seriously gorgeous splash page, as well as a couple of panels on page 6 that will absolutely convince you otherwise! "OH-HHH!"

The Wooden Woman

Time to carve out another creepy crummy, February themed love connection, this time from the October 1952 issue of Menace #8. Highlighted by some interesting art from Bob Fujitani, --but be warned, the print job here is a little murky in a few spots, so apologies to those who like to gripe about that sort of thing. I mean, I did my best to clean it up, and it's still a fun bit of hopeless doom for yet another smitten goon who gets everything he deserves for being the foolish f*#kin' fanged face freak that he is...

R.I.P. Bob Fujitani (1921 - 2020)

The comic world loses yet another artist legend, Bob Fujitani passed away earlier this week, and today we honor his wonderful work with an encore presentation of two Atlas horror classics already found in the THOIA Archive. Our first selection is from the Spring 1952 issue of Suspense #16, and the second originally featured in the September 1952 issue of Mystic #12. R.I.P.

Stop the Presses / Man in the Tomb!

Yes-- by all means, stop the presses because there's a man in the tomb! The Tomb of Darkness to be exact, and it's the March 1975 issue of Tomb of Darkness #13 to be even exacter. But stop the presses again because these are reprints that originally appeared in the September 1952 issue of Mystic #12! And for a third stoppage of the pressings, our first story is illustrated by Mean Gene Colan, one of the biggest guns in the history of Marvel / Atlas horror! Shall we stop the presses for a fourth time by revealing the back-up story features Bob Fujitani pencils? Of course! And STOP. THE . PRESSES to infinity because we've also got covers from Sol Brodsky and Sal Buscema too! Man, what a great double header post!!!