Do You Dare Enter? Part Twenty-Two: March 1972

The DC Mystery Anthologies 1968-1976

by Peter Enfantino
and Jack Seabrook

Jack Sparling

Unexpected 133

"Agnes Doesn't Haunt Here Anymore!"
Story by George Kashdan
Art by Dick Dillin and Frank Giacoia

"For Better or Hearse"
Story by Carl Wessler
Art by Werner Roth and Mike Esposito

"The Madman of Maricombe Island!"
Story Uncredited
Art by Nick Cardy
(reprinted from House of Mystery #21, December 1953)

"Tattoos of Doom!"
Story Uncredited
Art by Ruben Moreira
(reprinted from House of Mystery #8, November 1952)

"School for Fear"
Story by Murray Boltinoff
Art by Nestor Redondo

"Agnes Doesn't Haunt Here Anymore!"

Jack: Judge Gallows returns to tell the tale of Edmond Dowd, an old sailor who talks to his beloved, a wooden statue of a beautiful woman named Agnes. Years before, a sculptor who loved Agnes carved a likeness of her in wood. He professed his love, she spurned him, and he was killed when the statue fell on him. Other men loved Agnes and lost their lives as a result. Finally, young Edmond fell for her and stole the statue, adding it to his ship as the figurehead. When it falls off in a storm, he rescues it and brings it home to shore. But "Agnes Doesn't Haunt Here Anymore," having been killed by a bolt of lightning, and he grows old with just her wooden image as his companion. Despite some of the best Dick Dillin art I've seen in our DC horror journey, this story ends up making no sense. What's the deal with Agnes? Why does she kill the men who love her? What is the secret of her statue? Don't ask George Kashdan. He has no idea.

Peter: What a load of rubbish! What kind of creature is Agnes? Was she the same kind of creature before the sculpture was made? More evidence that a lot of these comic book writers had no idea how to craft a short story.

"For Better or Hearse"

Jack: Poor Merton Higby! He keeps marrying "For Better or Hearse" and killing his wives, only to discover that they either weren't as rich as he thought or that they didn't leave him all of their money. After knocking off three spouses, Merton gets a hand from servant girl Beth in fulfilling his wish to ride in his own fancy carriage. She tells the police all about his nefarious deeds and he ends up dead and in a horse-drawn carriage all his own! I must be fuzzy in the head today, because this is the second story in a row that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I was sad to see Werner Roth appear in a DC horror comic, since I thought we'd seen the last of his below-average art over at Marvel's X-Men. But no such luck.

Peter: Yep, the art is horrible and the set-up's been done to death, but I really liked the ironic, twisted climax. How many times have I been able to say that about an Unexpected story? Not often enough. I'll take the half-gem whenever I can get it.

Jack Cole could have done so much more with this!

Jack: New teacher Mr. Williams arrives at the Chestwick Academy for Young Gentlemen, only to discover that it is really a "School for Fear"! The culprit is young Colin, whose parents died and left him a lot of cash and an appetite for cruelty. Colin forces his younger brother Hugh to kill Williams after Williams gives Colin a good caning in the classroom. But after they dump a trunk containing his body into the lake, Williams returns, frightening Colin so much that he becomes a babbling idiot. Hugh and Williams head off, having tricked everyone--or so they think. It's not long until they are caught and brought back to face justice. Nestor Redondo turns in his usual solid artwork in this story, and I'm always happy to see a good caning, though the pre-code comics lover in me kind of wishes Colin had been a beautiful gal.

Shooting blanks!

Peter: I always love a double twist, even a dopey one. Everything that happened in this story all hinged on coincidences and lucky breaks. That final reveal would have been at home in a Zucker Brothers comedy. And I've gotta disagree with you on the Redondo art, Jack. To me it looks like the kind of art you'd find in a Hostess Twinkie ad, generic and yawn-inducing.

