R.I.P. Mort Drucker

We sadly lost another comic book legend yesterday, and today, THOIA pays tribute to the heroic hand and masterfully MAD mind of Mort Drucker, who passed away at the age of 91. It's hard to put into words how much this mans art meant to me from my earliest years as a young MAD magazine reader, up to discovering all of the other great work he created elsewhere later. And speaking of, here's a weird little vampire story he penciled from the July 1954 issue of Strange Tales #30. Also note that my archive contains a few more fine Drucker examples as well, just CLICK HERE, and HERE.













And if you're looking for more madcap Mort, head over to my other blog for classic parodies of Rosemary's Baby, and The Exorcist!

RIP Carmine Infantino / The Vampire Maker!

THOIA honors the passing of comic legend, Carmine Infantino, with an encore presentation of his stunningly horrific vampire classic from the December 1952 issue of Adventures into Weird Worlds #13, originally posted here back in Sept 2008 --be sure to click HERE for the scary sequel to this Atlas story when you're done!

Carmine Infantino May 24th, 1925 - April 4th, 2013

The Living Dead

Shambling along all May with a month of zombie tales, and here's one by Carmine Infantino from the June 1953 issue of Spellbound #15 (keep your eyes peeled for a Dick Briefer-esque Frankenstein Monster too!)

Don't Try To Outsmart the Devil!

The ever awesome Atlas Tales site has an interesting note on today's Satan-o-riffic Stan Lee scripted story from the November (or is it December?) 1952 issue of Adventures into Terror #13: "The Gil Kane ink (?) credit comes from Carmine Infantino telling Doc V that Kane worked on stories at this time with him..."

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Vintage AD

Yes folks! You too can look slimmer, just like greedy, annoying old Murdock in the last panel of the story above! The Chevalier is good for your thumpin' heart too!

Molu's Secret / Keeper of the Skulls

While you and your friends are blowing off body parts and digits today with Black Cats and M-80’s, here’s a couple tales about the removal of another body part—the head! A gruesome Atlas entry from Carmine Infantino kicks off THOIA'S July 4th festivities from the Oct ’52 issue of Suspense #23 , followed by a very similar tale from the August 1952 issue of Strange Terrors #2.

REMINDER: Stay safe and have fun today, and by all means--- don’t lose your head!

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Vintage Fireworks ADS

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Keeper of the Skulls

Witch Woman

From the October 1952 issue of Journey into Unknown Worlds #13 stalks the final tale in our week-long look at Atlas Comics super fine Journey series, featuring gorgeous art, possibly by the great Carmine Infantino (anyone know for sure?) I challenge you to look at the splash panel and then try not to read this entire tale immediately.

And Happy Friday everyone, I hope you all had a great week… news on this weekend’s posts follows the story.

And whatever you do, don’t miss our Horror Crime Busters weekend starting tomorrow when Lance Storm returns for a no holds barred, knock-down-drag-out against --- The Nightmare Monster! And on Sunday Sergeant Spook finally materializes on the THOIA scene to kick the shit out of some ghosts in the old haunted orphan asylum. Fun stuff for the kooky kiddies currently trapped inside of all of you. See ya!