Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horror. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Reading Room: CAPTAIN SCIENCE COMICS "World War III with the Ants"

I'm Having Serious Problems with Ant Infestation...
...but never anything like this ant-ageddon (or ant-pocalypse) from Youthful's Captain Science #6 (1953)!
As for who was responsible for writing and illustrating this cult comic classic, theories run from Harry Harrison (who became a major sci-fi novelist and editor), to Dick Ayers to Lou Cameron, but nobody knows for certain.
BTW, this story came out over a year before the classic giant-ant film THEM!

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Reading Room WEIRD THRILLERS "Shadow on the Screen!"

For all those whose parents told them "TV is bad for you"...
...and "comics are bad for you", well, they were right, as this comic tale about TV proves!
This tale from Ziff-DavisWeird Thrillers #3 (1952) was illustrated by Bob Powell.
Powell, besides being a gifted illustrator was also a pioneer in the use of "color holds" in comic books.
The same technique he used on the tv screen was also used in a tale of radio and pulp hero The Shadow HERE, taking artwork that normally would be black-line and making it one of the color plates.
It was a very tricky thing to do back in those days since the interior pages were almost never proofed due to time and cost restraints.
But, Powell does some amazing things with the holds, making them line up exactly almost all the time!
Sadly, the writer of the story is, as in so many cases, unknown...
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Thursday, March 26, 2026

Reading Room WORLDS BEYOND "Twice Alive!"

Here's a horror story with a sci-fi slant...
Art by Sheldon Moldoff
...that the cover doesn't really convey, from the HTF anthology Fawcett's Worlds Beyond #1 (1951).
Did the writers of the movie Fantastic Voyage read this tale when they were younger?
The art is by comics legend Bob Powell, but the writer is unknown.
The cover, by Sheldon Moldoff, shows a cavern (with bats!) instead of the inside of a human being, and probably was meant for another story, but it conveys the mood of "Twice Alive", if not the plot points.
Worlds Beyond was retitled Worlds of Fear with #2 and ran for another nine issues.
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Tuesday, February 3, 2026

Lunar Reading Room WEIRD MEN'S ADVENTURES "I Walked on the Moon"

 In the early 1950s, EC Comics set the pace for other companies...

...as this hybrid sci-fi/horror tale from Atlas' Men's Adventures #26 (1954) clearly demonstrates!
You'll note the post's header reads Weird Men's Adventures, but I mentioned earlier the book was  just Men's Adventures.
It's not a typo.
The indicia title was Men's Adventures, and from 1-20 it featured war and high adventure tales.
But, with #21, it became a horror title and "Weird" was added in a graphic burst to the logo (but not the indicia).
Six issues later, the brief revival of the Golden Age Human Torch and Toro took over the book for two issues before it was cancelled.
Though the writer for this tale from is unknown, the artist (doing a credible Wally Wood imitation) is Gene Colan!
Trivia: When the story was reprinted in Marvel's Weird Wonder Tales #17 (1976), it was retitled and the splash panel was rewritten (including removing the "Weird Men's Adventure" blurb)...
Considering that, in 1976, it was over five years since the first Moon landing, I'm not certain why the editor made the change...
BTW, note the "originally-presented" caption references the wrong issue!
It's #26 not #24!
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Thursday, November 27, 2025

Holiday Reading Room UNCANNY TALES "Executioner"

This may not appear to be a holiday tale...
...but it is...for everyone except the unseen (until the end) victim!
Could you tell that this Myron Fass-illustrated story from Atlas' Uncanny Tales #9 (1953) was done during the horror comics craze of the early 1950s?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, October 31, 2025

Frightful Friday Fun CRAZY "Drag-ula!"

No, it's not a tale of a transvestite Transylvanian...
...(that's Rocky Horror Picture Show) but our final Dracula tale is a humorous look at the original "bat man" from Atlas' CRAZY #2 (1954)
As was usual with the lead tale in Atlas' CRAZY, this tale was lovingly-rendered by the amazing Bill Everett!
Heck, Bill might even have written it, since he had a number of scripting credits already!
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Saturday, October 25, 2025

Spooky Space Force Saturdays JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "Planet of Terror!"

 Our Final Halloween-Horror Themed Tale is Illustrated by Basil Wolverton...

...but likely not scripted by him!




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! of this sinister story from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #7 (1951)!
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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Thursday, October 23, 2025

Halloween Reading Room JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY "Shadow from the Steeple!"

...in this case, the splash page narration covers the matter pretty succinctly!

Writer (and noted pulp/comics historian) Ron Goulart adapted all three tales in this Cthuthu Mythos trilogy!
(The earlier two appeared HERE and HERE)!
Penciler Rich Buckler and inker Frank Giacoia handled the artwork in this tale from Marvel's Journey into Mystery V2N5 (1973) which orgiinally appeared in prose form in Weird Tales V42N6 (1950), fifteen years after the previous two parts of the trilogy.
Interestingly, Marvel's never-reprinted these three stories as part of an anthology of adaptations of famous fantasy/sci-fi authors' works!

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(Which features all three of the prose stories adapted into this graphic trilogy!)
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