The Kukulkaton

Tom Sutton was another in the long line of awesome, later era artists to really blow my gradeschooler mind in the 70's. That organically loose, mutated style of his lended just as much to the creepy, high level concepts and monster designs, as to his doomed human characters fighting to stay alive with those beady little petrified pupil'd eyes poppin' outta their freaky faces! So now, enter The Kukulkaton (not to be confused with Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.) You get a murky glimpse of it on the cover of Monster Hunters #2 (Oct. '75), but to see it fully unleashed on the last page in all of its throbbing, Lovecraftian weirdness, well... I guess we all gasp 'n gooseflesh it with the tiny pupils once in a while, as well...

Phantom of the Rock Era

We're celebrating 150 years of Brian Barnes today with a birthday boy salute about a creepy old rocker. Ummm, nuff said? Brian had initially requested a few other Skywald terror tales but I'll be damned if I can remember what they were, --so if this one doesn't make the 'ol amplifiers squeal, then I guess I'll try again in another 150 years! Yes, it's truly amazing how close that cover art not only predicted Brian's current physical appearance and fashion sense, but also his "no-strap" guitar playing style. Happy birthday, we're all looking forward to the feedback! From the June 1971 issue of Nightmare #4.

Those Tentacles! / Slimes, Slogs and Glumps

The Charlton creeps are eruptin' from the deep today at THOIA, with a nice 'n icky drippy pair-up via the June 1975 issue of Ghostly Tales #106, as well as one from the November 1982 issue of Scary Tales #35 --and both illustrated by the terrifyingly terrific, Tom Sutton too! Things from the murky, lurky depths hold a special place in my heart-- maybe these slimy thingies will hold you in a special place-- in their stomaches! (2nd tale scans courtesy of Holden, thank you!)

The Creeping Death

Fans of H.P. Lovecraft's style of modern man facing ancient evil in the form of tentacled terror might enjoy this crazy (and very very sweaty) Rudy Palais tale from the March 1953 issue of Chamber of Chills #16. Metallica fans, you can come on down too... "so let it be written, so let it be done."

The Shambler from the Stars!

Time to get October rollin' around here, and to kick the month off proper, we could maybe use a little something different than the usual, preferably something from a true master story teller. Robert Bloch is certainly one of the very scary best, and with some help from Ron Goulart, Jim Starlin, Tom Palmer, Roy Thomas, (and of course H. P. Lovecraft) how about a flash forward, Silver Age screamer from the February 1972 freak-out issue of Journey into Mystery #3.

















And after you read todays terrifying tale, CLICK HERE to immediately head over to my other blog to see what else I've conjured up from the evil pits of demonical darkness--