Jack: Who is "The Madman of Maricombe Island"? Is it brutal prison guard Letrec or is it new prisoner Andre DuBois, who seems able to resist all of Letrec's cruelty without breaking a sweat? This 1953 reprint with the usual smooth art by Nick Cardy isn't all that unexpected, especially when the narrator reveals everything that seemed supernatural has a rational explanation. It didn't take long for a DC writer to rip off Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man, published in 1951. In November 1952, along came "Tattoos of Doom," in which a circus man covered with tattoos starts to develop new ink that predicts tragic events. Is the uncredited writer of this comic book story Ray Bradbury himself? I highly doubt it.

"The Illustrated Man" "Tattoos of Doom!"

Peter: "Madman" is crazily convoluted and that last panel expository made me tinkle with laughter but I loved the Nick Cardy art, so reminiscent of the 1950s Atlas horror comics. Speaking of convoluted, how about "Tattoos of Doom," which purports to be a tale of the supernatural... but maybe not... but maybe. Who knows? I love when Fatima, the Fat Lady, is running to catch her boss, the carnival owner, all the while giving off "puff-puff" sound effects. Ray Bradbury was obviously paying more attention to Bill Gaines and EC Comics at the time and didn't catch this "homage." More and more, I'm coming to appreciate DC's pre-code material thanks to these reprints. It wasn't all Bat-Mite and Aqua Lad in the 1950s.

Jack: Paid circulation figures are published in this issue and show that Unexpected was selling an average of 178,506 copies per month. Pretty impressive! I thought it was interesting that only 72 people subscribed. I subscribed to the JLA a couple of years later. I wonder if I was one of the few? Those were the days when comics came in the mail folded in half and wrapped in a brown paper wrapper.

Michael W. Kaluta

The House of Mystery 200

"The Beast's Revenge"
Story by John Albano
Art by Michael W. Kaluta

"The Secret of Camp Galaxy"
Story Uncredited
Art by Bob Brown
(reprinted from House of Secrets #26, November 1959)

"The Forbidden Wish"
Story Uncredited
Art by George Roussos
(reprinted from Tales of the Unexpected #7, November 1956)

"The Lunatic"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Ralph Reese

"A Breath of Black Death"
Story by Francix X. Bushmaster (Gerry Conway)
Art by Tony deZuniga

"The Beast's Revenge"

Peter: Mike Kaluta (who also provides the gorgeous cover) provides oodles of atmosphere to "The Beast's Revenge." John is still sore that their dad left half of the farm to sister Margaret, but it's only a matter of time before he erases Marge from the picture. He thinks he's all set when a mountain lion creeps up on Margaret while she's hanging the laundry but the cat doesn't close the deal. One night, while serving dinner, his sister trips over the family dog, accidentally spilling scalding soup on John's face. Furious, he gets his gun and threatens the dog but shoots Margaret instead. After burying the body in the neighboring field, John is attacked by the same mountain lion and barely makes it back to the farm for his gun. Unfortunately for the murderous farmer, it seems the entire ranch's livestock is now his enemy. Though, in the end, the story is another patchwork of nonsensical ideas, the whole is better than the parts. Or am I just getting tired of saying bad things about these stories? Again, we're treated to a myriad of questions with no answers. Why doesn't the mountain lion attack Margaret? Why do the animals suddenly rise up against their sadistic owner? It's almost as though a page is missing, one that explains that the mountain lion is actually the siblings' father watching over them, or something of the sort. But Albano hits and runs and we're left wondering what the hell it means. I let out a loud laugh when the dog ran into the tree branch, something you don't see every day. Just ogle the pictures and you'll be okay. I believe this was Kaluta's first full-length tale to grace the mystery books. Fortunately, it won't be the last.

Jack: Boy, I feel better about the way I treated my sister when we were growing up! I never kept rabid rats in a cage and waited for just the right moment. I thought Kaluta's art was just watered-down Wrightson, which figures because he assisted Bernie earlier in his career. This is not up to the standard that Kaluta would later set with his Batman stories, but in comparison to Grandenetti and Tuska it's welcome!

