HALLOWEEN TREAT (No Trick!) DRACULA One-Page Tales

While the English-language reprints of the 1970s Spanish Dracula magazine didn't have any Dracula...

...the original Spanish title had these one-page jokes on the back cover!

Both England's New English Library and America's Warren Magazines (who licensed the NEL translated version) left out these entertaining pieces...despite the fact no translation was needed!

Written and illustrated by Alfonso Figueras, these one-pagers now make their American debut!

Written and illustrated by Alfonso Figueras!

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Dracula

the Trade Paperback

(from 1971, featuring the first six issues of the translated-from-Spanish Dracula magazine...but not these Dracula humor strips...nor any Dracula content!)
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Wednesday World of Wolverton JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "Planet of Terror!"

Our Final Basil Wolverton Tale is Illustrated by Him...

...but likely not scripted by him, from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #7 (1951)!

Even the Grand Comics Database, which normally attributes scripting of Basil's tales to him is uncertain what to make of this somewhat disorienting ending!

You'll note the inset art for the story on the cover, by an unknown artist, has none of the elements of the tale itself!

What's the truth?

We'll likely never know...

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Brain Bats of Venus

Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton

Volume Two

1942-1952
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Reading Room / Halloween Horror MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN COMICS "Premonition of Death!"

Some things just can't be explained by current science...

...but that doesn't make them any less real!

Is this a lost "Kirby Klassic" from the 1950s?

When Prize Comics' Monster of Frankenstein title was revived during the horror comic boom of the early 1950s, besides a wonderfully-gruesome version of Dick Briefer's previously-humorous Monster, it featured a number of two to four page "fillers".

Most of these tales appear to be, at the very least, laid-out by Jack Kirby.

This never-reprinted story from V3N3 (1954) is a prime example.

The Grand Comics Database lists the story's illustrator as Marvin Stein, who worked primarily for the Simon & Kirby studio, so this most likely was an S&K "inventory" story laid-out by Kirby and meant for insertion wherever editorial page count came up short.

Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases, unknown...

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Marvel Masterworks

Atlas-Era Journey into Mystery

Volume 1

Wednesday World of Wolverton ADVENTURES INTO TERROR "Where Monsters Dwell!"

Though this cover-featured tale's title became the name of a Marvel reprint comic...

...the story was never reprinted in its' namesake!

Nor does the cover art for Atlas' Adventures Into Terror #7 (1951) by George Tuska and Joe Maneely show anything even vaguely like what this Basil Wolverton penned and illustrated feature is about!

BTW, the splash panel was redrawn by another, unknown, artist!

When the tale was reprinted in Marvel's Curse of the Weird #3 (1994)...

...cover artist Ron Wagner deliberately mimicked the art style of each of the original tales' illustrators!

And, the story title on the cover used a modified version of the logo for the Bronze Age reprint book!

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Brain Bats of Venus

Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton

Volume Two

1942-1952

CASPER THE FRIENDLY GHOST "Premiere"

Here's the first appearance of a comics legend (over 100 comic series with his name in the title)...

...who, at the time this came out, was already an animation mainstay!

Utilizing story elements from Casper's first cartoon (1945's Paramount NovelToon "The Friendly Ghost", written by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo) this opener written by Isadore Klien and likely illustrated by one of the cartoon series' animators appeared in St John's Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 (1949)

Interestingly, though Harvey Comics acquired the character rights from Paramount Pictures and continued the series after St John went out of business, they never reprinted the covers or stories of the five issues by St John!

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Casper the Friendly Ghost

60th Anniversary Special

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Wednesday Worlds of Wolverton MYSTIC "Devil Birds!"

Behind a somewhat deceptive (though kool) cover by penciler Christopher Rule and inker Sol Brodsky...

...lurks a tale of terror by the one and only Basil Wolverton!

Besides that there's no "Gloria" in this story from Atlas' Mystic #4 (1951), the cover-featured "Devil Bird" features only a passing resemblance to the mutated creatures in this tale...who apparently are altered from any living entity, be it bird or mammal!
This loss of our humanity, whether physical or mental, is a concept Wolverton repeats several times, particularly in his all-time classic "Brain Bats of Venus"!

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Brain Bats of Venus

Life and Comics of Basil Wolverton

Volume Two

1942-1952

Reading Room / Tales Twice Told VOODOO "Goodbye...World!"

Tuesday we presented an odder (than usual) Silver Age tale...

 ...with a cover that seemed as if was from another story entirely.

Well, it was...sort of.

The story in Ajax's Midnight #4 (1957) was a reprint of a tale from Ajax's Voodoo #7 (1953), which was published during the height of the horror comics boom!

And, let's just say that Ajax's editorial packager, the Iger Studio, was not noted for its' subtle (or even tasteful) stories.

The heavy hand of the Comics Code Authority forced quite a few changes from this wild original version, as you will see from the splash panel onward...

Beyond little things like making the duo who are sent into space to spawn the new human race a married couple instead of a pair of unmarried co-workers, the harpies were redrawn as insect-like humanoids (which made a certain amount of sense), and the ending was totally-redone as a happy ending with humanity surviving the alien onslaught!

Personally, I prefer the original!

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Four Color Fear

Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s