The Case of the Vampire Murders

Let us now open one last case file from the luridly lively, pulp-fisted, Bentley of Scotland Yard series from Pep Comics. And up to this point, all of the stories we've seen so far have been from the later Paul Reinman illustrated era... well now we're rollin' the clock way back for an even early entry, via the September 1940 issue of Pep Comics #8, where we find that the great Sam Cooper has taken over the art duties. Everyone seems to have enjoyed these posts, so don't be surprised if Bentley pays us another visit sometime before the summer's end. Stay tombed, lots more on the way!

Duke of Darkness vs. Professor Evil

As some of you already know, I like to throw a superhero horror tale atcha here every once in a while to keep things interesting. And this one is not only very innnnteresting, it's also The Duke of Darknessessess's very first action-packed appearance, --and it's all pretty damn funny too! From the October 1945 issue of K-O Komics #1 (PLEASE NOTE that I usually link to the GCD issue info here, but it doesn't seem to be responding at the moment for whatever reason, and you definitely don't want to miss the great Jack Kirby cover on this one too!) Anyway, if you're one to skip these horror hero posts because you're too cool 'n snobby, then I beg you to reconsider and at least give it a try, it's tons of fun (and funny), especially if you enjoy supernatural stuff like The Spirit, or The Spectre. Did I mention this story is also funny?

Dark Journey! / The Phantom Bus

POST UPDATE: I had a busy week (actually "traumatizing" might be a better word for it) and forgot that I had planned to make this a "dark journey" double feature, --so here's the other story I absent-mindedly left out: "The Phantom Bus" from the September 1952 issue of The Unseen #6. We repo'd this one in the July 2015 issue of Haunted Horror #18, but it somehow never made its way here to THOIA, despite being one of my George Roussos favorites. I also included a ghostly half-pager from the same issue, which may have already been posted here somewhere over the years, I fergit. And of course, from the July-August 1953 issue of Skeleton Hand #6, comes a creepy tale of witchcraft and time travel gone oh-so horribly wrong. And to be honest, that's exactly the way I like it. I also dig that this one feels more like an ironically humorous Atlas quickie, and less the typical ACG happy ending that we've seen around here so many times before. 

Waltz of the Vampire

The blood screaming image at the bottom left of page one below contains another panel I've seen taken out of context and shared all over the www for the last few years, so if you were ever curious about where it originally came from then look no further, --or look in the April 1941 issue of Blue Ribbon Comics #11. This is also another weird war era hero vs. horror tale that we've occasionally been looking at here at THOIA to variety things up a bit, annnnd if you're not familiar with spooky supe "Mr. Justice", then CLICK HERE to find out what his actual deal is. But this is a fun, fast paced frolic of fear with vampires and nazis, plus a 40's style musical dance number even! Maybe we'll look at another Mr. Justice story before the month is over, stay tombed...

Black Dust

Some of you THOIA readers know about my undying love for Larry Blamire and his incredible 1950’s-esque comedy horror/sci-fi film tribute The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. But what some of you may not realize is that yesterday Larry graciously plugged THOIA on his brand spankin’ new Bantam Street blog (click HERE!) and of course now I'm uncontrollably grinning like a fleshless skull. So to show my continued appreciation today I’m posting another western horror tale for Larry and his posse, this one from the March – April 1953 issue of Skeleton Hand #4 (ooo, "skeleton" …ironic, ain’t it?)

And learn more about Larry Blamire's own great weird westerns by clicking HERE! NEXT: The other Harvey tale that I promised ya!

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PLUS: A Prospector Pete Bonus!

(Totally forgot where I scanned this from--- sorry!)