Do You Dare Enter? Part Sixteen: September 1971

The DC Mystery Line 1968-1976

by Peter Enfantino,

John Scoleri,

& Jack Seabrook

Nick Cardy

The Witching Hour 16

"Never Kill a Witch!"
Story by Carl Wessler
Art by John Calnan and Bernie Case

"The Spell of Sinner Ella!"
Story by Bill Dennehy (Murray Boltinoff)
Art by Gray Morrow

"You Can't Hide From Death!"
Story by Al Case (Murray Boltinoff)
Art by Tony DeZuniga

"The Wondrous Witch's Cauldron"
Story uncredited
Art by Lee Elias
(reprinted from House of Secrets #58, February 1963)

"Last Meal"
Story by Charles King
Art by Joe Orlando
(reprinted from House of Mystery 177, December 1968)

"The Curse of the Cat"
Story by Howie Post
Art by Bill Draut
(also reprinted from House of Mystery #177)

"Never Kill a Witch!"

Jack: One night, by the light of the full moon, young lovers Harry and Stella enter the creepy house of old lady Crafton. Harry has long heard rumors of her fortune and he is determined to steal it. When the old lady/witch confronts them, he bludgeons her to death, only to find that she returns and he has to do it again. One should "Never Kill a Witch!" though, because she comes back a third time and sets the house on fire. Harry carries Stella outside to safety and both end up in the hospital, being treated for burns. The bandages are removed and Stella's face is fine but Harry now resembles the old witch! In the panels where Harry carries Stella out of the burning house, he looks pretty healthy, but for some reason he has to have his entire face bandaged for burns. Gangrene must have set in due to a delay in treatment, because when the wraps come off he has turned green!

Peter: I thought it hilarious that the doctors said nothing to Harry about the new tint on his face even though they'd done surgery on it. Seems like something you'd want to discuss with the patient. The GCD claims that inker Case is actually Bernie Wrightson. There's no trace of the BW we know and love here but then John Calnan has a way of showing through even the best inkers.

John: I liked the art in this one, though I had a hard time buying that a witch would have her fortune in nice crisp bundles of bills...

"The Spell of Sinner Ella!"

Jack: Young and pretty "Sinner Ella" helps her sisters get ready for the ball and is delighted when her fairy godmother sees to it that she may attend as well. The prince falls in love with her but things take a new twist when Ella murders her sister after the sibling tries to steal the prince. Ella gets home safely and the prince tracks her down by means of a lost slipper. When he finds that it fits her dainty foot he has her arrested for murder! Gray Morrow's art is superb and the story is funny, if a little bit muddled, what with a policeman who looks like he came from Napoleonic-era France and the girls riding around in cars!

Peter: I thought "Sinner Ella" was a surprisingly clever reworking of the fairy tale, with a very Grimm ending! Fabulous art by Gray Morrow, who seems to have been experimenting with his style constantly.

John: It's my bias, but thanks to Burnt Offerings, as soon as I see a chauffeur, I prepare for the worst. I thought it was perfectly appropriate when the limo became a hearse.

"You Can't Hide From Death!"

Jack: After a duel ends with only one man firing his pistol, one man promises to hound the other until it is completed. Though Henri marries and raises a family, he learns that "You Can't Hide From Death!" when his fellow duellist catches up with him years later, insisting that the second shot be fired. Henri complies and fires his gun into the ground, sparing his pursuer and starting a new friendship. This is a clever story that turns out to be a bit too short. DeZuniga's art is impressive, coming right after the fine work by Morrow in the previous story.

Peter: Despite nice art from DeZuniga, this is nothing more than a fragment of a story with nothing resembling the supernatural whatsoever. Why it's in a title like The Witching Hour, I have no idea, but it would better fit in Unexpected.

John: I agree. This was bad enough to be right at home in the pages of Unexpected.

Jack: "Last Meal" is a text story with an illo by Joe Orlando. It is reprinted from HOM 177, the first "new look" issue. "The Curse of the Cat" is also a reprint that we just saw a couple of years ago. "The Wondrous Witch's Cauldron" also seems like we read it not so long ago. In fact, it was also reprinted in House of Mystery 177.

"The Wondrous Witch's Cauldron"

Peter: You can find a review of "The Curse of the Cat" here. I find it to be a bit of a rip-off that editor Murray Boltinoff chose a story published only three years before when the vault of DC material to reprint was so vast. Of the reprints, the only one worth discussing is "The Wondrous Witch's Cauldron" and that's for Lee Elias's wonderful art. The story of a magical cauldron (which can actually think!) has a decidedly pre-code look to it despite having popped up in post-code 1963. Just a few issues after "Cauldron" appeared in HoS, Elias co-created (with DC war story vet Bob Haney) the bizarre demon, Eclipso, one of those third-tier hero/villains that DC has continued to reboot through the years.

