Which Wish, Dish?

From the March 1955 issue of Mystic #36 (the very last precode issue from this series before they added the hideous comic code stamp of approval *gag!) And leave it to Jay Scott Pike to illustrate one of the most gorgeous bad girls of them all... she actually kind of reminds me of a Silver Age era Buscema gal! Anyway, be careful what you wish for, already!!

Dark Journey! / The Phantom Bus

POST UPDATE: I had a busy week (actually "traumatizing" might be a better word for it) and forgot that I had planned to make this a "dark journey" double feature, --so here's the other story I absent-mindedly left out: "The Phantom Bus" from the September 1952 issue of The Unseen #6. We repo'd this one in the July 2015 issue of Haunted Horror #18, but it somehow never made its way here to THOIA, despite being one of my George Roussos favorites. I also included a ghostly half-pager from the same issue, which may have already been posted here somewhere over the years, I fergit. And of course, from the July-August 1953 issue of Skeleton Hand #6, comes a creepy tale of witchcraft and time travel gone oh-so horribly wrong. And to be honest, that's exactly the way I like it. I also dig that this one feels more like an ironically humorous Atlas quickie, and less the typical ACG happy ending that we've seen around here so many times before. 

Doorway to Horror

Earlier this month we took a stairway to madness, now it's time to open an epic doorway to horror! From the November 1951 one-shot issue of World's Beyond #1, and featuring loads of atmospheric Sheldon Moldoff artwork, --this one's lengthy, but frightfully fun. We have a few more horror doors to still open before the big night comes down on the 31st, so what's everyone got planned this year? Something terrifying, I hope!

The Throwback!

Like our previous post, here's another weird Fiction House entry, this time from the Winter 1953 issue of Ghost Comics #9, and with art by Bill Discount. It's a kooky circus freak tale that quickly devolves into a time-warped tale of prehistoric cavemen and cavewomen gone wild! Prepare yourself for--

The Slaying of Joshua Sprague!

There's a lot to beware this November here at THOIA, as I've suddenly decided to keep the blasphemous Beware! Terror Tales train a'rollin' for a few more posts, anyway. And this is an eerily illustrated Andru / Esposito classic with a gnarly mix of satanic supernatural, time travel, and brutal execution-- seriously, don't read this if you have a splitting headache! From the July 1952 issue of Beware! Terror Tales #2. CLANG!

His Father's Secret!

THOIA celebrates Father's Day today with an appropriately themed time-travelin' tale o'terror, illustrated by Dick Ayers and Ernie Bache and from the March 1953 issue of Astonishing #23. I have a few other things lined up on our schedule first, but now that I have this eerie issue pulled out, we might take a look at a couple more stories from it later this month too, (no secrets!) --so stay tombed...