Number 989


Statues and tombs


Lou Cameron is one of the better artists of the early '50s horror comics. His work popped up with regularity, even if he didn't seem to be exclusive with any one publisher. Cameron usually signed his name to his work, when many other artists didn't.

A few years later Lou traded his drawing board for a typewriter. He went into writing paperback novels, which was a very good career move.

A couple of years ago via e-mail I was in touch with Lou's son-in-law, who reported Cameron was quite elderly, but still living. Let's hope that's still true.

"The Night the Statues Walked" is from Ace Comics' Web Of Mystery #19, 1953, and "Within the Tomb of Terror," is from Chilling Tales of Horror, a black-and-white reprint magazine from 1970. Under its original title, "The Tomb of Terror," it was published in ACG's Forbidden Worlds #5, 1951. I featured it five years ago in Pappy's #47. The scans are pretty bad, but if you've got to see it you can click on the link.

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Number 732


Your kitty can bite


"Vampire Cat" is from Forbidden Worlds #15, 1953, by way of Chilling Tales of Horror Volume 2 Number 4, 1971. Chilling Tales was published by Stanley Publications, founded by Stanley Morse, who in the 1950s published such off-the-wall horror comics as Weird Tales Of The Future and Mister Mystery. As far as I know he had no connection to ACG, which published Forbidden Worlds, unless he went in after the company shut down in 1967 and bought up original art. (That's sheer speculation, of course, and take it for what it's worth.)

The Grand Comics Database gives Ken Bald credit for the original cover, above, and has a question mark after Art Gates' name for the story artwork, so they aren't sure. If you want to see the color version of the story, go to Karswell's The Horrors Of It All blog, which showed it in 2007.

Meow!









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Bill DuBay 1948-2010

I first saw Bill DuBay's work in fanzines in the mid-1960s. He was above average as an amateur, had a lot of talent even as a teenager. He went on to become an artist, writer, and editor, among other jobs in the comic book industry. Here's the Wikipedia bio of Bill DuBay.

This is a strip he did for Creepy #41, in 1971. He went on to become editor for Warren, more than once, and he created one of my favorite characters, The Rook.

Bill died April 15, age 62.

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