Bernie Wrightson

The House of Secrets 93

"Lonely in Death!"
Story by Steve Skeates
Art by Jim Aparo

"The Curse of the Cat's Cradle"
Story uncredited
Art by Alex Toth
(reprinted from My Greatest Adventure 85, February 1964)

"Nightmare"
Story uncredited
Art by Jack Abel

"The Beast from the Box"
Story uncredited
Art by Nick Cardy
(reprinted from House of Secrets #24, September 1959)

"Never Kill a Witch's Son!"
Story by John Albano
Art by Tony DeZuniga

"Lonely in Death!"

Peter: Cynthia is convinced her dead mother is trying to kill her but her brother, Morris, is not sold on the idea. He thinks his mother's death has driven his sister mad and that she's been the orchestrator of her own deadly accidents. In the end, the poor girl is partly right: her mother has been visiting her daughter but only to warn her that Morris is trying to inherit the other half of the estate. While trying to set up one final accident, Morris falls to his death, aided by invisible fingers. It's not bad enough that Steve Skeates frames his ghost story around one of the oldest cliches in the book (the haunting that's not a haunting but actually is a haunting) but he then sets it up with a cheat. When Cynthia confesses to her brother that she believes their mother is trying to kill her, the proclamation sends "a shiver up her brother's spine." If Morris was behind the haunting the entire time, why would he be chilled by his sister's statement?

Jack: I'm usually happy to see a story drawn by Jim Aparo, but this does not represent his best work. The script by Skeates did not impress me, either. Abel (or Able, as he is spelled in this story's introduction) can do better than this!

John: Hard to believe this is the same Jim Aparo who would work wonders with the Caped Crusader.

Peter: Dick Ellis is trapped in a "Nightmare" that never ends but we, luckily, are spared no more than three pages of this waste of paper.

John: Couldn't this have been done as effectively in a single page?

"Nightmare"

Jack: Oh no! A story that ends at the beginning! It will just keep going in endless circles! Aiieee!

"Never Kill a Witch's Son!"

Peter: With help from her husband Randy, Andria Winthrop murders her uncle in order to collect on the insurance but curses from her grandmother have the pair worried. Andria becomes convinced her uncle is still alive but it's all an attempt by Randy to drive his wife mad. The joke's on Randy, though, when his wife mistakes him for her uncle and pushes him off the balcony to his death. Like Steve Skeates before him, John Albano shows little imagination and little respect for his audience with this cliched faux haunting tale. "Never Kill a Witch's Son" is not, contrary to popular belief, a sequel to The Witching Hour #16's "Never Kill a Witch" but it's just as bad. Not even DeZuniga can save this one.

John: Surely it can't just be a coincidence these two have similar names so close together?

Jack: The story is tired and the art is quite uneven. I have to wonder if the reproduction quality was not very good.

Peter: "The Beast From the Box" is a knock-off of all those 1950s big monster movies (done much better by Lee and Kirby at about the same time) with primitive Nick Cardy art its only asset. Much better is "The Curse of the Cat's Cradle." Dan Hearn is sent out to Guatemala to take charge of a plantation run by Mike Trammel, a man the head office has lost faith in. While there, Dan is led to a bog of quicksand punctuated with a giant pair of hands holding a "cat's cradle." Hearn soon deciphers the rope as a message from the giant, trapped under the quicksand, and he follows the clues to a cave located under the bog, where he hopes to find the rest of the big man. Once there, he discovers Trammel looting the giant's gem-filled cave. A fight ensues and the cave collapses, with the men barely escaping. Who was the giant and what happened to him after the cave-in? No one knows but, as Mike exclaims, "right now, there are a lot of people in the states who are waiting for bananas!" "The Curse of the Cat's Cradle" is one of the most bizarre and eccentric tales I've ever read, eight pages of sheer kookiness graced by yet another knockout art job by Alex Toth. Once more, a vintage reprint trumps all newcomers.

"The Curse of the Cat's Cradle"

Jack: "The Curse of the Cat's Cradle" is a truly strange story with another good line: "I felt the rope in my hands--hung onto it tighter than the first dollar I'd earned mowing a neighbor's lawn . . ." From 1964, this is an example of a story that makes one wonder just what the DC writers were thinking. As for "The Beast in the Box," if I did not know the artist was Nick Cardy I would never have been able to identify it. This looks nothing like the great covers he was turning out by 1970 or so.