"The Lunatic"

Peter: Aaron Edwards has always looked out for his malformed brother, Peter, but when the villagers come calling for "The Lunatic," Aaron finds he's outnumbered. With his back against the wall and not wanting his bloodthirsty neighbors to take Peter away and torture him, Aaron takes his brother out in the woods and kills him. The villagers arrive later and take Aaron away, revealing that he was "The Lunatic" they were after, not brother Peter. Ralph Reese delivers more stylish art (he's getting further away from aping Wally Wood with each job) but the story lacks punch. Sure, the climax has a legitimate twist but it's built on a shaky foundation. The set-up's an obvious cheat: we're shown that Peter's "different" and should be the aim of the townies' hate and loathing. So why is Aaron the real target of their prejudice? To set up the twist, Jack Oleck has to hold back as much info as he can.

Jack: The ending did come as a surprise, and the story was good enough that I then looked back over it to see if they cheated. And they didn't! This art isn't my cup of tea but I'll admit it's well done.

"The Secret of Camp Galaxy"

Peter: Little Johnny Thornton begs his parents to let him learn "The Secret of Camp Galaxy" and since Johnny is a well-behaved genius, they comply. The wide-eyed lad finds a camp full of children from all across the galaxy but when he phones home, his parents think he's being a little too fanciful. Little do they know that the camp is a front for an experiment conducted by The Grand Council of the Galactic Federation, aliens wondering if earth is civil enough to join their fraternity. Little Johnny has done his planet well. A really silly but delightful piece of fluff illustrating that, when the right talent came together, DC could present fun, wholesome, and original entertainment that could appeal to audiences young and old. Equally entertaining is the second reprint this issue, "The Forbidden Wish," about Cal Colby, a miner who finds an ancient Indian talisman while digging for coal. The idol tells him he can have any wish he wants except immortality. Riches and a happier wife ensue but Cal quickly becomes bored and can't help but want a name for himself. He wishes he could be the first man on Mars and voila, he's got a rocket ship. According to Indian talisman rules, however, that qualifies Cal for immortality and his rocket is hit by comet, assuring Colby a little piece of fame. The umpteenth reworking of W.W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw," "The Forbidden Wish" nonetheless delivers the goods, especially in its downbeat climax. Even though Cal is caught up in the idea of fame and fortune, the reader has to sympathize with the guy. Yeah, most (if not all) of his wishes are for selfish purposes but, in the end, all Cal wants is a little recognition from his fellow man.

"The Forbidden Wish"

Jack: And here I thought you would hate "Camp Galaxy"! I thought it was pretty neat, though hardly fit for a horror mag. I guess they figured the space creatures could pass for monsters. I thought "The Forbidden Wish" was dopey. Any time a character gets a gizmo that grants wishes, watch out! You just know it will end nowhere good. At least the comet was Deep Purple! Awesome!

Peter: The best is definitely served up last this issue. Terron, Pharaoh of the Nile, infamous for his disregard for life, has only one love: his young son, Tatuk. All that he does, he does for the boy's future.  Terron's wife, jealous of the attention and affection the boy receives from her husband, poisons Tatuk and is sentenced to death. Terron seeks help from his gods to bring his boy back to him and the gods answer the pharaoh's pleas, allowing him to journey into the netherworld. After an arduous search, father finds son but, in what Terron considers a cruel trick, the gods reveal that only one can make the journey back to life. Though he loves his son, he loves his own life more and he chooses himself. Once back in "the real world," Terron discovers he's been out of his body for some time and his servants, believing him dead, have entombed him with his dead wife and son.

"A Breath of Black Death"

Why Gerry Conway would use a pseudonym for this one is anyone's guess. Despite its relatively rare 11-page length, "A Breath of Black Death" is lean, with not one wasted word nor hoary cliche. Infanticide must have been a tough sell in a 1970s kid's comic book so it's to Gerry's (and Orlando's) credit that he stuck to his guns and delivered a grim, dark fable like "A Breath of Black Death." And thank the Egyptian Gods that editor Joe Orlando tasked Tony De Zuniga for the art job rather than Tuska or Grandenetti. Easily the Best Story of the Month (and an early contender for Best of the Year!) and a nice capper for the special 200th issue of House of Mystery!

