The Flies!

Flyday Fridays are back at THOIA! And wowzers, I'm not sure we've partaken a tale from Marvel's legendary Legion of Monsters #1 one-shot (September 1975) before, so I guess it's finally time to hear what all the buzzzz is about! The titanic, three-way team-up of Gerry Conway, Paul Kirchner, and Ralph Reese do a pretty consistent job of plopping real life side show actor / performer, Schlitzie into the horrible, humiliatin' action, though of course underground comix legend, Bill Griffith first popularized Schlitzie's likeness as Zippy the Pin Head in both comic books and syndicated strips just a few years earlier. This all coming about, of course, in large part thanks to the rediscovery of Todd Browning's 1932 cult classic, FREAKS, as it made it's grand revival through the 60's midnight movie circuit, and late-nite horror host show airings on the 'ol boob tube. Okay, with all of that out of the way, let's not forget to gaze longingly at the glorious cover painting by Neal Adams-- Yow! I guess I could've mentioned The Ramones here too...

Web of the Spider Woman

Spider Woman?!! But I thought Kars said we were done with hero stuff for a while! Annnnd indeed we are, as this is not a Marvel post, --but a creepy crawly Ace classic from the June 1953 issue of Hand of Fate #18. Artist Bill Molno densely packs every panel perfectly with loads of eerie atmosphere and lush line work, keeping the weird web motif spinning strongly in roof textures, foliage, fabrics, hair, fur --and fear! Artist George Roussos must have really loved that splash panel below, because a few months later he pulled quite a superb swiperoonie of it for the October 1953 cover of Out of the Shadows #10, just sayin'. Oh, and Happy Friday the 13th to each and every one of you today, too!

Jibaro Madness

Jungle Jitters time again, and this creepy crawlin' Bob Forgione entry from the January 1953 issue of The Thing #6 is so unexpectedly bonkers, it might even make a few of you lose your heads! And then this happens! And then this happens! And then this happens! Ah, Charlton comics, always a'callin' my shrunken, black, short attention span heart!

F-F-FROGS!

We were watching the 1972 drive-in film classic, FROGS the other night (click the title for a trailer), and about halfway through I remembered this silly send-up of it in the January 1973 issue of SPOOF #3. Lots of laugh out loud moments and highlighted with a Severin, Schwartzberg, and Trimpe three-way of awesome art --rivaling even the best era of MAD Magazine. This is one of the better examples of swampy 70's Silver Age Marvel madcappery, do enjoy! *ribbit!

I Can't Stop Screaming

Our awesome All Atlas August Fest continues now, and as mentioned I have quite a line-up of THOIA fan favorites coming up! If names like Russ Heath, Robert Q. Sale, Marty Elkin, etc sound exciting-- then you are definitely tombed to the right blog! And of course you can't have an Atlas Fest without some really good dick, --aka Ayers that is-- and saaaay, here he comes now, creepy crawlin' atcha from the joltin' June 1952 issue of Journey into Unknown Worlds #11.

Mangled in Madness

Springtime of course means spider-time in my neck of the woods, so let's weave up a creepy crawly, Silver Age classic from the Sept-October 1978 issue of The Unexpected #187. Be sure to slip into something a little more comfortable first though-- todays tale is a real drainer!

The Metamorphs

How about another creature-feature from the March 1969 issue of Boris Karloff's Tales of Mystery #25 (see our previous post as well.) Sci-fi horror can sometimes be a mixed bag, but sometimes-- like today's post-- they can really give ya the willies! You long-time THOIA'ers might even remember a similarly freaky ACG Forbidden Worlds tale that I posted here waaaay way back in 2007 called "Nightmare for Two" --check it out after today's shivery story! And adios to January finally too. Stay tombed for lots more in February, where things are doomed to be diabolically romantical, as usual...