Halloween Horror TALES OF HORROR "Beast from the Deep"

The Halloween Season has Begun...

 ...so let's kick off the celebration with the only comic adaptation of one of Ray Bradbury's best-known stories (albeit uncredited by the publisher), from Minoan/Toby's Tales of Horror #7 (1953), based on the short story "The FogHorn".

Wow!

The comic's printing job is terrible, even for the low standards of comic books of the era!

For the sake of clarity, we're presenting the b/w original art for six of the seven pages!

Missing Page

Ironically, the comic tale is a far more faithful adaptation of the story than the movie Beast from 20,000 Fathoms which came out at the same time!

Though the writer of the comic is unknown, the artist was John Rosenberger, who spent the 1950s to late 1970s doing work in every comics genre from romance to superhero to horror for almost every publisher in the field!

This was one of the last comic adaptations of Bradbury's work in the 1950s.

The earlier ones were done by the legendary EC Comics crew, and initially, were also uncredited and unpaid...until Ray Bradbury found out!

HEREs an article detailing what happened next.

And Be Back Next Friday for Another Startling Saurian Story from the 1950s!

Halloween Horror EERIE "Dracula!" Part Four/Conclusion

When Last We Left Our Vampire...

Dracula has made Lucy Seward a vampire!

Dr Van Helsing arrives, too late to save the poor girl, but not too late to send her tormented soul to the afterlife by staking her thru the heart.

Now, his attention turns to her master...Count Dracula!

Though there were a number of Frankenstein tales in the Golden Age, including Dick Briefer's long-running series, there were only a couple of appearances by our favorite vampire (usually a cameo) before this story in 1953!
The trend continued until the late 1960s when Dracula became a supporting character in the b/w Vampirella magazine.
In 1971, when the Comics Code was revised to allow vampires and other "traditional" monsters, the Count reappeared not only in short stories, but a long-running series from Marvel highlighted by moody art by Gene Colan.

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Halloween Horror EERIE "Dracula!" Part Three

When Last We Left Our Vampire...

Dracula traveled to England, where he made Lucy Seward his newest victim.

Meanwhile, Lucy's best friend, Mina Murray received news that her fiance Jonathan Harker had been hospitalized.

Rushing to Budapest, she discovers he is speedily recovering, and the two are married that day!

To be concluded...Next Wednesday!

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Halloween Horror EERIE "Dracula!" Part Two

 When Last We Left the Lord of Vampires...

Real estate agent Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to arrange the purchase of a London townhouse by a rich, reclusive nobleman...Count Dracula.

When he is molested by the count's wives, Harker discovers that they (and Dracula) are vampires, and that he is helpless to stop them!

Meanwhile, in England, Harker's fiance, Mina, worries...

But, will they have a honeymoon...or a funeral?

Be here next Wednesday to find out!

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Halloween Horror EERIE "Dracula!" Part One

 Did you know that Classics Illustrated adapted Frankenstein, but not Dracula?

However, there was an adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel, published several years after the Classic Comics version of Mary Shelley's tale in the mid-1940s

It appeared in Avon Comics' Eerie #12 (1953), and was the only book-length story to appear in the title!

To the best of our knowledge, the story has never been reprinted, probably due to its' length!

What shall Johnathan Harker do?

Join us Next Wednesday for the frightening answer!

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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!!!