Jack: I'm not a fan of Gerry Conway, but the art is gorgeous. What I do love is just about any story involving Ancient Egypt. I'm with you that it's the best story in this issue, but best of the year? Hey, it's only March---

Peter: Circulation figures published this issue show that House of Mystery sold an average of 187,408 copies. Only 158 paid subscriptions? Outrageous.

Bernie Wrightson

The House of Secrets 96

"World for a Witch"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Bill Draut

"The Great Dimensional Brain Swap"
Story Unsigned
Art by Alex Toth
(reprinted from House of Secrets #48, September 1961)

"Be It Ever So Humble..."
Story by Len Wein
Art by Dick Dillin and Jack Abel

"The Monster"
Story by Jack Oleck
Art by Wally Wood

"The Indestructible Man"
Story Uncredited
Art by Bill Ely
(reprinted from Tales of the Unexpected #12, April 1957)

"World for a Witch"

Peter: Old Emma Winter runs her orphanage like a prison, keeping her charges half-fed and freezing. The children all think Mrs. Winters is a witch and the fact that she can "escape" into paintings adds weight to that notion. One night, Mrs. Winters' child care turns fatal and a little girl is killed so she plots the perfect escape into her painting of a lovely field. Unfortunately for the old battle-ax, one of the kids has changed the landscape to something a little more... scalding. Not a bad story at all. Yep, it's just another variation (one that's been encountered several times already on our journey) on EC's "Blind Alley" but this one comes with an extra sadistic kick in the rear. The panel of little Tom, his back criss-crossed with lashings, is nasty enough but the shot of Sally, face in the coal, takes this strip almost into adult territory ("what happened in that cellar is best not told"). My complaint about the writers stapling two ideas (or more) into one story applies to "World For a Witch" as well but here, in the end, it works. Emma's strange ability to will herself into the portraits is never explained. Is she a real witch? Once she gets into that alternate world, how much of it can she explore? Is it our world at a different time? And, most important of all, where did those little kids get that landscape of Hell? Lots of questions but I still enjoyed the read. The art, by Bill Draut, is neither awful nor spectacular; it's just average.

Jack: This was pretty rough stuff for DC and I enjoyed it. You identified the two panels that were most troubling, showing the results of the children having been beaten. Draut will never be among my favorite artists but his style was right for this story.

"Be It Ever So Humble..."

Peter: "Be It Ever So Humble..." there's no place like a haunted home. Old Amos Whittaker's land is sold to a nice young couple who want to build their dream house but Amos, now long dead and haunting the land, has other ideas. Once the new house is built, the ghost rebuilds his old home, room by room, much to the chagrin of the nice young couple. Eventually, their home is gone and Amos' mansion sits upon his acreage once again. So what happened to the nice young couple when the change was complete? Good question. I thought you might ask. Address all inquiries to Len Wein c/o DC. I thought it admirable that, despite all the craziness going on around him, our young hero tries to calm his wife down by telling her to think of it as extra room they didn't even have to pay for. Nothing positive to be said about the art, which is about as generic as mid-1970s DC got.

Jack: Blah--this should have been in Ghosts. By the way, in further response to Andy Decker's comment from last month, it seems to me that any difference among these five books can be attributed to the editors. Joe Orlando was editing House of Mystery and House of Secrets, while Murray Boltinoff was editing the other three. I would argue that Orlando's editorial hand guided his two books to a higher level of quality than Boltinoff's, as well as a slightly more consistent theme. Still, stories like "Be It Ever So Humble . . ." could pop up anywhere, so the division between the Orlando books and the Boltinoff books was not always clear.

