Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Halloween. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Halloween Horrors AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES "Ghost Story"

Here's a never-reprinted 1950s comic book tale...

... that's both about law enforcement and justice from beyond the grave!
You may note the Joe Maneely-illustrated cover doesn't really match the Bill Everett-rendered tale from Atlas' Amazing Detective Cases #13 (1952)
There are several possible reasons for that.
1) the cover and interior art were done at two different points in time, sometimes months apart!
2) The cover artist didn't have copies of the interior pages as visual reference, only plot descriptions from the editor!
3) the cover was done before the interior art as a "springboard" and the actual writer/artist(s) made changes when they were creating the story!
All three of these reasons could (and did) apply to Atlas Comics' books if the story's artist didn't do the cover...as was the case most of the time!
From issues 1 to 10, Amazing Detective Cases was a "true crime" pulp magazine, then a comic, telling tales of (allegedly) real criminals!
From 11 to the final issue, 14, it became a horror comic, ending in 1952.
Please Support Crime & Punishment

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Halloween Horrors AMAZING DETECTIVE CASES "It's Time to Go, Higgins!"

Justice takes many forms...
...not all of them visible...to the innocent!
But the guilty, well that's another story...
Written by Carl Wessler and illustrated by Bill (not the basketball player) Walton, this never-reprinted tale from Atlas' Amazing Detective Cases #11 (1952) combines crime and (mild) horror!

Please Support Crime and Punishment
Visit Amazon and Order...

Friday, October 21, 2022

Halloween Horrors KEN SHANNON "Corpse that Wouldn't Sleep"

It's almost Halloween, so let's present a scary private eye story...
...from the 1950s, the era when horror comics were all the rage, starring private dick Ken Shannon, to whom this sort of thing happened quite often, as seen HERE!
This tale from Quality's Ken Shannon #3 (1952) was one of several cover-featured stories during his run that featured horror comics elements, though the "monsters" were fakes created to cover-up crimes!
The superb artwork by Reed Crandall makes up for the fairly obvious plotting by an unknown writer.
Please Support Crime and Punishment
Visit Amazon and Order...

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Halloween Horrors FERO: PLANET DETECTIVE "and the Vampires and Werewolves from Pluto!"

Welcome to the only blog that offers you the truth about a major threat to humanity!
We thought this is now the right time to reveal the awesome secret about vampires and werewolves kept from humanity for centuries!
They're from Pluto!
Really!
While Fero did return in the next issue of Planet Comics, the "vampires and werewolves from Pluto" plotline didn't!
In fact, Fero was, without explanation, now an "interplanetary detective" in a future version of New York City, and stayed there for the remainder of his four-issue run.
This premiere appearance in Fiction House's Planet Comics #5 (1940) is credited to "Allison Brant", a pseudonym used by writer/artist Al Bryant who did almost 400 stories during his decade-long career.

Please Support Crime and Punishment
Visit Amazon and Buy...

Saturday, October 2, 2021

Halloween Horrors KEN SHANNON "Vampire Mob"

It's Halloween season, so let's present a scary private eye story...
...from the 1950s, the era when horror comics were all the rage!
Ken Shannon started in 1950 when Police Comics dropped all their superheroes (including Plastic Man and The Spirit) in favor of crime stories.
Beginning with #103, Ken took the cover and lead story slot until #126.
Simultaneously, Ken received his own title, which ran for 10 issues.
As you can see from the story, Ken was the typical hard-boiled private dick with an internal monologue, obviously patterned after already-popular detectives like Sam Spade and Mike Hammer.
His only distinctive characteristic was that he was of Irish descent.
(In fact, his premiere tale was called "The Mad Irishman"!)
The art for almost all his tales (including this one) was by Reed Crandall, one of the best illustrators in the business who went on to become one of the mainstays of EC Comics, handling horror, war, romance and sci-fi with equal panache.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

THE SHADOW & DOC SAVAGE "Case of the Shrieking Skeletons" Part 2A

Strange creatures resembling human skeletons attack "Bernie" Reinstein, a young woman who barely manages to reach Doc Savage's 86th floor headquarters and explain to the Man of Bronze and aides Monk and Ham that her father, a noted geneticist recently-escaped from Nazi Germany, has disappeared!
The trio and Bernie return to the site of her attack to discover one of the creatures lying on the ground, then trace his tracks to a nearby warehouse where they encounter a cloaked and slouch-hatted man leaving the building, who shoots Monk, whose "bullet-proof underwear saves him.
Later, while Monk analyzes tissue samples from the creatures, Ham takes fingerprint samples to Police Commissioner Weston, who's having dinner at the Cobalt Club with Lamont Cranston.
After Ham leaves, Cranston departs and becomes The Shadow, who learns of a possible tie-in between a case he's working on and Doc Savage's investigation, and, with Harry Vincent, heads to Lakehurst Naval Air Station in his autogyro.
Savage goes with Reinstein to her fiance, Paul's, apartment.
Leaving her in his armored car, Doc checks out the deserted and ransacked abode, discovering a clue pointing to the same location The Shadow is heading for.
Bernie sees Paul hiding in a nearby alley and goes to him, but is grabbed by a masked figure.
Doc returns, finds his vehicle empty and calls Monk and Ham, who are under attack by giant monster-men!
The Man of Bronze dashes back to his headquarters, but it's too late.
His aides are gone.
Doc heads to the air base in his own autogyro.
Meanwhile, The Shadow has discovered his destination...the zeppelin Hindenberg, and boards it!
Finding his target, a Nazi scientist, the cloaked hero is about to question him when a guard interrupts the interrogation.
The Shadow escapes into the superstructure of the airship, where a nervous Nazi guard, despite being told not to use his firearm, shoots at the hero, but hits one of the hydrogen-filled gasbags...
"What's going on in there" is you're about to discover that trapping Doc Savage and The Shadow and keeping them are two totally-different matters!
Tomorrow:
the thrilling climax of this serialized saga at