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.