Mystery Master

Croydon Publishing Co. delivered to us a pair of nifty 1940's "Mystery Master" horror tales, both of which can be found in the pages of the equally short-lived Variety Comics series. Running a mere 3 "mixed bag" issues, Mystery Master may have looked more like Ben Franklin than The Cryptkeeper, but he still stood out among the superhero, cops 'n robbers, and comedy selections featured in 2 of the 3 issues --and managed to spin a couple of superb chillers as well! A mad science experiment turns truly monstrous in "The Web", from the dynamic debut issue of Variety Comics #1 (1944), followed by a sinisterly swingin' old dark house set-up in "The Mystery of the Eccentric Collector", via Variety Comics #3 from 1946. According to GCD, the latter story artwork is credited to Leo Bachle, the first tale remains uncredited.

House of Wax!

APRIL FOOLS! It's not "House of Wax" at all-- it's "House of Whacks!" hahaha from the December 1953 debut issue of Mad #1! APRIL FOOLS! It's not from the December 1953 issue of Mad #1 at all either, it's actually from the December 1953 issue of Eh! #1 published by EC-- errr, April Fools uhhgain, --from Charlton. Eh! ran 700 issues... April Foo... ehhhh... that's to say, 7 issues total before calling it quits, just like I'm calling it quits with this rather annoyingly foolish gag o'my own! And if you think this intro is full of tired attempts at humor, wait'll you get a load of this vampire story, because it's incredibly funny, and totally unique and oooo boy... April freakin' Fools for probably the last goddamn time ever. Yeesh, even the Sam Spade Wild-Root hair tonic advertisment that I tossed onto the end of this post is somehow way sillier!

The Wax Museum

I have nine, weird wax museum stories in the THOIA Archive-- the last one added back in 2019. So let's make it an even odd tenth terrifyin'  tale today, and this time with Don Rico turning up the hellacious, haunting heat! From the February 1951 issue of Marvel Tales #99!

I Was Trapped in Horror House!

Again with a first person titled post-code freak-out tale this week, --because it's all about YOU, dear doomed reader, muhhh-hahah, --featuring awesome art by yet another pre-code horror legend, and this time it's petrifyin' Paul Reinman leading the journey into jolting terror! We'll definitely be visiting a few more haunted houses before the month is out, so get ready for some serious spook overload! From the July 1960 issue of Journey into Mystery #59.

Dead Right!

We'll stick with the strange and suspenseful stories for a few more posts, and here's one by good 'ol Steve Ditko from the May 1954 issue of Strange Suspense Stories #18. I've had a few requests for more precode Ditko, so here ya's go with one of his most eerie entries ever-- a sort of encore presentation of it in case you didn't see our reprint in Haunted Horror #29.













When you're addicted to horror comics...

The Wax Man! / Ordeal by Wax!

I took my son to our local wax museum here in STL last month, and we had so much fun I thought that I'd take you all on a terrifying trip to one as well! Our first tale in today's doomed double feature via THE HORRORS OF IT ALL WEIRD WAXWORKS COLLECTION is from the March 1953 issue of Chamber of Chills #16, followed by a steamy little number from the December 1952 issue of Weird Mysteries #2  --some of you might remember this one from Haunted Horror #15.