Who Toys with Terror!

Legendary John Severin was mentioned in the comments of a recent post, which got me thinking that it's been a minute since we saw any of his mastery around here. And paired-up with another master, Boris Vallejo, and one of his all-time hottest cover paintings ever, well, I'd say we have ourselves one helluva way to kick off our macabrely weird weekend! Not only that, but how about a peek at the awesome original Boris painting too! Quite a difference in the two, eh? And say, don't forget the model glue now, cuz you'll be sniffin' up a sad storm of Aurora monster kit kiddo memories before it's all over! This is one truly packed, and utterly perfect post... from the March 1975 issue of Weird Tales of the Macabre #2.

The Curse / Purification

If you've somehow never read Wally Wood's "The Curse" which first appeared in the January 1971 issue of Vampirella #9, then you are in for an eye-poppingly visual, horror adventure treat. I had a big intro I was working on for this but then ultimately just deleted it so you can simply take it all in for yourself and instead let the incredible illustrations do the talking. I've also rounded out the post with a funny little 3 page quickie from the April 1972 issue of Vampirella #16, highlighted by even more great cartoony art by Joan Nebot.

The Drifting Snow

For all of my snow-bound friends on the east coast, here's a frigidly faithful Tony Isabella and Esteban Maroto adaptation of August Derleth's fear-fraught Weird Tales short story classic "The Drifting Snow" from the April 1974 issue of Vampire Tales #4 magazine. Awesome cover by Boris too, though the blurb incorrectly states the story is called "Night of the Snow Vampire." Keep warm friends, we'll get back into the precode gold next-- stay tombed!

Creature of the Deep!

Golden Age greats Jack Katz and Jack Abel do a little Jack Kirby channeling and team-up for this epic monster-rama from the August 1971 issue of Nightmare #5. Also!-- the gorgeous Boris Vallejo cover I know a few of you were waiting for a large scan of too. Hope everyone enjoyed this look at a really cool Skywald "horror mood" issue, maybe we'll do another one next year (and thanks again to Brian Barnes who gave me this issue a long time ago.) We've got one more tale on deck to round out 2013 while ringing in the New Year... yes, we've lots more-- see ya in a few!

Slime World

A few years back, THOIA friend and Snark Master General, Brian Barnes, mailed me a huge pile of Warren and Skywald mags-- seriously, right from the bottom of his snarky rocker heart! It took me awhile but I believe I've finally gone through them all and found one Skywald issue in particular here that stands out among all the others I received from him-- the August 1971 issue of Nightmare Vol. 1 #5. Featuring a wide, weird range of terror tales involving werewolves, nazis, torture, and giant sea creatures (plus a cool article about Boris Karloff and a Boris Vallejo cover no less!), I guess for xmas this year I will deliver unto you all this issue in its entirety, (possibly minus the pretentiously drab Doom Star sci-fi tale-- we'll see.) So let's kick things off with the nicely slimy first tale in this issue containing some wild, violent Ralph Reese art as well as truly inspired sound FX --did you know the sound of a head being ripped off is "SQUEEZRRIP!" ?!! Yeah, me either...