Teeming with Screaming

My buddy Max was recently going through THOIA's August 2017 archive and noticed the trio of posts about swiped pre-code artwork re-used on mid century spook show posters (check the archive HERE if you missed it.) Finding it apparently "very interesting", even "amusing", he wrote to me asking my opinion on another one he believes that he's spotted: compare the werewolf head from the cover of the Jan - Feb 1952 issue of Forbidden Worlds #4, now singled-out and flipped horizontally for the "A Living Nightmare" spook show poster (see top right of the ad below:)



I suppose it could be, I mean it looks pretty close, but it definitely looks redrawn quite a bit as well. Not to mention, the original ACG werewolf is likely created from a Lon Chaney Jr. Wolf Man reference photo. What I do know for sure though is this: two of those bloody, severed lady heads in the spook show poster were absolutely lifted from the intense pulp illustration for Robert Bloch's "Head Man", originally featured in the May 1950 edition of Dime Mystery Stories!

The Shambler from the Stars!

Time to get October rollin' around here, and to kick the month off proper, we could maybe use a little something different than the usual, preferably something from a true master story teller. Robert Bloch is certainly one of the very scary best, and with some help from Ron Goulart, Jim Starlin, Tom Palmer, Roy Thomas, (and of course H. P. Lovecraft) how about a flash forward, Silver Age screamer from the February 1972 freak-out issue of Journey into Mystery #3.

















And after you read todays terrifying tale, CLICK HERE to immediately head over to my other blog to see what else I've conjured up from the evil pits of demonical darkness--

And the Blood Ran Green

One more scary sci-fi story for you guys, and also from the cool 'n creepy, and somewhat overlooked 70's Spacestream series by Whitman. And like our last tale, we find yet another eerie alien infection turning a routine exploration mission into a total freakin' nightmare-- this one adapted from "The Fear Planet", a really great story originally written by horror legend Robert Bloch.

From Starstream #4, (1976) with atmospheric art by Nevio Zaccara, and a freaky painted cover from Kees Romer.

The Black Dungeon

THOIA's beastly "Month to Beware" concludes with another Atlas reprint, this one from the May '74 issue of Beware! #8 (originally presented in the May '51 issue of Mystic #2.) This is a sprawling, eerie 8-pager with some nice Mike Sekowsky art, especially the stunning, but totally irrelevant splash.