Since we're in October, I'm gonna be reading horror-themed comic books. I just read The Curse of Shirlee Johnson no.1 & no.2 by @danielhenriques @jonathanglapion and @plascenciafco
Horror Comics Month Count: 5
#horrorcomicsmonth #spawnuniverse #curseofshirleejohnson #imagecomics
I grew to really like Gerry Taloc's art when I was guesting on @docstrange.bsky.social podcast talking about #phantomstanger. It was a treat to come across a story he did in Ghosts. #horrorcomicsmonth
Comics and books I read last week, as #HorrorComicsMonth continues.
eyesandearsblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/this...
Comics and books I read last week, as #HorrorComicsMonth shambles on.
eyesandearsblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/this...
Comics and books I read last week, as #HorrorComicsMonth shambles on.
eyesandearsblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/this...
Comics & books I read last week, as #FantasyComicsMonth transmogrifies in #HorrorComicsMonth
eyesandearsblog.blogspot.com/2025/10/this...
#HorrorComicsMonth Where is DraCula in DC Comics?
Why do you think that Marvel found such success with Dracula from the relaxation of the code, while DC really did not bother?
Even the original monsters in Creature Commandos are (deliberate) simulations of the Universal monsters.
#HorrorComicsMonth
When I think of DC horror, I first think of their anthologies, however, DC also has a strong history of magical characters - many inhabit darker corners of the DC universe we'd call horror.
How do you think of characters like Swamp Thing or Constantine? Magical or Horror?
#HorrorComicsMonth
Do you prefer Horror Anthologies with a Horror Host telling one-off stories (DC's long running method), or continuous storylines with Horror Characters not all that different from superheroes/villains (Marvel's preferred method)?
Horror Anthologies or Horror Characters?
#HorrorComicsMonth
Something that gave me pause, Marvel Comics produced a 1974 bio-comic of Adolf Hitler called Hitler, The Horror and the Holocaust.
You can read Stan's bullpen bulletin about it below. I've never seen one in the wild.
Goodnight Chet
Goodnight David
and goodnight for NBC news
- The Huntley-Brinkley Report
Image of Frankenstein and a photo of Chet Huntley in an unflattering comparison
(Monsters Unlimited 5, 1965, Marvel / Curtis) #HorrorComicsMonth
#HorrorComicsMonth with love
Simon and Kirby Romance tale from Young Romance (Prize) comics 49.
A beautiful wild island girl, who partakes in local magic ceremonies, has a rough sailor and a meek writer as suitors.
The 'witch girl' has the agency in this 1952 story.
Nothing goes better with #HorrorComicsMonth than a Hostess Twinkie
*Curiously, both Twinkies and Comic Books began when someone looked at expensive machines sitting idle (Printers and cream making machines), and thought up a way to use them during down time.
The story "The Dead Awaken" by Howard Nostrand and Bob Powell in Tomb of Terror no 1 (1952, Harvey) presage the story of Carnival of Souls (1962).
#HorrorComicsMonth
Alan drowns in a canoe accident, but his ghost lives on believing he's alive until the spirits come calling for him to return...
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <48>
Dick Briefer could do both comic and horror with his version of Frankenstein - to the extent its hard to believe it is the same writer/artist. The title ends in Fall of 1954, just as the Comics Code goes into effect.
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <47>
Dick Briefer's Frankenstein may be comic book's first ongoing horror feature. Frankenstein will get his own title at Prize in 1945, although by that time the character had turned comic.
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <46>
Dick Briefer's Frankenstein saves Dr Frankenstein not out of kindness but to live in guilt and misery - carrying the moral load for the murders and rampages of his creation.
That's a heck of a warning to scientists in 1940, if you take it that way.
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <45>
Dick Briefer's Frankenstein (1940) is a colorful monster in the Universal mold, rampaging in NYC. He's a murderer from the start (Here pulling two people to their deaths out of the Statue of Liberty!)
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <44>
Starting in issue 7 of Prize Comics (December 1940) would come
Dick Briefer's Frankenstein
"Suggested" by the Shelley original, this Frankenstein is essentially the Universal monster and set in NYC in 1930.
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <44>
Dr Dekkar comes to a bad end in Summer of 1940, and had this been the end it would be interesting ... but from the first tale Dr Dekkar is meant to return!
Prize Comics definitely thought a horror villain had a place alongside superheroes and action heroes.
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <43>
1940's Dr Dekkar is cut from the Doctor Moreau cloth - and we find out what happened to his *last* assistant! Oh my.
Diane's fiancee comes around, the *last* assistant gets out...
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <42>
Looking at Prize Comics Dr Dekkar, perhaps the first recurring Horror Character in comics.
A castle on the English moor, Dr Dekkar meets Diane Clark, his new assistant that the agency sent! Diane, get a new employment agency.
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <41>
Caldwell Higgins
Artist of Dr Dekkar, Higgins was a veteran commercial artist who did spicy and provocative Good Girl Pin-Up art.
I think we comic book fans forget that the early years of Comic Books had amazing talents from the start.
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <40>
Dr. Dekkar, Master of Monsters premieres in Prize Comcs 5 (July 1940) with art by Cardwell Higgins (writer unknown)
The story is has the best horror title ever - "Diane's First Day At Work" (I kid you not)
Dr Dekkar may be the first continuing horror character
#HorrorComicsMonth The Origins <39>
Prize Comics
Prize publications is a forgotten pioneer in horror comics . It is a normal Golden Age anthology led by a Superman (set in a Totalitarian 1982) knock-off
Issue 5 introduces Dr Dekkar, Master of Monsters
horror scene
Short apocryphal tale explaining "he kicked the bucket"
#HorrorComicsMonth
Adventures into Darkness
Cover art by Jack Katz
Better / Nedor / Pines
Fall 1952
Stories include:
The Pit of Horror
The Dancer from Beyond
The Clutching Weed
Bride of Death
The Ghost that Warned a King
Death Drum
Origin of phrase "Kicked the Bucket"
