THE WITCH OF WAILING WOODS

Plas and Woozy Winks again almost meet their match when they come up against Zelda, "The Witch of Wailing Woods" and her two goons in Quality's PLASTIC MAN #42 (July 1953). Thanks to some quick thinking by Woozy this time, they escape another jam.

Art is by Alex Kotsky (maybe) an Chuck Cuidera (for sure).

THE CURSE OF MONK MAULEY

Even super-heroes had their run-ins with the supernatural, or in this case, the "supernatural". In this issue of Quality's PLASTIC MAN #38 (November 1952), Plas and Woozy are terrorized by the curse of a criminal who gets fried in the electric chair and swears that he will come back to haunt them. Promising "fear and suspense", the story is the usual fun entertainment and many of the panels are pretty creepy, the scriptwriter and artist are unknown. We do know the cover is by Alex Kotsky.

PLASTIC MAN VS. GIANT ANTS!

When two scientists and a load of atomic research equipment disappears, Plas and his sidekick, Woozy Winks are dispatched to track them down. When they find them, they learn that the scientists are experimenting with ants to make them giant-sized. When the wheels come off that experiment, they turn their interest to Plas and Woozy. Will they escape being used as human atomic guinea pigs? Read this story from PLASTIC MAN #37 (September 1952).

NOTE: The writer and artist are unknown.

Cover art by (possibly) Alex Kotsky.

PLASTIC MAN VS. THE VAMPIRE

While not technically a horror comic, per se, this story from PLASTIC MAN #43 (Quality, November 1953) still has all the trappings of one, albeit in a humorous vein (pun intended).

In "The Evil Terror" Plas and his pal Woozy Winks are sent on a mission by the FBI to Vampire Valley to investigate a trail of corpses that leads to Count Dronga, fresh in from Transylvania, along with his servant, Borloff and a cast of frightened townspeople.

Scripted by Joe Millard, the art is attributed to Al Luster, who also worked for Lev Gleason, Harvey and Marvel.

EC'S OLD WITCH PRECURSOR

Horror comic fans are familiar with EC's trio of "Ghoulunatics", one of whom was "The Old Witch". Most accounts agree that this character was inspired by Alonso Deen Cole's radio show, THE WITCH'S TALE.

It is interesting to note that there is another comic host by the name of The Old Witch that predates EC's character by a decade, and could have also been inspired by Cole's show, since its first air date was in 1931.

The series began with the intro by The Old Crone in HIT COMICS #1 (Quality, July 1940). The Old Crone's name was changed to The Old Witch in issue #2. Created by "Pierre Winter", the name was a typical "house name" used by publishers so they wouldn't have to disclose who drew the art for any particular story. Several artists did indeed draw the stories, including George Appel, Nick Cardy, John Celardo and Reed Crandall.

Here is the first story from HIT COMICS #1, followed by the splash pages from the other issues. The series lasted until issue #14 (August 1941).