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.

"Ghostly Killer" / "Death on Display"

Gale forces are still blowin' strong here at THOIA, as we re-enter Earth's atmosphere, leaving behind Gale Allen and her space-age Girl Squadron (see our previous post HERE), thus, landing once more back on solid, blood-soaked soil to find not one, but TWO great, horror-tinged, Gail Ford murder mysteries awaiting us! Yep, someone's dumped a dead dame amongst the dummies in a department store window display. Now it's up to Gail (and her Bettie Page bangs 'n legs) to bring the baddie to justice! From the October 1950 debut issue of Crime Smashers #1, plus fun art and fast paced script from Gene Leslie! But first, Gail gasps it up in a graveyard at midnight as someone has once again turned a gal into a ghost! Gene Leslie delivers another daring, detective doozy, this time via the December 1950 issue of Crime Smashers #2! And just because it's been awhile, it's casting call time again: Starring Broderick Crawford as Inspector Madson, and Jean Brooks as beautiful, bad ass-- Gail "Girl Friday" Ford!

Master of Masks and Mystery!

May was such a grueling month of hideous, downbeat horror tales, I thought maybe kicking off June with some kid friendly fun could really shake things up around here! And don't for a single second think just because it's Spiderman in a haunted house that this one doesn't deliver the chills-- the final twist panel, in fact, makes this story very worthy of its inclusion here at THOIA. From the Dec. 1974 issue of Spidey Super Stories #3, with art by Win Mortimer and Mike Esposito!

River of Blood!

Time to finish up the macabre March - April 1953 issue of Dark Mysteries #11 --and what a bonkers collection this turned out to be, eh? It's hard to beat vampires, rats, and haunted hotrods, but I think this fourth and final nail in the comic book coffin is my favorite, and perfectly packed with gory severed heads, and slimy zombie vengeance! Hope everyone enjoyed this COMPLETE issue presentation --see the last 3 posts too if you missed 'em! But don't crawl back into your coffins just yet, there's even more Dark Mysteries coming up next! I'd say "stay tombed" like I usually do, but I just told ya not to crawl back into your coffins, didn't I?

Terror of the Hotrod

Pound that putrid pedal to the metal, it's time now for some hot rod horror from the March - April 1953 issue of Dark Mysteries #11! Okay, I'm not exactly sure if Hollingsworth was the best choice for the art duties here, but he still deliver's a pretty solid, fast paced, rip roarin' creeper-- and that wonderfully witchy splash is pretty fantastic too! One more story to go from this wild issue, stay vroooomed...