Ghouls Rush In / Beneath the Grave

Instead of two stories from one particular artist for today's post, I thought I'd share two tales obviously inspired by the same literary horror tale, and in this case it's Henry Kuttner's awesome 1936 Weird Tales classic The Graveyard Rats (essential Halloween reading if you haven't already done so!) The first bite comes from the April 1952 issue of Adventures into Terror #9, (art by Dick Ayers), while the second rat tail comes from the March 1954 issue of Horrific #10, (art by Rudy Palais.) Both stories were originally featured on THOIA in our first month of existence-- July 2007!

The Best of From the Tomb-- now available!

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Number 1252: Two Halloween horrors!

Halloween is Wednesday...and that means the little neighborhood beggers will be coming to the door for their tricks and their treats. I found a bag of forgotten jelly beans placed in a drawer a few years ago. The kids will have to settle for fifteen-year-old candy from Pappy!

I have two Fawcett horror stories to celebrate Halloween. First up, “The Thing From the Lake,” from Strange Stories from Another World #3 (1952). It's a tale of a castle, greed, and a slippery, slimy corpse using psychological torture as revenge. The sharp black-line artwork is from a downloaded version of the story done up as an online collection called Fawcett Classic Horror #2. Some good person (and thanks to him!) probably got the stories from UK or Australian comics, which printed them sans color.

Next up, from Beware! Terror Tales #5 (1953), a tale of a cursed clock, “Horrors of the 13th Stroke.” The Grand Comics Database lists ? as the artist on this tale. Karswell of The Horrors of It All showed his scans of the story almost four years ago, in January 2009, so I feel it's time (get it? Clock? Time?) to see it again. As a bonus, the nifty cover from the issue is drawn by Bernard Baily, who did some great horror covers of the pre-Code era.

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Flash Gordon - S070 - The Z Bomb Cloud (1958-05-04 to 1958-06-15)

Story & Art: Mac Raboy 

Original run: 1958-05-04 to 1958-06-15

Summary: A deadly radioactive cloud is travelling fast through space after a violent Z bomb detonation on a war-ravaged planet, threatening the Milky Way and Earth with total annihilation.

Desperately computing the effectiveness of various febrile responses to the mortal threat on Earth’s observation satellite, Dr. Zarkov elects to send out Flash and his daredevil co-pilot on a near-impossible mission to divert the cloud from its course – with unforeseen consequences...

(Source of summary: www.ipcomics.net)

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All credits go to "spax".

P.S. Tommorow S71 to S75. Have a nice time!

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Flash Gordon - S069 - Robinson Crusoe in Space (1958-03-16 to 1958-04-27)

Story & Art: Mac Raboy 

Original run: 1958-03-16 to 1958-04-27

Summary: Concluding his delicate mission on Neptune (read S-068 Missiles from Neptune), Flash suffers a massive ship system failure on his way back to Earth and is forced to abandon ship in a cluster of asteroids.

Floating aimlessly in space and being at the mercy of the treacherously moving asteroid belt, Flash has very little time to put a survival strategy in place and somehow effect an SOS to Earth before time runs out forever...

(Source of summary: www.ipcomics.net)

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All credits go to "spax". 

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Flash Gordon - S068- Missiles from Neptune (1958-01-19 to 1958-03-09)

Story & Art: Mac Raboy 

Original run: 1958-01-19 to 1958-03-09

Summary: Answering an emergency summons, Flash and Zarkov learn that Earth is being bombarded by interplanetary missiles from the outer region of the galaxy and manage to locate the launches to the planet Neptune.

Volunteering to pilot a fast ship to the planet to avoid a catastrophe, Flash’ main brief is to act as a peace envoy, but should diplomacy fail and a missile strike prove the only option, Flash is prepared to carry out a suicide mission...

(Source of summary: www.ipcomics.net)

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All credits go to "spax". 

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Flash Gordon - S067- The Lonely Crowd (1957-12-01 to 1958-01-12)

Story & Art: Mac Raboy 

Original run: 1957-12-01 to 1958-01-12

Summary: Finally back on Earth (see S-066 Weird World), Flash, Dale and Zarkov decide to unwind by taking the car for a spin in the American wilderness, but a new mystery is waiting just around the corner.

In the next American town on their itinerary people are being gripped by a fast-spreading plague manifesting itself as an acute sense of loneliness – what does it mean and who is responsible?...

(Source of summary: www.ipcomics.net)

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All credits go to "spax".

P.S. S068 to S070 are also coming today.

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Number 1251: Phantom Stranger makes his debut

The Phantom Stranger has a whole history with DC Comics, encapsulated in this Wikipedia entry. For our purposes today we're ignoring all of that to show you the first Phantom Stranger story from The Phantom Stranger #1 (1952).

[SPOILER ALERT] This is shown with a caveat: it's a story that appears to be supernatural but is shown to be a hoax. That was a basic trademark of DC's mystery comics line, which during the horror comics fad of the early '50s fell short of horror due to the debunking done in virtually every horror story. There's a fictional tradition of this type of mystery, and while a gimmick, it's a clever gimmick. For those who prefer their supernatural straight with no twists at the end to spoil the illusion, years later DC went full-bore into the supernatural, including the stories featuring this character.[END OF SPOILER]

This first series featuring The Phantom Stranger had a short run, just six issues. It was edited by Julius Schwartz.

This story is written by long-time DC scripter John Broome, and is drawn by Carmine Infantino and Sy Barry.

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