Frightening Friday Fun CHILLING ADVENTURES IN SORCERY AS TOLD BY SABRINA "Boy Who Cried Vampire"

The now-cancelled CW series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina was not the first time the "Teenage Witch" did actual horror...

... in 1972, she hosted her own series of horror stories told in the Archie "vein" as you can see in this never-reprinted (in color) terror-tale...

Now there's an ambiguous ending if ever I heard one...

In 1971, the Comics Code Authority loosened its' regulations regarding monsters, allowing limited use of "classic" creatures including vampires, werewolves, and zombies.

While DC and Marvel went monster-happy, unleashing new strips and several new titles, Archie Comics' response was this book with an unusual combination of horror writing and Archie house-style art, which tended to conflict with the theme of the stories!

To be fair, writer Frank Doyle, penciler Dan DeCarlo, and inker Rudy Lapick tried their best with this tale from Chilling Adventures in Sorcery as Told by Sabrina #1 (1972), but it just doesn't work.

After two issues, the series was revamped (pun intended) into a more-traditional horror title with non-cartoony art by Gray Morrow and associates, dropping Sabrina as the hostess.

It survived nine more issues.
Speaking of survival, reruns of the TV version of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina can be seen on Netflix!

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Chilling Adventures in Sorcery

(which reprints this story...but in black-and-white) 

Reading Room GHOST COMICS "Face in the Shroud"

It's been a while, boy fiends and ghoul friends...

..but during the season when ghosts and goblins dominate pop culture, we felt it was time to rise up out of the coffin and tell a sordid story!

As horror stories go, this tale from Fiction House's Ghost Comics #8 (1953) is fairly mild, but the art by the underrated Bill Benulis and Jack Abel has a couple of kool "camera angles" and storytelling tricks that other artists of the period like Alex Toth and Ross Andru were also experimenting with.

The writer's name has been lost to the mists of time.

BTW, this tale was recently-reprinted (for the first time in over 60 years) in IDW's Haunted Horror, but was oddly-attributed to Don Heck, even though the story is signed by Benulis and Abel in the first panel!

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EC Horror Library of the 1950s

(It ain't cheap,...but it's GREAT!)

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder O.C.T. OCCULT CRIMES TASKFORCE "Not As It Seems" Conclusion

The Soul Ripper is Revealed...

...to have been inside the body of Sophia Ortiz's late father's O.C.T. partner!

Now it attempts to tale possession of Sophia!

And so ends the first, and only, O.C.T. comic series.

During its' four-issue run in 2006-7, Dimension Films acquired the movie options, but the project sat in Development Hell until the rights lapsed.
Then, in 2012, A&E announced the property would be produced as a mini-series produced by and starring Rosario Dawson with Gale Ann Hurd as Executive Producer.
Sadly, that didn't progress beyond the discussion stage.
And, of course, Rosario is wayyy to busy now to even consider pursuing it again!

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O.C.T.

Occult Crimes TaskForce

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!

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Taylor Illustrated History

Science Fiction Comics 

Macabre Monday Madness THE SPECTRE & THE FLASH "Phantom Flash, Cosmic Traitor" Part 2

When Last We Left Our Mismatched Protagonists...

...while visiting Earth-Two, The Flash is possessed by the ghost of World War I fighter pilot Luther Jarvis, who feels his comrades who survived the war allowed him to die due to their cowardice!

Using the Scarlet Speedster as a cats-paw to give him an advantage in a dogfight against one of his former comrades, the ghostly pilot doesn't realize his actions have attracted the attention of The Spectre...

To Be Concluded...Next Monday!

Writer Bob Haney never really got the hang of the whole Earth-One/Earth-Two concept.
While Luther Jarvis' plan involved trapping "The Flash"...he grabbed the wrong one!
When his henchmen captured Earth-One's Barry Allen instead of their own Flash, (Earth-Two's Jay Garrick) nobody even commented "Hey, is this the right guy?"
And in numerous other Brave & Bold tales mixing Earth-One (usually Batman) and Earth-Two characters (The Spectre, Wildcat) or characters like Plastic Man (who wasn't shown to be a resident of either Earth at that point), either the whole matter is ignored or badly-handled (as it was here)!
BTW, note the ad at the bottom of the page for Blackhawk, who was shown to be a Earth-One resident when the Justice League of America (including The Flash) appeared in his title as shown HERE!

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Wrath of the Spectre

Omnibus

(which reprints all The Spectre's Silver and Bronze Age Appearances...in color, which the black-and-white Showcase volume doesn't do!)