Thursday, October 31, 2024

CountDown to Halloween 2024 WEIRD TERROR "Wage-Earners" aka TALES OF VOODOO "Devil's Zombie"

There's lots of talk this election year about "job creators"!
But the wise politician (and everybody else) should worry about the ones on the other end of the food chain, as Henry Mason discovers...
This tawdry tale from Comic Media's Weird Horror #1 (1951) was illustrated by C A Winter.
The writer is unknown.
C A Winter aka Charles Allan Winter aka Chuck Winter was a major contributor to comics from 1939 to 1957, doing penciling and inking on several hundred stories in every genre from horror to sci-fi to funny animal at almost every company.
Before comics, he worked in advertising.
Though it couldn't be reprinted, due to the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority, which had cracked down on such over-the-top material after the "Seduction of the Innocent" controversy of the 1950s, the script was re-used verbatim in a redrawn version for inclusion in a b/w magazine...where the Comics Code didn't apply!
Golden/Silver Age artist Dick Ayers rendered this story for Eerie Publications' b/w magazine Tales of Voodoo #8 (V3N3) in 1970, just before the Comics Code loosened up restrictions on various monsters and bloodletting in color comics...which would've permitted reprinting the original comic tale in a four-color comic book!
We hope you enjoyed our contribution to Countdown to halloween 2024!
And, please, if you're over 18, avoid letting our country go to hell...and VOTE on November 5th!!!

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

CountDown to Halloween 2024 HORRIFIC "Jack the Ripper" aka WEIRD TERROR "Killing Spree" aka TERROR TALES "Ghoulish Feast"

Wait!
Doesn't the header read "Horrific"???
Yes, it does, but the story's first appearance, in Comic Media's Horrific #6 (1953) wasn't cover-featured...and the reprint in Comic Media's Weird Terror #13 (1954) was, with this kool Don Heck art!
Now, on with the tale...
Illustrated by Marty Elkin, this tale was reprinted in Weird Terror with a modified, retitled splash panel...
..but the rest of the story was unaltered!
In 1970, Eerie Publications took the script and had artist Antonio Reynoso redraw it!
If you're a horror literature aficionado, you might recognize the story as an unauthorized adaptation of the legendary Robert (Psycho) Bloch's story "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", which was first published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1943!
We'll be running the official comic adaptation, published in 1972, in November...

Join us next week as we present another tale your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!
Support Horror Comics of the 1950s
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Wednesday, October 16, 2024

CountDown to Halloween 2024 HORRIFIC "Blood Lust"

Comic Media's primary horror-host, The Teller, passes narrating duties to Victor Vampire... 

...and it's not just because this is a tale about blood-sucking!
Yes, it's another host's origin story, illustrated by Marty Elkin, from Comic Media's Horrific #12 (1952)!
Trivia:
It's never been reprinted or reworked, as a number of other Horrific and Weird Terror stories have been!
The writer's identity has been lost to the mists of time, due to the disappearance of the records of the long-defunct company!

Join us next week as we present another tale your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!
Support Horror Comics of the 1950s
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Tuesday, October 8, 2024

CountDown to Halloween 2024 HORRIFIC "Hating Corpse" aka WEIRD TERROR "Double Murder" aka HORROR TALES "Corpse That Lives!"

Sometimes a title just doesn't do the story justice...
...as this terror-tale from Comic Media's Horrific #4 (1953) aptly demonstrates!
When it was reprinted in the same publisher's Weird Terror #13 (1954), the title and opening caption text were altered...
...but nothing else (except the coloring, which was a normal matter in reprints) was changed!
The original creatives are unknown.
Because the Comics Code Authority had strict rules about gore and horror content, it couldn't be reprinted in comic books between 1954 and 1971.
So it was redrawn by Oscar Stepancich, using the exact same script, for Eerie Publications' b/w magazine Horror Tales #V4N7 (1969).
Which version do you prefer?
Join us next week as we present another tale your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!
Support Horror Comics of the 1950s
Visit Amazon and Order...
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