THOIA'S 2025 Holiday Horror Special

If you enjoyed our horrible holiday double feature over at AEET HERE yesterday, it's now time for another right here at THOIA! And this year we're looking at the age old Ghost Stories for Christmas, and with nobody telling a spookier tale than Charles Dickens himself! Well actually, let's have golden age fan favorite, Lee Elias tell it-- the way it could've happened, or did it?! --via the March / April 1976 issue of Ghosts #46. But first up, it's another doomed-out variation on the Dicken's lit classic drama-rama, from the March 1953 issue of Marvel Tales #112, and highlighted by some spectacularly illustrated Larry Woromay specters! I guess you can't really celebrate anything anymore either unless we get a nice Bill Everett cover as well! Yes, this post has everything-- including a well wish for everyone to have a wonderful, happy holiday!

The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall

Last Monday's "True Ghosts of History" bonus at the end of our doomed post HERE was indeed (as Brian Barnes pointed out), based on a a very well documented haunting that took place in the 1830's, though the actual origins of The Brown Lady, aka The Grim Lady story itself goes as far back as the sixteen and seventeen hundreds. (CLICK HERE for more information from the eerie Wikipedia entry.) And alas, the great King Ward version you saw last week was just one of three filler comic book adaptations uniquely rendered over the years and telling the terrifyin' tale of poor Dorothy Walpole's wandering apparition. Our first version below is from DC's "Tales of the Haunted and the Damned!"  a then new series of true stories (concerning cursed castles, haunted houses, and macabre mansions) and originally appeared, in this case, in the Feb. 1974 issue of Ghosts #23. Also included below-- the infamous "real" photo of damned Dorothy descending the 'ol staircase of Raynham Hall, --and finally, another illustrated version, this time as a one-page quickie from the April 1953 issue of Adventures into Darkness #9, though this scan was actually already posted at THOIA way back in 2010 HERE!

The Haunted Undertaker!

How about another creepy DC classic? And it's been a while since we've featured anything by bloodcurdlin' Bill Draut, so let us now peel back the cover of the December 1978 issue of Ghosts #71 and see what sort of unnatural things are ominously supernaturaling! (That's a real word, right?)

Return of the Sick Ghost Stories

 Is it true? Is Blogger actually working correctly and allowing clicked-on images to enlarge again? It only took a freakin' year and 3 months to fix it... anyway, HURRAH! A huge thank you to Mr. Cavin for pointing it out to me too, as I probably would've never noticed because it's apparently been working right since last Thursday over at AEET.

THOIA rises from the dead! More posts coming up shortly...

The Screaming Skulls! (X3)

Got a whole mess of screaming skulls for you today, the first bouncy batch of 'em from the Jan-Feb '72 issue of GHOSTS #3, with magnificently moody art by Jerry Grandenetti... followed by a bombastic bony bonus filler page and an encore presentation of a Bob Forgione story originally featured here at THOIA back in 2008, from the March '54 issue of Out of the Night #13. "SCREEEEEAM!!!"

BONUS!

The Spectre’s Face

Jack Cole Tribute, Day Four: First time I ever read this story I initially thought the creep in the splash page had a devil lock, but then I looked closer and realized it was a rip in the page. Still, I like to think that maybe this story somehow inspired The Misfits famous hairstyle.

From the September 1953 issue of Web of Evil #6