Peter: I always thought that House of Mystery ended up with the best stories of the line not because of the editors but because HoM was the flagship title (much in the way Creepy got the mother lode of great stories over at Warren and Vampirella and Eerie got the leftovers). But, now that I've spent some quality time digesting these books, I'd have to agree, Jack. You have to remember that Orlando was a veteran of dark horror from his days at EC and Warren whereas Boltinoff was used to pumping out silly superhero stuff like Legion of Super-Heroes and Superboy. Naturally, there's going to be a difference in the type of stories these guys accept.

Now, where was I? Oh yes! Jack Oleck's "The Monster" is a variation on Rod Serling's "Eye of the Beholder," the difference being that the protagonist is a young boy who believes all the people around him are slimy, lizard-like monsters that want to transform him into one of them. The opposite, of course, is true but it takes us a while to get the truth. Despite the fact that the story's a rip-off, I enjoyed it right up until the rather crass doctor offered up the final word balloon while contemplating the poor little mutant boy in his hospital bed: "He knows now that he is the one who was the monster all along..." There's no inker listed but this doesn't look at all like Wally Wood's classic work. But, as Jack would say, it beats the heck out of Tuska and Grandenetti!

Jack: Easily the best story in this issue, the ending surprised me, even though the story had familiar elements. Since I spent my youth reading DC comics in the '70s, I can tell you that this is the Wally Wood style that would prevail for the next several years as he did more and more DC work. Right now, he's my favorite DC horror artist, even though guys like Redondo and De Zuniga turn in beautiful work. Wood's art was always technically good but he had that crazy sense of humor and outrageous approach that made it fun to read comics.

"The Great Dimensional Brain Swap"

Peter: Unfortunately, neither of our reprints this time out is a winner. A scientist is contacted by an alien from another dimension offering "The Great Dimensional Brain Swap." Our hero takes the alien up on his offer but finds out, too late, it's a trap. The alien, a fugitive on his world, wants to come to Earth to escape justice. Even Alex Toth can't save this tedious fantasy. Things get even worse with "The Indestructible Man," a patched-together fantasy/crime melodrama about a stunt man who discovers he's immune to death and turns those talents to jewelry store theft. The switch, from kindly stunt man to hardened criminal, is abrupt to say the least. My favorite segment has to be when the light bulb goes on over stuntman Cal's head. After two near-death experiences while filming a movie, Cal says "Hmmm, maybe I'm just indestructible! I-Indestructible? I remember something about that!" and then proceeds to recall several near-death experiences as a lad! Two thoughts occur to me: 1/ How would you forget something like that, and 2/ did the near-death experiences just dry up between his pre-teen years and his stunt man years? Yes, I know I'm spending way to much time on this. Bill Ely's art is very strange in that it originally appeared in a 1957 comic book but looks like it could have been published a decade earlier. Retro-retro?

"The Indestructible Man"

Jack: Zzzzz. You know it's bad when even Alex Toth can't spruce up a story. As for the dopey "Indestructible Man" tale, the guy's an idiot! You only have one part of your body to worry about and--oops!--you dip it in poison? Seriously?

Nick Cardy

The Witching Hour 19

"A Tomb for the Living!"
Story by Jack Phillips
Art by Jerry Grandenetti

"The Four Threads of Doom"
Story Uncredited
Art by Nick Cardy
(reprinted from Tales of the Unexpected #12, April 1957)

"Stop Beating, Heart! You're Killing Me!"
Story Uncredited
Art by George Tuska

"The Lamp That Changed People!"
Story Uncredited
Art by Nick Cardy
(reprinted from House of Mystery #20, November 1953)

"What Evil Haunts This House?"
Story by George Kashdan
Art by Lee Elias

"A Tomb for the Living!"