Bernie Wrightson

The House of Mystery 194

"Born Loser"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Alex Toth

"The Human Wave"
Story uncredited
Art by Russ Heath
(reprinted from House of Secrets #31, April 1960)

"The Negative Man"
Story uncredited
Art by Jack Kirby
(reprinted from House of Mystery #84, March 1959)

"The King is Dead"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Nestor Redondo

Peter: "Born Loser" Homer has found a way to conjure demons and fake his own death. This little magic trick is nothing more than a hobby until Homer finds a way to put it to good use: the murder of his shrewish wife. Before he does the deed, he has his friend, Judith, promise that no matter what happens she'll claim his body. With that in place, Homer shoots his wife and surrenders to police. While in prison, he conjures his impish friends and falls into a death-like sleep. Judith comes to the prison to claim Homer but, unfortunately, the warden informs the girl that there is a policy to cremate all bodies. I saw the "twist" climax coming but the rest of the story moves along at a nice clip and Alex Toth's art, as usual, is a delight. Toth, in fact, seems to be finally moving into that style I know him best: lots of dark inks, simplistic (at times crude) facial features, bug-eyed creatures, and BIG BOLD CAPITAL LETTERING. There's no artist quite like Toth when he's bringing his "A game."

"Born Loser"

Jack: It's interesting to compare Wrightson's take on the characters as depicted on the cover with Toth's version inside. Both are younger and more attractive on the cover. I like how Wrightson has Priscilla holding a book entitled "Revolting Revelations" by B. Wrightson! I was not a fan of Toth's before we started this project, but I have completely changed my opinion of his art and now I really enjoy it.

John: I wasn't really familiar with Toth's art when we started, and the more of it I see, the less I understand what it is people like about it.

"The King is Dead"

Peter: A monster stalks a village in the Carpathian mountains and the newly crowned king is convinced that he, himself, is the bloodthirsty creature. He orders his guards to lock him in a cell and a strange battle takes place. When his men open the dungeon door, they find "The King is Dead." Here's an odd one indeed. No explanation is given at the climax for the goings-on or if the king was responsible and, all through the story, it seems as if an alternate explanation will be offered up. Bizarrely, the fact that the king is a hunchback is never mentioned though it might have provided writer Oleck with a perfect gremlin (was the hunch, in fact, a creature who broke off from his highness at night to slake its bloodlust?) or red herring at the very least. In the end, we're left with a whimper rather than a scream. Nice art by Nestor Redondo (in his comic book debut) gives a hint at what direction the DC mystery line would soon be heading in, a path I heartily applaud.

Jack: I did not even notice that the king was a hunchback. Your idea is just plain sick! You have been reading too many horror comics. For my part, I could not get beyond thinking of Young Frankenstein when the king tells his men not to open the door, no matter how he may beg or plead. I had Gene Wilder's voice in my head at that point.

John: I liked the art, but I was more entertained by Jack's comments than the story itself.

Peter: The reprints this issue both draw from the same well that Kirby and Lee dipped their buckets in constantly for such titles as Tales of Suspense and Tales to Astonish in the early 1960s. Russ Heath's exquisite art elevates the average script of "The Human Wave," about an adventurer who lays claim to the fabled Latour sword, lost at sea for centuries and guarded by a monster made of sea water. Yep, the script is about as silly as they come but just give Heath some panels of underwater diving and there shall be light. "The Negative Man" serves up a boring smattering of scientists who really shouldn't dabble in... well, anything. This was one of Jack Kirby's last jobs for DC (until he returned in 1970) and by the beginning of 1960 he was pumping out tales just like "The Negative Man" for Atlas.

Heath!

Jack: The main character in "The Human Wave" is an idiot. He is told that whoever seeks the sword will be in trouble with the Human Wave. So he gets the sword and is chased all over creation by the Human Wave. When his gal pal throws the sword back where it came from, the Human Wave dissipates and what does the genius say? Maybe the sword was the problem all along! As for "The Negative Man," does anyone really enjoy this Kirby art? I know it's sacrilege to say that the King did anything but brilliant work, but come on! This is weak.

Nick Cardy

Unexpected 127

"Follow the Piper to Your Grave!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by George Tuska

"The Cats Who Knew Too Much!"
Story and Art by Jack Kirby
(reprinted from House of Secrets #8, February 1958)

"The Ferry Was Waiting!"
Story uncredited
Art by John Giunta
(reprinted from Sensation Comics #109, June 1952)

"The $30,000 Corpse"
Story by Al Case (Murray Boltinoff)
Art by John Calnan and Vince Colletta

"Queen of the Snows!"
Story by Robert Kanigher
Art by Alex Toth and Sy Barry
(reprinted from Sensation Comics #107, February 1952)

"Frightened to Death!"
Story by Murray Boltinoff
Art by George Tuska

"Till Death Us Do Unite"
Story by George Kashdan
Art by Jim Aparo

"Follow the Piper to Your Grave!"

