Halloween is approaching, and I thought the board might appreciate a selection of classic horror stories from the presumed public domain.
"Dead Man's Tale" is from Avon's Eerie Comics #1 (1947). The issue, a one-shot, was the first US comic wholly devoted to horror stories. It wasn't the beginning of horror in US comics, though, as horror stories had appeared in other titles in supporting slots. Golden Age superhero stories often had a horror element too. Avon reprinted the story in Strange Worlds #1 and Out of This World Adventures #2.
The story reminds me of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp". This memorable short story was based on a 19th century play by Richard Brinsley Peake, which owed its plot to German literature. There's an article here by the author Helen Grant on the history of the theme.
The GCD credits the art, on the assessment of Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr., to Jon Small, pencils, and George Roussos, inks. Its page on Eerie Comics #1 doesn't currently have a writer credit, but its pages on the reprints note that it was credited in Out of This World Adventures #2 to E. J. Bellin, a pseudonym of Henry Kuttner.
The images are from Comic Book Plus. Click to enlarge.
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These two were also very good. On the Voodoo story, GCD noted that Kirby used the dropped doll ending in the first Puppet Master story (FF #8). He got better.
I nearly posted "The Feathered Serpent" from #21 as the second story, because of the splash and its reflection of Kirby view of history. But the two twists on "Dead Man's Lode!" p.7 both caught me by surprise.
The creepiest story I've read from the run is "Nasty Little Man!" from #18, which is unmissable if you've not seen it. I skipped it because I've seen it featured on the net in the past. It probably provided the model for the leprechaun in "Tim O'Casey's Wrecking Crew!" from Adventures of the Fly #2.
Ace’s horror stories use horror elements like vampires and werwewolves but are really fantasy tales that twist in unexpected directions. They’re out to entertain you, not to disturb you or gross you out.
The art varies from basic to really good. This story from Web of Mystery #22 (cover date, 1954) has impressive art by Lou Cameron. Was it the inspiration for Marvel’s Tigra?
Images from Comic Book Plus. Click to enlarge.
The art is good and the story is interesting. The creepiest element for me is that he raises the little girl he took home to exploit (originally) and then she becomes... his lover?
However, I think you may well have found the missing link between Cat People and Marvel's Tigra.
In horror comics you often see variations on the same ideas. A synopsis search at the GCD found me three more Ace stories on the tiger woman theme, "The Lady was a Tiger" in Baffling Mysteries #5, "Vengeance of the Tiger Queen" in Baffling Mysteries #12, and "The Last Hiding Place" in The Hand of Fate #25b. Marvel's Tigra is like a cross between Tigra above and that last version.
In the sequence with the mother p2 panel 4 the gunfire might be a sexual innuendo.
Some of Cameron's stories have great art power, including "The Maze Master" from Baffling Mysteries #20 and "Realm of Lost Faces" from Web of Mystery #24. But as a follow-up here's a goofier one from The Hand of Fate #21 (1953). The second half looks related to the cover of The Beyond #21, which appeared a few months earlier. Possibly the writer was asked to write a story using the cover idea.
Images from Comic Book Plus. Click to enlarge.
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Fiction House was a pioneer at disturbing comics horror. Its anthology story series "The Ghost Gallery" was a long-running feature in Jumbo Comics. In "The Werewolf Hunter" from Rangers Comics the narrator initially hunted werewolves, but before very long he was a general expert in the occult and the feature became better and very strange. Many instalments have striking art by Lily Renée. "The Secret Files of Dr. Drew" was a later feature in Rangers Comics. It was wonderfully well-drawn by Jerry Grandenetti, initially in Will Eisner's style - I assume he packaged the feature - and later in his own.
In the era of the horror boom Fiction House published Ghost Comics and Monster, and for the final seven issues of Jumbo Comics "The Ghost Gallery" took over the covers from Sheena.
Here are three more Fiction House stories, with memorable art by Bill Benulis and Jack Abel. First, a tale of supernatural horror in what might be Louisiana from The Monster #2 (1953):
This one from Ghost Comics #5 (1952) reminds me of "The Witch Hunter of Salem!" from ACG's Unknown Worlds #18. I suspect it's the same writer:
This one is gothic romance from Ghost Comics #7 (1953):
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