FROG IN YOUR THROAT?

Prefiguring the proliferation of "man vs beast" covers and stories that would flood men's adventure magazines just a few years later is this crazy quickie by Bob Powell called "Green Horror" from Harvey's WITCHES TALES #6 (November 1951). Powell isn't at his best here, and I bet more than a few young readers laughed more than were scared of these "human frogmen", an oxymoron if there ever was one. Editor Leon Harvey must have liked this issue (or had to rush something to press) as it was reprinted in its entirety in WITCHES TALES #27.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 

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.

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.

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.

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).