Jack: Vic Mason and Mona Evans are seeking a haunted house to write about for a magazine. They find a promising house and drive a little further down the road, where Mona beds down for the night. Vic heads back to the haunted house but soon learns that a storm washed out the bridge that leads back to Mona. He revs his engine to fly across the river. Meanwhile, Mona is awakened by strange music. She is drawn to "Follow the Piper to Your Grave" and nearly drowns in a swamp until Vic rescues her. His image disappears and the police inform her that he died when his car tried to jump the river. This is a run of the mill ghost story with better than usual Tuska art.

Peter: "Follow the Piper" makes no sense whatsoever but I enjoyed it anyway. Why was the ghostly Mr. Lucey blowing a pipe? Did it have anything to do with the way he murdered his wife? I'm not sure that was made clear so it was out of left field. The ghostly lover warning of danger has been used countless times and yet it's pretty effective in this case. Mona seems pretty calm as she witnesses Vic's wrecked car (complete with a wrecked Vic half hanging out the car window!) being lifted from the lake. George Tuska seems a little more reined in here than over at Marvel. Beautiful Mona somehow manages to avoid the signature Tuska buckteeth.

John: It's no Carnival of Souls, that's for damn sure.

"The $30,000 Corpse"

Jack: Sprung from jail after serving three years for robbery, a man goes home to discover that his father has died and is about to be buried in his son's favorite suit. Unexpectedly, it's a "$30,000 Corpse," since the son had sewn the loot from the robbery in the suit's lining. This four-pager is too short to get any momentum going and the art is weak.

Peter: The title of "$30,000 Corpse" pretty much gives away the "surprise," doesn't it? I'm not sure a guy who committed cold blood murder for thirty grand would stand by while his dead father is buried in it. Not even a late night exhumation?

John: And this one's no Mr. Sardonicus.

Jack: A castaway is "Frightened to Death!" by his own haggard reflection in the water right before he reaches land.

Peter: Two stories by George Tuska in one issue has been determined by the surgeon general to be hazardous to my, and Jack's, health.

"Frightened to Death!"

Jack: When Truman's wife tells him that she plans to cut him out of her will, he pushes her overboard into the drink during what was supposed to be a romantic moonlight cruise. He learns to his sorrow that "Till Death Do Us Unite." The death is ruled accidental at the inquest but poor Truman is told that, since his late wife's body was not recovered, he must wait seven years for her to be declared dead so he can inherit. He soon goes mad, convinced that she is torturing him from beyond the grave. He dives into the water to find her body and two corpses are washed ashore the next morning. Every time I see this business about having to wait seven years to be declared dead I am reminded of a Superman TV episode where a crook hid in a box for seven years. It's called "The Mysterious Cube."

"Till Death Do
Us Unite"

Peter: "Till Death" is a slightly above average "revenge" tale with a few Unexpected twists. Truman's revelation that he's actually been doing the deeds himself surprised me, as I kept waiting for Vivian's ghost to pop up. The spectre never shows, so all the creepy goings-on could be ascribed to Truman's guilty conscience in the end. Another Unexpected plus was the constant murmur of "Poor man, he really loved her" from the neighbors around him, the same neighbors who pity Truman for committing suicide because "he couldn't stand the thought of living without her!" The only borderline supernatural occurrence then would be the two bodies washing ashore in the same place at the same time. What's not Unexpected about this one is the stellar art job by Jim Aparo (channeling Neal Adams).

Jack: Aparo's art here is quite nice, like the work he did on Batman.

Peter: "Till Death" is good, but the best story of the issue is the reprinted Johnny Peril tale, "Queen of the Snows!" wherein Johnny must climb Mt. Subara to get to the bottom of a legend that has claimed the life of a skilled climber. Beautifully illustrated by Alex Toth, "Queen" is a genuinely suspenseful story. We never find out exactly what Subara is, but I think that adds to the general eeriness of the piece. Definitely the best Johnny Peril story I've yet read and, all in all, a good month for reprints. This 52-page metamorphosis might not be a bad one after all.

"Queen of the Snows!"

Jack: I agree with you about the Johnny Peril story. I wonder if the decision to increase the page count caught the editors short of new material and they had to plug holes quickly with reprints. That could explain some of the reprints that we'd just seen a few years before. We'll have to see if the number of new pages goes up in the upcoming months. As we learned from our Batman blog, the 52 pages for 25 cents experiment won't last long.

What, no Yoko?