Sunday, December 21, 2025

GOING...GOING...GONE!


What would you do with a liquid that could turn everything it comes in contact with invisible? Just ask the mad scientist working out in his desert laboratory and young assistant who asks the million-dollar-question . . .

Introduced by and EC Old Witch-looking character, "Mind Over Matter" is from Stanley Morse's WEIRD MYSTERIES #5 (June 1953) with art by Ed Smalle. Smalle drew lots of comics, mostly for Archie and DC.




Tuesday, December 16, 2025

HOW TO BUILD A BETTER COFFIN


This creepy story from Ace's THE BEYOND #25 (March 1954) just oozes grave dirt and worms. Undertaker Hans Richter has been burying the dead in cheap coffins. When the corpses come back to life, they build themselves new coffins with better material. As for Hans . . . well, let's just say he gets what's coming to him.

This pretty well-written, EC-style tale was drawn in the Graham Ingels style by Jim McLaughlin, who was a regular at Ace.

NOTE: Today's blog title is the cover art for THE BEYOND #25 by an unknown artist.







Friday, December 12, 2025

PLAY A SONG OF DEATH!


In this "ghostly yarn of weird terror", violinist Henri Marleau is ticked because his rival, Ricco, has aced the music audition over him. Marleau quickly dispatches him via strangulation to assume the top spot. Ricco, of course, comes back to haunt him and drives him insane. Marleau meets the kind of end we expect to see in a pre-Code horror comic.

"Death Song!" appeared in Comic Media's (Alan Hardy Associates) WEIRD TERROR #2 (November 1952) with art by Don Heck.






Thursday, December 4, 2025

WELCOME TO MURDER MANSION!


Known for his ghastly cover art more than his interiors, Lee Elias illustrates this dreadful tale of Lucy, a woman who inherits the pile called Moon Mansion, shunned by the townspeople because they say it is haunted. Together, she and her husband find soon enough that it's much more than that.

From Harvey's WITCHES TALES #6 (November 1951).








Saturday, November 22, 2025

CRYPTOLOGY NO. 6 NOW SHIPPING


The latest issue of TwoMorrows Publishing's CRYPTOLOGY is now available for purchase. Issue #6 is an all-zombie issue and contains lots of articles on the flesh-eating dead. Included are several features on zombie films like NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE LIVING DEAD AT THE MANCHESTER MORGUE and WHITE ZOMBIE.

Also included are the usual number of articles on horror comics, from pre-code to post-code.

A most delectable smorgasbord of retro creep culture, all curated by your fiendly Cryptologist, Peter Normanton. And, good news: CRYPTOLOGY is now being published bi-monthly.

Order your copy direct HERE.


From the publisher:
NOW BI-MONTHLY! “This time no one gets out alive, for I, your very own Cryptologist, have unleashed the walking dead for the sixth issue of my putrescent tome! It’s a gathering of zombies, journeying back to the films White Zombie and I Walked With A Zombie, before venturing on into the zombie apocalypse of George Romero and Lucio Fulci’s foul imagining. We also stagger through zombies that ran amok in the comic books of the pre-Code years, Bernie Wrightson’s cadaverous creations, and the decomposing abominations that overwhelmed the horror comics of Brazil. The contribution made by the black stars of classic horror cinema is consummately explored, digging out a few more of this atrophied brethren. But I can see you want more—so we have The Plague of Zombies in our Hammertime section, Fantaco’s macabre interpretation of Night of the Living Dead and the chilling Revenant from France. This decrepitude will have you frothing at the mouth, and it’s available especially for retro horror fans, by Tim Leese, Mark Voger, Steve & Michael Kronenberg, and editor Peter Normanton!”

I don't have an article in this issue, but I did get a letter printed!

Friday, November 14, 2025

JUST EARNING A LIVING . . .


Henry Mason gets caught up in a web of terror after he murders his wife (strangulation again!) for a beautiful woman that he "accidentally" hits on a remote road. Thinking he's got it made with a new babe, he quickly finds that her lustful designs have nothing to do with romance.

"The Wage Earners" appeared in WEIRD TERROR #1 (Comic Media, September 1952) with art by Chuck Winter.







Friday, November 7, 2025

YOU'RE INSANE!


Lust, murder, revenge and yes, hallucinations and insanity -- it's all here in this chillingly weird issue of WEIRD CHILLS #1 (Stanley Morse/Key Publications, July 1954) with a cover by Bernard Baily and a story by the equally twisted Basil Wolverton.


Script: ?
Art: Eugene Hughes






Script: Bruce Hamilton
Art: Sal Trapani






Script: ?
Art: Sal Trapani?







Script: Basil Wolverton?
Art: Basil Wolverton?






Script: ?
Art: Eugene Hughes?