Who's ready for another eerie entry in the super fun, Golden Age "Fantastic Feature Films" series illustrated by the always terrific, June Tarpé Mills? (See the previous two posts HERE and one over at AEET HERE!) This time it's a chilly weird war creeper actioner, meshing mad science w/ the living dead, and shambling forth via the July '40 issue of Target Comics V1#6.
Traveling across state lines to hook up with a minor is absolutely a monster level no-no, but some people have to learn the hard way! Wait a second, that's not what this story is about, --that's the other "Subway Terror" currently serving 15 years in prison. Anyway, the terrors presented in today's post are just as despicably awful, so hang on tight as Mister Mystery himself takes you down down down into an equally low level, where other unseen monsters live among us. From the Nov. '51 issue of Mister Mystery #2, art by Mike Esposito.
There's another random, isolated comic book panel making the Tumblr meme rounds (see the middle image at the top of page 5 below.) A few people wrote in asking what it's from, so here we go with a Mike Sekowsky illustrated tale about a struggling actress trapped in an unholy Hollywood nightmare. For a story packed with grave robbing, black magic, and the resurrection of an evil snuff film maker, you'd think this would all be a bit more unnerving instead of just spooky silly, but it still has its moments. GCD notes that Vince Alascia contributed the inks here as well. From the April 1952 issue of Hand of Fate #10.
Another full month of macabre May-hem continues with an eerie, satanic classic from the January - February 1954 issue of Eerie #14, with art by the terrifically top-notch terror team-up of Nodel and Alascia. Roll those blood-soaked bones!
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!
We're halfway to Halloween again already, and typically on this day (aka Walpurgisnacht) I tend to feature posts themed a little more on the witchier side of things. But since this great Mack Martin: Private Investigator tale from the March 1949 issue of Super-Mystery Comics V8 #4 takes place during a costumed masquerade party, I think it still fits the holiday bill nicely. It's a super fun, super duper mystery of the highest caliber, with an assortment of diabolical suspects all dressed as Death itself! There's plenty of thrills, chills, furious fisticuffs action, and laugh out loud dialog too, along with some superb artwork from ever reliable Rudy Palais --who also created that great cover design (FYI: the added mummy themed cover at the end of the post remains uncredited.) I hope everyone enjoyed this month of posts, and I promise that May will be even more morbid than ever! Stay tombed...
POST UPDATE: I had a busy week (actually "traumatizing" might be a better word for it) and forgot that I had planned to make this a "dark journey" double feature, --so here's the other story I absent-mindedly left out: "The Phantom Bus" from the September 1952 issue of The Unseen #6. We repo'd this one in the July 2015 issue of Haunted Horror #18, but it somehow never made its way here to THOIA, despite being one of my George Roussos favorites. I also included a ghostly half-pager from the same issue, which may have already been posted here somewhere over the years, I fergit. And of course, from the July-August 1953 issue of Skeleton Hand #6, comes a creepy tale of witchcraft and time travel gone oh-so horribly wrong. And to be honest, that's exactly the way I like it. I also dig that this one feels more like an ironically humorous Atlas quickie, and less the typical ACG happy ending that we've seen around here so many times before.
