She Stalks at Sundown

Time now for a lurid, Lou Cameron, cat-girl classic, clawing its way at you from the January 1954 issue of Web of Mystery #22. Full of juicy good-girl art, and jungle jitters galore, I'm actually kind of surprised that I've never posted this one here at THOIA before. And meanwhile, I'm equally as baffled as to why it didn't make it into Cameron's Unsleeping Dead hardcover collection, via The Chilling Archives. We also have another beautiful "blonde in peril" cover design by mad man Jim McLaughlin, --plus, tacked on at the very end to round things out nicely, a shivery "Tale of Unexplained Mystery" by Sy Grudko concerning a macabre magic mirror...

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!

Mirror Macabre

It's February and wedding bells are a'ringin'! And what's a good present to give to the lovely couple after all is said, dead, and completely, utterly done for? Nice art throughout from Louis Zansky, and an equally cool cover here by Dick Beck. From the April 1953 issue of Hand of Fate #17, oh, and we'll be seeing more Ace atrocities all next month as well, --that's your head's off, errr, UP I mean, to always remember to stay eternally tombed and terrified...

No Harm Done on the Witches' Sabbat + Norman Was Right!

Like many of you this evening, THOIA is also dressin' up to paint the town orange 'n black (and red) with costumes and candy and all kinds of wicked Witches' Sabbat shenanigans. Now where did I put that sacrificial dagger, anyways? And oh, look at 'ol Norman over there, hookin' up with the absolute purrrrfect girl of his screams-- err, dreams, via the April 1952 issue of Suspense #17! She will most certainly have a bone or two to pick clean with him before the night is over! But first up, let's do what everybody loves the most on a night like this, and that's playing a spooky prank on an unsuspecting victim! Yesss, hee-hee, we've got our sights set on someone in particular-- let's just hope we can actually pull it off without a horrible hitch, --from the April '54 issue of Shocking Mystery Cases #58. Everyone have a great holiday, and Mr. Karswell hopes you all enjoyed this month of petrifyin' posts. See you in November for lots rots more-- HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Step into the Mirror of Madness!

One final Marvel Tale for you today, and then we'll get back to the usual mix of other publishers (hope everyone enjoyed this brief journey into early Atlas horrorland) --and this is a really good entry about a hypnotically evil mirror portal straight to Hell. Thirty-eight years after this story from the August 1949 issue of Marvel Tales #93 was published, John Carpenter would direct his brilliant film, Prince of Darkness (1987) which also contains the same [SPOILER ALERT] axe shattering mirror thus trapping loved one for all eternity in other world limbo climax. Hope you enjoy another THOIA unhappy ending!

The Flat Man / Crazy Glass

A couple of flatso fright tales for you today, both from the May 1952 issue of Spellbound #3 --and if you check the Atlas Tales link a few words back with the THOIA Archive, you'll discover that like our last post, this is also another FULL ISSUE PRESENTATION! Okay, some of you might remember the other much more hilariously violent "Flat Man" story I posted way back in 2007 (CLICK HERE), but I believe you will find this one smashing too-- just pay close attention to what he says in the 5th panel on page 3 so you're not dwelling on what seems like a giant stupid plot hole-- PLUS, rounding everything out with the confusingly kooky "Crazy Glass" quickie.









SLIMMER! NOT FLATTER!!