R.I.P. Don Perlin (1929 - 2024)

News has just surfaced that dynamite Don Perlin passed away a few weeks back at the age of 94, and THOIA honors his comic book greatness with a precode double feature from his astounding days at Atlas. "Death, Where is Thy Sting?" is from the December 1953 issue of Astonishing #28, and "The Dinner Guest" can be found in the October 1954 issue of Astonishing #35. And after the posts, find out more about Don Perlin by CLICKING HERE!

The Mummy Walks

We haven't had an anti-commie laugh fest in a while around here (or a mummy tale!), so let's kill two bonkers birds with one silly story in this confusingly cornball classic from the May 1954 issue of Crazy #6. Sol Brodsky does his Mad Magazine-esque best with the madcap material, so don't blame me...

Daughter of Doom

Just when you thought you'd read every story about Satanic cursed salamander cloaks, along comes the Daughter of Doom, from the March 1955 issue of Beware #14. NOTE: Beware #14 was the last precode issue from this occasionally terrific Trojan series.

"To Sneak... Perchance to Scream!"

Got another one from the same issue of Marvel's Giant-Size Chillers (as seen in our last post), this one a request from "Greg from the Grave" who had this issue as a kid and wanted to revisit the story about "the haunted house that tells the story." Well, this is the one my friend, and it's by Tom Sutton, deliverin' his usual awesome art, as well as a little bit of Harvey Kurtzman-esque humor tossed into the mix. I like these types of tales told from an inanimate object point of view-- for another example check the archive for "I, The Coffin" (the second story after you click the link.)

Back from the Grave + Creepshow

The undead continue their insatiable attack upon THOIA this month with a weird one from Stan Lee and Fred Kida, from the November 1952 issue of Astonishing #19. And as a bonus, we have the first half of a lengthy, 20 page Creepshow article from the Fall 1982 issue of Cinefantastique Vol. 15 #1. It's a fascinating piece on the best pre-code horror inspired film ever-- enjoy!

(to be continued...)

Traitor's House

Here's a freaky one for you from Fiction House Magazine's Monster #1 (1953.) And as you can see in the bottom righthand corner of the splash, art credits go to Anthony D'Adamo, who manages to pull out a number of wonderfully eerie moments throughout (note: under the art direction of Jerry Iger no less!), most noteably, in the page 5 panel of the guy trapped in the see-thru casket, as well as the insane materialization of evil spirit faces on the final page. I'll have another tale from this issue in our next post too...