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!

Rendezvous with Death!

Time once again to turn up the heat of our fiendish February love fest with another precode tale of vicious Valentinery! Okay, I really like ACG stories sometimes, especially when they set-up two ding-dong knuckleheads in a scenario where they just can't manage to do anything correctly. Every single decision made is a bad one, and in the case of these two lovebirds, simply taking a trip to the old haunted family estate to search for a hidden fortune is only the start of their bad streak beginning. Love that wonderfully bleak ending as well... from the Oct - Nov. 1954 issue of Forbidden Worlds #34.

The Monster!

Let's get December rollin' with a mad science monsterama from the January 1954 issue of Adventures into the Unknown #51. Ken Landau can certainly cook-up a wonderfully disgusting slime-ball of a creature, but fans of cute bunny rabbits may want to skip this one. Also, you don't have to announce it to the entire neighborhood if you're planning to transform your mad lab into a bar room. I mean, seriously...

Yawning Graves! / Flowering Death!

Yawns 'n flowers don't sound too scary, do they? Well, let's just see how Kenneth Landau and Ed Good deliver on these everyday things from the 1954 issue of The Clutching Hand #1 one-shot from ACG. Spooky cover by Ken Bald too!

What's in the West Wing?

Another Ken Landau tale from the June-July 1967 issue of Unknown Worlds #56 (see our last post HERE), and this one is a bit more typical of his detailed art style that most of us are more familiar with from his precode days. It's a fast paced, atmospheric, and predictable little 6-page mystery-- and for those of you who see the end coming from a mile away please reward yourself with a banana.

Also, if you're interested in spooky 1970's girl's comics from the UK, check out my Spellbound '77 post at AEET by clicking HERE!

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"Go Get Yourself Some Guts, Gil!"

There's been a lot of Ken Landau pre-code horror work showcased here at THOIA over the years, now today I present a spooky, kooky, fun, and sometimes funny example of his post code horror work from ACG's June-July 1967 issue of Unknown Worlds #56. Ken's style is very distinct, (we'll see a more familiar Landau look in the next post), but todays story feels a bit stripped down and stylized in a way that I'm not sure I've ever seen him attempt before visually, it's kind of cool for what is essentially a silly, 11-page adventure into the realm of monsters tale. Anyway, this is a leftover Halloween story that I never got around to posting last month because I was still out on a much needed vacation-- enjoy! (Cover art by Edvard Moritz.)