Bennett's Bride

Fans of Fritz Leiber's chilling 1943 novel, Conjure Wife, (and even fans of ABC's Bewitched TV series) will be entertained by yet another take on the age old trope: man discovers he's not responsible for his own life, love, and success, and thus, cock blocks himself into the grave. Seriously, how many people these days would really be bothered to discover their significant other is magical? And okay, if that's a supernatural spoiler then you have my apologies, but we've seen it here before, and we'll probably see it here again, and I'll probably love it all over again just the same-- especially with such nice looking, atmospheric art from Al Hartley and Art Peddy! From the jolting July 1954 issue of Mystic #32.

The Face in the Picture

How about another weird classic from the Nov. '51 issue of Mystic #5? It's a 7 page story too (!!!) which seems unusually lengthy for an Atlas horror tale-- but I'm not complaining! I mean, the monster in the splash is pretty goofy, and you'll see that ending coming from a mile away, but the attractive Al Hartley girls really keep this one sailing along!















So. Everyone's behaving themselves nicely. And as long as this nice behavior stays consistent, then so will my own desire to post more Atlas tales. Seriously. The second anyone starts acting like a fucking little douche bag again --and you know who you are-- it's OVER. No more Atlas. EVER.

The Thing That Devoured a Planet! / It Came from Beneath the Earth!

THOIA returns from our Halloween vacation with a double precode Atlas monsterama, both stories penned by Stan Lee-- the first tale was originally presented in the February '52 issue of Adventures into Weird Worlds #2 as "When a World Goes Mad!" featuring a wildly inspired, illustrated monstrosity by Al Hartley-- and followed by a fun little three page Winiarksi quickie that originally appeared in the November '52 issue of Adventures into Weird Worlds #12 as "The Monster!", ---both retitled and reprinted together years later in the December '73 debut issue of Weird Wonder Tales #1.

Dear Valentine! / It Happened on Valentine's Eve

Welcome lovebirds, to THOIA's Valentine Weekend Double Header Massacre! It's Atlas vs. Ace in two terrifying tales totally not endorsed by Hallmark. And first up-- "Dear Valentine!" from the very last issue of Adventures into Terror #31 (May 1954), with slick art by Al Hartley (or should that be Heartly?) Here's hoping that everyone has a wonderful holiday... *vomits*

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It Happened on Valentine's Eve

(The Beyond #4, May 1951)

We're not done with our sweethearts theme this week, with plenty more pathetic attempts at wooin' and cooin' and whatever else rhymes with murder, ghosts, and general mean spirited mayhem on the way!

The Strange Room

Well, here we are on the last day of the month, on the last day of the year, and our last story post comes from the very last pre-code issue of Strange Tales... it's a fitting tale submitted by Brian Hirsch to help us end 2007 with a shiver!

From the February 1955 issue of Strange Tales #34