Thrill Kill

"ThrillKill"

Published in 'Creepy' #75, November 1975
Written By: Jim Stenstrum
Art: Neal Adams



I'm a huge Neal Adams fan.

While most comic fans know him from his "Batman" work of the late 60's and 70's, he also did an amazing amount of horror comics. By 1975, Neal Adams had hit his artistic stride as one of the best in the business. His clean, realistic black-and-white style on 'ThrillKill' fits the story perfectly. Pay attention to the use of white space in the panels.

Many people consider 'ThrillKill' one of the greatest horror comic stories of all time. I consider it a great showcase of Neal Adams talents. The fact is the story is based on the Tower Sniper Charles Whitman an ex-Marine who killed 14 people and wounded 32 others during a shooting rampage on and around the University of Texas's campus on August 1, 1966. I believe the "didn't want to go alone" aspect of the story is Stenstrum's.

Creepy and Eerie often pulled the scare tactics of their stories 'closer to reality' to frighten older audiences. This one certainly did. It could actually happen. It did.

Thanks to the Grantbridge Street & other misadventures blog for putting an excellent scan of this story online.

Satan's Child

Did you know there used to be 80 and 100 page comics? And they cost a buck (or less). With comics that size, you needed prolific talent to fill those pages. Which brings us to Jack Oleck...



Jack Oleck is a name you should know. Sadly, it's tough to find much information on him. The earliest scripting credit I can find for Mr. Oleck is from 1948 ('Young Romance' #4). The latest scripting credit is House of Mystery #287 from 1980. That's 32 years of writing comics. He passed away in 1981.

The brother-in-law of Joe Simon, Oleck could crank out a script every day, and did. I consider Jack Oleck one of the last of the pulp writers. He wrote professionally for a living which means he wrote A LOT. A former WW2 sergeant with a flair for scare, he was the perfect fit for DC's 'Weird War Tales' through the 70's. I couldn't post a list of best horror comics without Jack Oleck.

The reason I chose this particular story was for the art. Before he was known for 'Marvel Zombies' and 'Deadpool', Arthur Suydam was in 'House of Mystery', 'Heavy Metal' and 'House of Secrets'. His style of 'comix grotesque' worked amazingly well with Oleck's script on "Satan's Child".

As always, click on the House of Mystery 256 image above to open the pdf.

Time To Poll

P.S. My choices are viewable on the Submissions page

Time To Poll

“The Haunted Mountain”


Originally Published: “Unexpected” Vol. 21, issue 175, DC Comics, Sept/Oct 1975
Written By: George Kashdan
Art By: Eufronio Reyes (“E.R.”) Cruz
Editor: Murray Boltinoff
Assistant Editor: Jack C. Harris
Cover Art to ‘Unexpected’ #175: Luis Dominguez

One of the greatest comic horror stories of all time? Probably not. But this is one I would certainly classify as a hidden gem. The beautiful and stylized inks of E.R. Cruz give the sense the we are balancing on the side of a mountain.

Normally, covers sell comics. Companies spend a lot of money on cover art with good reason. With respect to Luis Dominguez, E.R. Cruz's seven pages of interior artwork DESTROYS this cover. Check out the expression below of the 'Witch' Countess Freida Von Koerner and tell me if anyone does it better these days:




Kashdan's story is what we expect from 'The Unexpected' as he was one of the most prolific writers of the series. It's a cautionary tale of the repercussions of fear and violence, especially when your target is a witch. Kashdan and Cruz both did some great work throughout their long careers in both comics and animation.

At any point, I think its high time I expanded my 'Unexpected' collection...

Foul Play!

“Foul Play!”


Originally Published: “The Haunt of Fear” #19, EC Comics, May-June 1953
Writer: Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein
Art By: Jack Davis
Colored By: Marie Severin
Editor: Bill Gaines

If there were ever two people meant to work together in the comic business, it was Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein. While they did not 'invent' horror comics, they certainly revolutionized them. They were also able to bring in some of the greatest artists of the time, Jack Davis being one of them.

Both Gaines and Feldstein have admitted 'Foul Play!' (published in 1953) may have pushed the envelope a little far. It's fair to say that E.C. Comics was the primary reason the Comics Code Authority was created and that the Code was created to get rid of E.C. Comics. Just think of what comics would be like today without thirty years of draconian censorship...

For changing the game, 'Foul Play' must be considered one of the greatest horror comic stories of all time.

Secrets of Haunted House #17

Finally.

I remember reading a story in one of the DC 'scary' titles when I was 10. The story was set in Harlem during the thirties and for some reason, it's one of the stories I remember as a kid, but I could never remember which title it was from! It wasn't Wrightson, or Adams, or Toth, but it stuck. Searches on the GCD site proved fruitless as well.

As the proud owner of DC's "House of Mystery" run of issues 174 to 321, I knew it wasn't HOM.

"House of Secrets"? Maybe, but I own a lot of those too. Still, I couldn't rule out later HOS issues.

"Unexpected"? This seemed most likely. I thought the title was 'Papa Joe'. Google searches on that title turned up countless links to Britney Spears father.

"Ghosts"? Maybe. The whole plot twist is that the old man sitting on the steps turns out to be a zombie, but Ghosts usually dealt with the spectral form of the undead.

But then there was 'Secrets of Haunted House'. I always looked at SoHH as the 'extra' DC mystery title, even though there were some fine stories in there.

A gamble purchase of the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo this weekend paid off. The mystery was solved. "Secrets of Haunted House", issue 17.

The title is "Papa Don". Written by Greg Potter and art by Noly Panaligan. So for anyone else out there looking for a story about an African zombie sitting on the steps of a Harlem apartment building, I hope you stumble across my post.