The Real McCoy! / Death at the Carnival! / The Trainer!

We ended August with a burial scheme money grab failure fiasco, so let's kick off September with another phony baloney buffoon trying his damnedest to rake in some serious blood bucks! Long-time THOIA followers might remember "The Real McCoy!" when we first presented it HERE back in 2009, but it was the black 'n white repo version. Well, here it comes again, only this time we can finally view it in all of its pleading, limb hacked gory glory! From the July - August 1954 one-shot debut issue of The Clutching Hand #1 via ACG, and featuring some outstanding artwork by the ever underrated Paul Gustavson. And not to be outdone there, I've also included two hysterical Harry Lazarus one page fillers featuring even more "smart" guys getting their brutal, just desserts. (NOTE: If anyone feels the need to point out the obvious plot hole in "The Trainer!" though, please don't. We all see it. We all know it. Don't be that guy. Please.)

Web of Horror

The world wide web can be a horrible place for sure, --but so can a cemetery! And that's why today it's time to oopsie-daisy on the old "bury 'em now / dig 'em up later for money" routine. And as usual, we archival specialists of THOIA trickster atrocities discover (yet again, sigh) that this fatally flawed "fast one" rarely ever actually works. From the same revolting, jolting, July - August 1951 issue of Weird Adventures #2 as our previous post. GCD believes the art here is by eerie Ed Moline, unfortunately, nobody has a clue about that great flaming dungeon cover design. We'll be back shortly tho because OMG it's already almost September again! Where does the time go as we lay here pondering what comes next? Under 6 feet of dirt. Air growing thinner. The sound of worms churning. So dark. Are my eyes open, or closed? When did I last clear my web browser history cache? Stay. Tombed.

The Night the Statues Walked

Time for one of Lou Cameron's better, oft reprinted / reworked Ace classics, originally from the July 1953 issue of Web of Mystery #19 (as seen here.) This is a fast paced, ferocious tale of rampaging statues in a spooky old museum, and is seriously as funny at times as it is brutal. Tales of grotesque golems on the loose are no stranger to THOIA, or Hollywood for that matter, because once the military get involved here this story begins to remind me of IT! (1967) starring Roddy McDowell. Thinking about it even more, this Cameron crusher would have been a fun project for Ray Harryhausen to bring to life upon the silver screen-- what he created with the terrifying Talos statue in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) is unforgettable and forever frightening.

The Machine!

How many tales of tragic time machine tomfoolery do you believe exist in the realm of sci-fi / horror comic books? I couldn't even begin to fathom how many there are just posted right here on this blog alone-- but I'm sure it's a lot! And yeah, the best ones always seem to involve some crumb bum crook trying to escape the law by violently taking advantage of an innocent scientist. And with that said --here's one more that literally checks every single one of those exact dadburn bloody boxes! From the March '52 issue of Suspense #15, with artwork by the eternally great, Werner Roth. 

The House of Fear!

As promised, here comes another DC Movie Comic adaptation of a creaky, old Universal fright film classic (see our previous post for Son of Frankenstein in case you missed it!) And this time it's a spooky detective mystery set in a haunted theatre --where murder hath taken the stage! From the August 1939 issue of Movie Comics #5, "The House of Fear" '39 film (not to be confused with the great Sherlock Holmes movie of the same name from 1945) was actually a silver scream remake of Paul Leni's "The Last Warning" from 1928, which was, in turn, an apparent follow-up to Leni's superb 1927 old dark horror house hit, "The Cat and the Canary" --whew! Fun stuff, and just like the Movie Comics version of Son of Frankenstein, hot pink House of Fear here contains the same condensed, cut 'n paste process of colorized, cropped film stills, combined with added artistic elements to keep things as comic book cartoony as possible.

The Old Mill

As mentioned in my intro to the previous post, THOIA turns 19 in a few weeks (July 12th to be exact!), so let's spend the lead-up to that date with a few scary stories that made a huge impact on Mr. Karswell as a young 6 year old just discovering comics in the 70's. My grandmother had taken me antiquing in Farmington MO, and I found and purchased (with my own allowance!) a large stack of mind blowing, coverless horror comics. To say these changed my life would be a serious understatement, --because here I am a half century later still going gaga over them! And notably, a few of these comics that I found that day turned out to be Marvel titles like Crypt of Shadows and Vault of Evil, and these of course contained reprints of the amazing Atlas era precode stories of the 50's-- including this joltin' Gene Colan lead-off grinder from the August 1973 issue of Vault of Evil #4. My copy was not only missing that intense Frank Brunner cover, but also the first two pages of today's Colan story. But I still loved it, and re-read it countless times, over and over, giggling crazily about the funny, gruesome fate of Kurt Braun. More terror tales that shivered 'n shook my poor, pre-teen bones coming up next, so stay tombed! ("The Old Mill" originally appeared in the July 1952 issue of Strange Tales #8.)

Clinging Corpse

Time to ring in the new month with a clingy classic about a corpse that just can't stop hangin' around! This is a real nice quickie crime corker filler from Mort Meskin, and can be found in the back-up pages of the Feb - March 1954 issue of Frankenstein #29. Lots more on the way too as THOIA is about to enter its 19th year of ominous existence on the 'ol weird wide web! Can ya believe it?!! NINETEEN! And yeah, I'm counting that one busted year when Blogger went bonkers. But unholy cows, we're still alive 'n still clingin' around yer necks somehow-- I'm just as surprised as you, TBH! 

"Ghostly Killer" / "Death on Display"

Gale forces are still blowin' strong here at THOIA, as we re-enter Earth's atmosphere, leaving behind Gale Allen and her space-age Girl Squadron (see our previous post HERE), thus, landing once more back on solid, blood-soaked soil to find not one, but TWO great, horror-tinged, Gail Ford murder mysteries awaiting us! Yep, someone's dumped a dead dame amongst the dummies in a department store window display. Now it's up to Gail (and her Bettie Page bangs 'n legs) to bring the baddie to justice! From the October 1950 debut issue of Crime Smashers #1, plus fun art and fast paced script from Gene Leslie! But first, Gail gasps it up in a graveyard at midnight as someone has once again turned a gal into a ghost! Gene Leslie delivers another daring, detective doozy, this time via the December 1950 issue of Crime Smashers #2! And just because it's been awhile, it's casting call time again: Starring Broderick Crawford as Inspector Madson, and Jean Brooks as beautiful, bad ass-- Gail "Girl Friday" Ford!