Haunted House Reading Room ADVENTURES INTO WEIRD WORLDS "House of Horror!" / DEAD OF NIGHT "House of Fear!"

While today's haunted house tale was the cover feature...

...the art, by the amazing Bill Everett, didn't quite get it right...as you shall see!

Why Everett did a demon/werewolf on the cover instead of the Jim Mooney-rendered skeleton shown is unknown!

When this story from Atlas' Adventures into Weird Worlds #6 (1952) was reprinted as the cover featured tale in Marvel's Dead of Night #1 (1973)...

...artist John Romita Sr got the skeleton right!

Thanks to early 1970s revisions in the Comics Code, the tale was reprinted almost verbatim!

But for some reason, the title was altered...

Nobody knows why...

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Marvel MasterWorks: Atlas-Era

Menace

Monday Madness JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "Devil's Day Off!"

Here's a never-reprinted tale that's really a product of its' time...

...the 1950s, when paranoia and fear ruled the USA!

You know you're evil when Satan admires to your skills at torture!

Written by Stan Lee and beautifully-illustrated by Joe Maneely, this story from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #22 (1953) is good clean fun for the entire family, not gory, like so much of the material at the time!

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Marvel Masterworks

Atlas-Era Journey into Mystery

Volume 1

Halloween's the Time for HORROR! (Horror COMICS, that is!)

Before videogames came along, comics (and tv...and movies) were said to be the contributing factors to...gasp...
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY!

I say...CELEBRATE the stuff your grandparents said would warp your parents' minds!

After all, they turned out OK, didn't they?

Didn't they?

Oh, well...

What could be more appropriate for Halloween than the frightening images of Horror Comics of the 1950s on t-shirt, hoodies, mugs, and other kool kollectibles?

Are you ready to be scared? Click Now...if you dare!

Space Hero Saturdays SPACE DETECTIVE "SpaceShip of the Dead!"

We're about to join Avenger (aka Space Detective) and Teena...

...as they begin their final published adventure, fighting crime in a future time!

Don't worry Teena, you'll meet up with Beast Man and Vulcan Woman sooner than you think...like NOW, by clicking HERE for Part 2 and HERE for Part 3!

Though the writer and inker are unknown, the penciler of this kool 3-part tale (and the b/w inside front cover synopsizing this tale) from Avon's Space Detective #4 (1952) is Gene Fawcette.

Blending the hard-boiled gumshoe, sci-fi and superhero genres, Space Detective burst onto the comics scene in 1951.

Future-era wealthy philanthropist Rod Hathway and his secretary Dot Kenny fight interplanetary evil and helped the innocent as Avenger and Teena using the methods of 1940s gumshoes combined with the technology of the far future!

Blasters instead of revolvers!

Personal jetpacks instaed of taxis!

Stories, whose titles included "Opium Smugglers of Venus" and "Bandits of the Starways", delivered fast-paced action.
And you can read the complete four-issue Space Detective saga by clicking HERE!

Weird Trivia:

1) Despite the fact that neither character wore a mask, nobody ever commented "hey, ain't you that famous Hathway guy?" or somesuch.

(Maybe they were too busy looking at Teena's cleavage?)

2) Nobody ever calls Rod "Space Detective"! He's always called "Avenger".

3) The original user of the name "Avenger", a Doc Savage-style pulp/comic character, hadn't been published since 1944.

The trademark had lapsed, so it was used on this unrelated character from a different company.

This sort of thing is far more common in comics/pulps than you might think.
In fact, only a few years after the final issue of Space Detective, a new Avenger (a Russkie-smashing superhero) popped up, as shown HERE!
And, in fact, Rod Hathaway wasn't even the first "Space Detective"!
There was another one, Lance Lewis: Space Detective, published by Nedor Comics, a few years earlier, as shown HERE!

However, he was only a back-up strip, and never had his own book, though he was featured on the cover of Startling Comics for a while!

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Friday Fun CALLING ALL KIDS "Twinkle...Helps on Halloween"

Here's a character you've likely never heard of....

...in a tale from Parents Magazine Press' Calling All Kids #13 (1947).

And, yes, he's an actual star, like our own Sun, except he's now manifesting as a humanoid with limited mystical abilities.

Just go with that...

Debuting in the second issue of Calling All Kids, Twinkle not only ran for the remainder of the book's existence, but was reprinted in the same publisher's Childrens' Digest and Humpty Dumpty Magazine in the 1950s and 60s!
Once the Halloween season is over, we'll re-present his "origin" story!
BTW, despite the indicia above saying Quality Comics was a subsidiary of Parents Magazine Press, it wasn't.
Quality was only the editorial content packager and printing agent for Parents' comic book line, nothing more.