Pit of the Damned Devil Worshippers!

Well, once again we made it to Walpurgisnacht-- but can we survive this naughty nacht without getting ourselves burned?! It's gonna be one heckuva Halfway to Halloween fight as Captain Battle swoops in to put a brutal end to some Hellish heathens and their horny wicked ways, from the Feb. '42 issue of Silver Streak Comics #18. But first up, Bob Powell sends us careening down-- down-- down into the flaming caverns of Satan's sizzlin' domain, in an all-time classic Harvey Hit from Hell, via the April 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #7. THOIA will return after a few days of Mr. Karswell May Day Birthday Recuperayytion, --please stay tombed! 

The Man Who Warmed the Bones of the Dead! / The Idea!

In just a few short weeks we'll be halfway to Halloween! But as everyone here already knows, everyday is Halloween at THOIA, so let's unleash a couple of ghastly old g-g-ghosts to further p-p-prove my p-p-point! Bob Powell, (as promised in our previous post) returns to warm up this haunted house of horrors with 10 atmospheric pages of pure nightmare fuel! From the June 1952 debut issue of Strange Suspense Stories #1 --and check out that bone-chilling cover by Sheldon Moldoff! Also, if it's just too scary for some of you, how about a cute Droopy Dog bonus page via Laffy-Daffy Comics #1 (1945.) We can't let Yogi have all the fun, now can we? And okay, this isn't quite the same Droopy that some of you are likely already familiar with, but it's still a nice little chiller ghost filler! BAARRF! ARF! Give that dog a warm bone!

Bewitched!

I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of post-code 50's Atlas stories. I mean, yeah, they may contain some nice artwork from bullpen legends, --unfortunately, most of it tends to feel a bit lightweight, pandering, and unbearably bland / repetitive when it comes to the storytelling (especially when compared to the precode stuff!) But give good 'ol bad ass Bob Powell a script to bewitch the reader with, and suddenly now you're talkin' a horse of a whole different, creeptacular color! Take for example this eerie excellent entry via the August 1957 issue of Strange Stories of Suspense #16 (the final issue in this series.) Powell fleshes-out four perfect pages into one heckuva thrilling supernatural quickie-- even reminding me a little bit of Charles Beaumont's masterfully freaky, funeral planet episode, "Elegy", from the first season of the OG Twilight Zone television series. I have an equally good Golden Age Powell tale coming up next too, stay tombed...

LANDOR "Maker of Monsters"

I have a thing for female freaks, and nobody did it better than Bob Powell back in the earliest issues of Speed Comics with his classic, Landor "Maker of Monsters" quickies. Actually, many people have done it better, (before and since), but did they do it with as much fun as this? Also yes. But maybe they weren't drawn as good? Well, sure they were... I guess what I'm trying to sell you here today is a Triple Feature of Mad Scientist Terror. So now you ask, "But did anyone else ever do it this terrifying?" Oh yeah, waaaay more people have. This stuff isn't even that scary, tbh. But did they do it with as much originality? Of course they did, and have, and will continue to do. Anyway, what I'm really trying to say is that I love stories about creepy crawlin' cat women, and evil swoopin' bat babes, and dead dames revived to do dastardly deeds, all in the name of world conquering, wack-a-doodle science! So there, that's what I've been trying to say. Now prepare yourself for Sina, Creeta, Carda, and a two foot tall killer kitten, --plus a ding dong couple who just can't seem to stay away from the world's most ineffective, but undeniably inspired super-loser villain. From Speed Comics #2, #6, and #7 (1939 - 1940.)