Rudy Palais: Ghosts & Playmates

We're heading into the weekend now with a fun Friday Frights tribute post to Rudy Palais, (because why not?), featuring an assortment of 60's Silver Age filler quickies that he produced for a variety of creepy Charlton comic book titles, in this case the May 1967 debut issue of The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #1, as well as the January 1967 issue of Ghostly Tales #59. As everyone can see, Rudy stayed just as uniquely weird (and sweaty!) as ever in relation to his ghastly Golden Age era works, and I'll never stop being aggravated that we never got around to publishing that Palais hardcover artist's edition for IDW, --arghhh! Also included today: a handful of appropriately spooky ads to really make you feel like a kooky lil kid again. I also think we'll just stick with a Charlton mix for the rest of the month, and if anyone has any complaints about that you can take it up with dear 'ol Doctor Graves!

Hemlock Shomes and Dr. Potsam in "The Morgue Moider Mystery", and "The Case of Tintype's Will", and finally (whew!) Spookington Castle!

After the mention of "comedy gold" in our previous post comments, I thought that it was finally time to maybe put together a "Funny Friday Frolic of Frights" here at THOIA. But then I ran out of time yesterday, and decided that "Spoofy Slapstick Silly Saturdays" had a better ring to it (but does it?) So here we go with 3 highly hysterical Hemlock Shomes and Dr. Potsum Golden Age filler stories from Fox Publications-- because who of course is better to spoof and slap silly than everyone's favorite detective duo-- Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson! The stories (in scrollin' order below) originate from: The Green Mask #2, Mystery Men Comics #1 and #2, and are all funtastically written and illustrated by Fred Schwab.

Marry Me in My Grave

Almost forgot that I had a weekly weird wedding theme planned for June! So here's another one then finally, from the April 1973 issue of DC's The Unexpected #146, highlighted by one of Ernie Chan's coolest 70's title treatments ever! I'd also like to make a challenge to everyone here today to see how many of you can actually leave a comment without mentioning anything about the maid's name from this story. Good luck to all you Captain's of the obvious!

The Witch of Wailing Woods

Let's get June 2024 a'rockin' and a'rollin' with a hero vs. horror leftover that I had scheduled to post a few months back-- it's Plastic Man and his pudgy pal Woozy vs. a deadly voodoo doll dabblin, va-va-va-voom vvitch in a haunted house of fist pummelin' hilarity! Plus: bats, cats, a brutal goon duo, and even a couple of werewolves (which I guarantee you are not pronouncing correctly!) Great writing and wonderful, wild art, --I mean, it's not Jack Cole but it's pretty dang close thanks to the superb team-up of Alex Kotzky and Chuck Cuidera on pencils and inks! Guaranteed action-packed plasticity and fright-filled fun from the July 1953 issue of Plastic Man #42.

The Cobras

We've been looking at some deadly serious crime horror tales for a few posts now, and it's time for one more! But let's throw a little bit more fun on the fire and make it a Mr. and Mrs. Chase mystery in an old haunted mansion! Adding to the recipe: a gang of Bowery Boy wannabes who call themselves "The Cobras", sprinkled with some eye poppin' leggy / bondage good girl art, plus a few mad cap monsters mixed into the maniacal Lou Morales mayhem, and you have yourself one heckuva crazy wild ride from the Jan. '53 issue of Crime and Justice #11. This should've been turned into an old B-movie!