Tales Twice-Told BLACK MAGIC "Screaming Doll!"

You Saw This Tale on Tuesday...

...to be more precise, you saw a re-illustrated version of the same script!

This is the first, never-reprinted, rendering of the story!

Illustrated by Bill Benulis, and scripted by a currently-unknown writer (Though it could be Simon & Kirby Studio bosses Joe Simon and/or Jack Kirby) this story from Prize's Black Magic V4N4 (1954) has some oddly-unique attributes!

It's only 5 pages, when most of the stories are 6-8 pages.
(The re-drawn version is 6 pages!)

There's no half or full-page splash panel, though almost all Black Magic stories (except for one or two-pagers) have them!
Was the original story condensed/re-edited for space or content?
At the time (early 1954), there was a rising rage against comics in general and horror comics in particular due to Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent witch-hunt!

Sadly, we'll never know...

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Ten-Cent Plague

Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America
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Reading Room EVERY DAY IS A HOLLY DAY "Columbus Day"

It used to be October 12th (today, AAMOF)...

...but now it's the second Monday in October, to allow people a three-day holiday!

Interestingly, this page from Brevity Inc's one-shot giveaway Every Day is a Holly Day (1956) acknowledges Christopher Columbus didn't discover America, a rarity in that era!

Why is this comic entitled "Every Day is a Holly Day" instead of "Every Day is a Holiday"?

Because it was given away to kids by grocers who sold Holly Sugar!

Illustrated by John Rosenberger, it's a unique pamphlet covering a number of American holidays, including both Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays (before they were combined into "Presidents' Day"), Mothers' Day (though not Fathers' Day), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and a couple of holidays we've largely abandoned...Pan-American Day and American Indian Day!

We'll be presenting the other chapters on the dates they fall upon.

Watch for them!

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Cartoon History of the Modern World

Part 1: From Columbus to the U.S. Constitution
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Spooky Space Hero Saturdays WEIRD THRILLERS "SandFlower of Venus"

Alien Worlds May Have Potentially-Lethal Flora and Fauna...

...but every Space Hero knows the most dangerous creature in the Universe is...Man!

I take it back.

The most dangerous creature in the Universe is Woman!

This never-reprinted tale from Ziff-Davis' Weird Thrillers #1 (1951) was probably illustrated by a round-robin of Dan & Sy Barry, Murphy Anderson, and Frank Giacoia.

The writer is unknown.

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 
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Tales Twice-Told TERROR TALES "Horrors of the 13th Stroke"

There are a number of horror stories from the 1950s that couldn't be reprinted in the 1960s-early 70s...

...so they were redrawn (and often retitled)!

Pencilled and inked by Sheldon Moldoff, this never-reprinted story from Fawcett's Beware! Terror Tales #5 (1953) apparently was considered too scary for the Comics Code Authority to allow it to be reprinted in color comics!

But black-and-white magazines weren't subject to the CCA!

Guess what happened?

No need...

Just be here  Thursday for the deadly do-over!

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Four Color Fear
Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s
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Halloween Reading Room PHANTOM WITCH DOCTOR "Out of the Deep!"

 Avon's Phantom Witch Doctor (1952) was a unique one-shot...
...with a lead story featuring the title character and a trio of totally-unrelated tales (including this one) backing it up!

Whether the creature is a Lovecraftian-type Elder-God, a stranded alien, or just a sentient life-force is never really explained.

Another unsolved puzzle is who the writer and artist(s) for this short story were.

But what's life without a few mysteries, eh?

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Horror Comics of the 1950s
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Twice-Told Tale of Terror INVASION!

One of the best-known Mars invasion tales is Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio show...

Edited version

...which this twice-told tale "updates" to the television era!

But, it's radically-altered from it's first appearance, and the original version had never been reprinted!

First the toned-down version, then the original, scarier version...

Original version

 Note in the original version, both the wife and singer on tv show a lot more cleavage!

Edited version

Original version

Again, more cleavage in the original version...

Edited version

Original version

Oddly enough, the wife's cleavage is unchanged, but the look of terror in the last panel is toned down!

Edited version

Original version

Panel four in the original version is much more gruesome than the edited version. 
Note the dialogue balloon is unchanged, even though there's no actual weapons fire in the edited version!

Edited version

 This last page is radically-different! Prepare yourself!

Ready?

Proceed...but remember, I warned you...

Original version

Wow!

The edited pages were from Harvey's Race for the Moon #1 (1958), which was reprinted in Harvey's Shocking Tales Digest #1 (1981)

The original, never-reprinted, story was from Harvey's Witches' Tales #21 (1953)

As you can see, the Comics Code Authority insisted on some major redos, including most of the last page!

What do you think, fans?

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The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics: Volume 2

Bob Powell's

Terror
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Space Hero Saturdays CRUSADER FROM MARS "Mission Through Space"

Lars of Mars wasn't the only Martian Sent to Fight Evil on Earth by Jerry (Superman) Siegel!

This guy, along with a female "friend and companion" was sent to Earth to do similar work...but for a very different reason!

If I follow the "logic" of this concept correctly, the Martians send a proven murderer (along with someone who may be either an accessory to murder or an innocent who had nothing to do with the crime except having a murderer obsessed with her) to fight evil on Earth.
Send a convicted killer with emotional control issues (and advanced weaponry) to a primitive planet and tell him to clean it up?
And then, when he screws up. send a fleet of flying saucers in to straighten out the mess.
(Martians apparently don't have a non-interference Prime Directive.)
Also note that the American military seems to be made up of idiot bureaucrats!
The writer for this premiere tale from Crusader from Mars #1 (1952) is unknown, but probably is the book's editor, Jerry (Superman) Siegel, who co-created another short-lived Martian crime-fighter, Lars of Mars, the year before.

The artist is believed to be Marvin Stein, but the layouts have a strong Jack Kirby feel to them.
Considering Stein was doing a lot of work for the Simon/Kirby studio at the time, and Jack was reputed to be very generous in terms of helping his friends, it seems likely he provided roughs for Stein to render full pencils and inks over.
BTW, you may note that Tarka wears a very Superman-style costume in this tale, but on the cover, and in the next (and last) issue, the colors are reversed.

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Pre-Code Classics

Lars of Mars / Crusader from Mars

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