Within the Tomb

Tomb it May Concern Thursday is back, and let's see if we can crack the lid open on not only this ghastly bit of horrifying grave gamery, but also on the actual origin of this gruesome great Kenneth Landau shocker, via the September 1969 issue of Shock V1 #3. Similar to the Eerie Pubs, Shock was a cheap Stanley Morse publication known for taking Golden Age comics and reprinting them in a larger, magazine size, black and white format. GCD notes that this story was also reprinted in the April 1973 issue of K. G. Murray's Haunted Tales #2, which is equally loaded with precode reprints. But where did this story ORIGINALLY come from, and is "Within the Tomb" even the original story title? Does anyone recognize the horror host introducing the story? Landau did a tremendous amount of work for ACG back in the 50's (check the THOIA Archive for many examples HERE), and this story does feel like one from that time era and publisher. I'm just not seeing any information online about it anywhere... any help on this matter is gravely appreciated!

Blood Bath

Time to end the month of May with a gory, drug induced, blood bath doom-o-rama as only Chic Stone and the Eerie Pubs could do it, from the December 1969 issue of Weird V3#5. A true fan favorite freak-out that Eerie reprinted no less than 5 more times throughout the 70's. And try not to vomit over Bill Alexander's grindingly gruesome cover! See ya's in J-J-June...

The Demon Is a Hag!

Wednesdays are usually dedicated to werewolves around here, but this week we're conjuring up some witchcraft instead-- so welcome all, gather 'round the midnight fire for a rather bitchy, Witchy Wednesday instead! Now some of you might remember this precode Rudy Palais tale I posted back in April (CLICK HERE!), and so today we present the Eerie Pub remake from the May 1973 issue of Witches' Tales Vol. 5 #3, featuring all new art by Ezra Jackson. If you compare the two, you can clearly see the original is about 666 times more horrifically gruesome in nearly every panel (even the new story retitle is a bit meh.) But not all is lost, and it's still a perfectly fine little update... it's just gonna be a no win situation however hard you try to re-do that putrifyin' Palais perfection.

The Complete Voodoo Vol. 3: Werewolf Castle

Werewolf Wednesdays are back, (and as usual, a day late) just as is another installment of The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics: The Complete Voodoo Volume 3 from IDW / Yoe Books-- in stores NOW --get it HERE along with the other 2 va-va-volumes! Collecting issues #13 - 19, this is a wild wind-down of horrific precode horrors and jittery jungle thrills (lots of super sexy good girl art too) and plenty of scary silliness as well, plus a great intro by my good friend, Mike "The Howler" Howlett of Eerie Pub claim 'n fame. I mean seriously, how can you go wrong with a collection of stories with titles like "Screaming Shoes", "Corpses... Coast to Coast!", "Ape's Laughter", and (giggle) "Dead Man's Pajamas!" 

"Werewolf Castle" was originally presented in the December 1954 issue of Voodoo #18.

The Mummies

If you look at the top righthand blog sidebar you'll see I have a new book coming out next month called MUMMES, (pre-order right HERE!) And leading up to the release, I'll be posting occasional mummy, or mummy related stories, sort of like this one-- which is actually not about the type of mummies the book speaks of. Anyway, you'll see. Originally presented in the February 1970 issue of Witches' Tales Vol. 2 #1, with art by Oscar Stepancich. (Cover art by Bill Alexander.)

Horror Without a Head

One of my all time favorite precode Harvey stories is "Headless Horror" from the May 1952 issue of Chamber of Chills #8-- click HERE to read it in our THOIA Archive! It's surprisingly gory and superbly atmospheric, and seriously, I like it so much I put it in the "Scarifying Mr. Karswell Issue" of Haunted Horror #14! So again today we have an Eerie Pub remake/redraw, retitled "Horror Without a Head", and as usual we see an updated Harvey classic (this time with Nestor Olivera art) that is visually moody and cinematic, though I will say the 50's original is probably more effectively violent because we get to see all that glorious gore in FULL COLOR! Another interesting choice in the remake is to take the fabulous panel from page 6 of the original story and rework it a bit for the new splash. Like our previous posts this month, today's tale is also from the September 1981 issue of of Terrors of Dracula Vol. 3 #2. Anybody getting tired of these Eerie Pub remakes yet?

Jeb's Bloody Ghost

Yet another Eerie Pub remake / redraw of a classic precode horror tale, and from the same issue of Terrors of Dracula that we've been creepin' through all this month (see our previous posts) --now, where as most of you have been pleased with the updated artwork we've presented thus far, I am fairly certain this time you'll be less than enthusiastic-- though revamping anything originally illustrated by the vastly superior hand of Jack Cole is likely to never stand a chance of being on par, even from someone as interestingly talented as Marchionne. After you read today's post, click HERE to see the original Jack Cole version, "Hangman's Horror" which first appeared in the January 1953 issue of Web of Evil #2 --and more recently reprinted in our Jack Cole's Deadly Horror collection, as well as Haunted Horror #3, (IDW / Yoe Books.)