Thursday, September 30, 2010

Sisters of the Witch / The Witch's Claws

Two tales of weird witchcraft from the Gold and Silver Age plunge you headlong into a month of horrific Halloween madness and October Eve thrills 'n chills! Of course, it's like that around here all year long anyway so for some it'll just be a continuation of what we do best. "Sisters of the Witch" is from the '53 issue of Tales of Horror #5, and "The Witch's Claws" is from the Oct. '74 issue of Terror Tales Vol 6 No 5.












Sunday, September 26, 2010

Hand of Fate!

There's a brutal beast terrorizing the moors, in this second eerie offering from Tales of Horror #5 from 1953. "Hand of Fate" title aside, is it just me or does this story look and feel more like something Ace would have published in one of their horror mags?











Friday, September 24, 2010

Mask Bawl (FANTASTIC FELIX FRIDAY!)

We interrupt our regularly scheduled tales of screaming bloody horror for-- FANTASTIC FELIX FRIDAY! A one-of-a-kind, groundbreaking internet event where eight bloggers of historical comic material join forces in support of "Felix: The Great Comic Book Tails" (IDW/Yoe! Books), a beautiful hardback, full color, art book that lovingly collects the best of brilliant Felix the Cat comic book stories from the 1940s and 50s. In an enthusiastic, united effort, classic Felix comic stories will be posted on each blog today, Friday September 24th (more details listed below after the story.) Some of the "tails" seen on the blogs are from the new book, and some are from the bloggers personal collections of comics featuring Felix. So fear not THOIA freaks, the Felix story that Karswell has picked for you today still features ghosts, witches, dragons, shotgun blasts, etc.







































































































































































































As mentioned above, each blogger is linking to the other participating blogs, creating a Felix Maelstrom of Mirth throughout the blog-o-sphere! The other participating blogs are as follows:


Craig Yoe edited this amazing book, which is jam-packed with rare Felix art, ephemera, animation insights, and, of course, a plethora of comic book stories by Otto Messmer, Joe Oriolo, and Jim Tyer. And Don Oriolo, the son of Joe Oriolo, and head of Felix the Cat Productions, wrote the heartfelt introduction!

Click HERE to get your copy NOW!



















Craig Yoe is an Eisner-winning, Harvey-nominated writer, cartoonist that Vice magazine called "The Indiana Jones of comics historians." Other Yoe! Books include: "Dick Briefer's Frankenstein," "Barney Google: Gambling, Horse Racing, and High-Toned Women," "Dan DeCarlos' Jetta," "The Art of Ditko," "The Golden Collection of Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics," "The Complete Milt Gross Comic Books and Life Story," "George Herriman's Krazy & Ignatz in Tiger Tea," "Popeye: The Great Comic Book Tales by Bud Sagendorf," and "The Great Treasury of Christmas Comic Book Story."

Monday, September 20, 2010

The Man Who Lost His Shadow!

"The Man Who Lost His Shadow!" is the first story in Tales of Horror #5 from 1953, with art presented by the great tag-team creative duo of Ben Brown & David Gantz. These guys did some super fine work together in the pre-codes and THOIA has posted quite a few of their tales from a variety of publishers, most notably for Atlas, but especially fun is the insane numbskullery of the perplexing Purple Claw series (check the archives by clicking HERE!)























































































































Vintage AD

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Revelations in Black

I was having another one of many great classic horror literature chats recently with Happy Undertaker artist / extraordinaire Drazen Kozjan, when the name of Weird Tales pulp writer Carl Jacobi came up. This in turn reminded Drazen of some incredible scans he had of a gorgeously inked, and possibly unpublished Frank Robbins story based on Jacobi's puzzling vampire vixen tale "Revelations in Black." The odd lay-out format of this complete story had us both wondering where this tale was intended for eventual publishing, reminding us both of Pyramid Books "Christopher Lee's Treasury of Terror" paperback from 1966 (check the THOIA Archive for examples.) Somebody got billed for it, so why wasn't it ever used? Or was it? Does anyone have information about this wonderfully atmospheric adaptation? Let us know!

[If Master Karswell will pardon my inserting a larger note here-- for those who find this story entertaining and wish to find more, Arkham House published 3 collections of his stories: Revelations in Black, Portraits in Moonlight, and Disclosures in Scarlet. Sadly, all are out of print, but diligent library-seeking should let you find them (I have read and enjoyed Revelations that way). Interlibrary loaning is a powerful tool! -- Nequam]

Thanks again to Drazen for the scans, and of course tune into Strange Kid's Club every Friday for a brand new Happy Undertaker tale!