Halloween Reading Room DOCTOR HORROR

Let's Begin the Month with Horror, Specifically the Self-Named Doctor Horror...

...who made only one appearance...but what an appearance!

If this had been produced in the 1960s, I'd say the artist had gotten some bad weed before producing the latest issue of his underground comix.
In fact, it appeared in Lev Gleason's Captain Battle Comics #2 (1941), illustrated (and probably written) by Don Rico and read by impressionable young kids throughout America!
Publisher Lev Gleason had already introduced comics' first major super-villain, The Claw, in Silver Streak Comics, and it's possible he posed the suggestion to his artists that they come up with something to top The Claw!
Or, it's possible that with a deadline looming and pages to fill, Gleason assigned Rico to come up with a story in a very brief time frame!
We'll never know the answer.

But that shouldn't stop you from enjoying this startling, surreal story!

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Wednesday Worlds of Wonder HP LOVECRAFT'S THE CALL OF CTHULHU "Call of Cthulhu" Part 1

  If we're going to present Lovecraft...

...let's start with the seminal tale of cosmic horror by H P!

To be Continued Next Wednesday!
Adapted by Esteban Maroto, who did both script (in Spanish) and art for Editorial Bruguera in 1982.

Howver, Bruguera went bankrupt before publication.

Maroto shopped the material around and it finally appeared in Ediciones B's Capitán Trueno magazine in 1986.
Here are a couple of pages from that adaptation...

In 1990, a new American comics publisher, CrossPlains, made a deal with Maroto to publish the project in English, with the translation supplied by Roy Thomas.

But, due to budget limitations, they printed it in b/w.
That's the version we're running here.
It's been re-published since with another translation, but still in b/w.

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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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Monday Monster Madness MONSTERS TO LAUGH WITH / MONSTERS UNLIMITED & MONSTER MADNESS

Besides comic books, Marvel made occasional forays into the b/w magazine market...

..with this seven-issue 1965-66 title being their longest-lasting Silver Age series!
(Note: with the second issue, Stan Lee's name was added to the cover as a selling point!)

Other mags had used the gimmick of captioning old movie and tv photos for a feature in a magazine...but never an entire magazine!

At this point, the book changed it's title...

...nobody's really sure why, but it seemed to work!

One of the koolest aspects was that Stan Lee wrote the captions...

...bringing the same kitchy vaudville-level humor that he used for decades in Marvel's humor comics!

I'm not sure if declining sales or Stan Lee's increasing workload caused the cancellation!
(Besides his writing/editing duties, he was now the public face of Marvel, giving interviews, making appearances on tv, even touring college campuses where Marvel Comics were the "in" thing!)
In 1973, when Marvel unleashed an entire line of b/w magazines, ranging from horror to kung fu to Planet of the Apes...

...they revived the concept, still written by Stan Lee!

...but this time, the book was the least-successful of the b/w line!
It was re-tooled into a Famous Monsters of Filmland/Castle of Frankenstein format, adding features about both old and current films and tv shows...

...but the alteration didn't help and the book was cancelled.

Marvel tried again, later that year with a Famous Monsters of Filmland/Castle of Frankenstein clone called Monsters of the Movies, which lasted for eight regular issues and an Annual.

Starting next Monday, through the rest of October, you'll be seeing the best (IMHO) of Monsters to Laugh With and Monsters Unlimited!

Don't Miss It!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

...the Halloween Season!

...and some of the RetroBlogs are going full-on spooky/scary as part of the multi-participant #CountdownToHalloween2025 Blogathon!

Last year, Hero Histories presented "Commie-Crushing Kaiju"!

This year, we're presenting

Third-Reich Terrors

featuring monsters and creatures both serving and smashing the Nazis!

Werewolves!

Vampires!

Golems!

and the Frankenstein Monster!

Join us HERE on Monday, as we get a head-start on horror!

True Love Comics Tales continues the annual month-long festival tradition of

Halloween HeatBreak

(which we take quite literally), as you'll see by clicking HERE starting this Wednesday

Medical Comics and Stories again presents

Halloween Hospital Horrors

from the Past, Present, AND Future, beginning this Friday!

Click HERE....if you dare!

PLUS: the blog you're presently-reading is going full-on Halloween with...

Monday Monster Madness featuring the wit and wisdom of Stan (the Man) Lee!

Now that's scary!

Frightful Friday Fun will present silly silent scares with a wordless Dracula strip rarely seen in the US!

Wednesday Worlds of Wonder enters the universe of the Elder Gods as we present H P Lovecraft stories adapted by writer/artist Estaban Maroto, and translated by Roy Thomas!

We didn't leave out the rest of the week!

You'll just have to be here to find out for yourself!