The House of Fear!

As promised, here comes another DC Movie Comic adaptation of a creaky, old Universal fright film classic (see our previous post for Son of Frankenstein in case you missed it!) And this time it's a spooky detective mystery set in a haunted theatre --where murder hath taken the stage! From the August 1939 issue of Movie Comics #5, "The House of Fear" '39 film (not to be confused with the great Sherlock Holmes movie of the same name from 1945) was actually a silver scream remake of Paul Leni's "The Last Warning" from 1928, which was, in turn, an apparent follow-up to Leni's superb 1927 old dark horror house hit, "The Cat and the Canary" --whew! Fun stuff, and just like the Movie Comics version of Son of Frankenstein, hot pink House of Fear here contains the same condensed, cut 'n paste process of colorized, cropped film stills, combined with added artistic elements to keep things as comic book cartoony as possible.

Maskless Axeman

Not to be confused with "Assless Chaps Man" (the alter ego of Brian Barnes), Maskless Axeman was the very first entry in the super cool, but brief "Fantastic Feature Films" anthology back-up filler tales from the earliest days of Novelty's hero-driven, Target Comics. It's a clever concept, as if we just walked into the the theater as a film is starting, --we can even see the backs of the heads from the people seated in front of us. We also get the title card and cast listing highlighting a handful of the same reoccurring actors and actresses, most notably "Orson Black" swiping Lon Chaney's moniker as "The Man of a Thousand Faces." There was around a dozen or so of these created, mostly self-contained, crime driven adventures, with a few based on literary classics like Treasure Island and Gulliver's Travels, and of course a few with some downright gruesome great horror overtones like the one in today's post, via the February 1940 issue of Target Comics V1#1 (and listed on GCD as the 666th comic entry, no less!) June Tarpé Mills, one of the first major female comic artists of the Golden era, provided the art for all but two entries, and she does a superb job with the heroes, heavies, and especially the Hollywood-esque hotties, as equally evident in the other story I have featured over at AEET HERE today as well-- check it out after today's blood soaked THOIA story! 

Film Freak

It's probably no real stretch to assume that if you're a fan of horror comics, then you're also likely a fan of horror movies. But how hardcore are you, really? If you're anything like the nutters in this sci-fi creature feature from the Oct '74 issue of Haunted #18-- then you are indeed a FILM FREAK!

Creepshow Video Store Mobile

If you've followed this blog for any period of time, then you know why we talk about the George Romero and Stephen King 80's big scream fright classic, Creepshow (1982) all the time, --it's absolutely one of the greatest horror comic book film anthologies ever made! And this past weekend I drove out to Indianapolis (to meet one of my all time favorite heroes, Bin "Ultraman" Furuya at the All Monsters Attack kaiju convention), and walking past one of the many vendor tables I suddenly spotted something Creepshow related-- an original home video store release Creepshow display hanger mobile! Utilizing the famous poster imagery of the creep in the box office window, and die cut to only feature him with the title, we also get a nice reverse of the image on a spooky, double sided swinger! It's in pretty decent shape too for an early 80's store display piece, a little faded from wherever it once hung, and the base is slightly peeling away at the edges, but for $35 it was still absolutely a steal! Below is my son modeling it for you to show the scale... "It's showtime!"

Strangers in Our Midst

Fans of John Carpenter's unique 80's sci-fi action film, They Live, may find some interestingly familiar plot details about today's post, courtesy of the November 1967 issue of Dell's The Outer Limits #16. And I guess maybe I've already said too much, so without further spoiler ado, let's just let the story do the talking-- as well as the art, because like our previous Outer Limits post, the illustrations here are also by Jack Sparling. Now, who brought the bubble gum?