Jack: Multi-millionaire Cyrus Randolph built a palace as a shrine to his wife Esmeralda. One day, a visitor named Sloane is bent on robbing some of the palace treasures but falls down a chute to the caverns below, where he meets the elderly Randolph, who has retreated to the underworld out of disgust with humanity. He keeps his dead wife in a glass case, guarded by her devoted servant Jonas. Sloane is dazzled by a beautiful jewel on the corpse's forehead and tries to steal it in the wee hours. The glass top that had covered Esmeralda slips, falling on Jonas and killing him. Sloane tells Randolph that he was saving the jewel from another robber, and the old man rewards him by allowing him to take Jonas's place as Esmeralda's guard, locked in with her forever in "A Tomb for the Living!" Variations on this story of something under the ground seem to pop up regularly in the DC horror line. This one is no more unique than any other. I was chagrined the other day to discover that Jerry Grandenetti ghosted for Will Eisner on The Spirit in the early '50s! Hard to believe that the artist whom I regularly disparage drew some of the entries in one of the greatest comics ever made.


Peter: Well, Jack, now you've set me to searching through my Spirit collection to find a trace of Grandenetti. I have to believe he was better way back when. We know he was iffy when it came to the 1960s war titles but maybe a decade earlier there was some kind of style going on. As for "A Tomb for the Living," I thought there was a germ of a good idea buried way down deep in the cliches but obviously the seed died quickly. I thought there might be something supernatural about that jewel atop Esmeralda's head (after all, it shone like a beacon) but nothing came of that either. Not much in the way of character development arises in an 8-page mystery story but I'd have liked to find out a bit more about the relationship between Cyrus and his Frankenstein monster-ish servant.

No one does suspense quite like George Tuska

Jack: Cruel Mr. Standish needs a heart transplant. Ignoring the warnings of an old man kept alive by a heart in a jar, he kills the old man, steals the heart, and has it implanted in his own chest. Soon he is crying, "Stop Beating, Heart! You're Killing Me!" since the heart causes him to age at a rapid rate and his body won't allow doctors to remove it. Eventually, he ends up in a nursing home and soon he is just a pile of ashes. Peter, I used to really like The Witching Hour, but with Grandenetti and Tuska leading the way, this issue is shaping up to be a disaster!

"What Evil Haunts This House?"

Peter: Oh boy, are you right, Jack! I can just see Mr. Standish walking into the hospitals and handing the doctors a heart and saying "Don't ask where I got it. Just put it in me!" That's not the only aspect of this vapid mess I'd question. What is it about this heart that makes it so evil? We never find out, we're just told to go along with it, but obviously there must have been something odd going on or the doctor wouldn't have commented on it. Would a "Home for the Aged" really just stand by and watch an old man turn to dust? And at some point I was waiting for one of the doctors to say "You know, it's not your heart that's bad, it's those buck teeth!"

Jack: Sent from London to collect signatures on some papers from the old man who lives in Craven Castle, Philip Soames is forced to spend the night and quickly falls in love with the man's lovely daughter, Elsie. Elsie is tortured nightly by bats, owls and insects, all of whom bash themselves against the castle's windows trying to get in. Soames wonders "What Evil Haunts This House?" and soon learns that Elsie is a witch and her father is keeping her locked in the castle for her own protection. There's a fairly interesting story buried somewhere in here, matched by the fairly interesting art by Lee Elias. But, as is so often the case, it ends without any clear resolution.

"The Four Threads of Doom"

Peter: Just as with Kashdan's "Agnes" story in Unexpected #133, "What Evil" comes off as a story written by a man who doesn't know how to write horror stories or someone who has lots of threads laying around and needs to use them. There are several elements thrown in, ostensibly, to make the page count extend from 6 to 9. Why are all the critters attacking Elsie? Is this a new rule for witches created by Kashdan? If so, at least explain it (Rule #3: "Creatures of the night are attracted to flowering witches"). As with Unexpected. The Witching Hour is fast becoming a disposable title, enjoyable only for its reprints. We need an overhaul quick.

Jack: Nick Cardy comes through again with the art in "The Four Threads of Doom," a good reprint from 1957 in which escaped convicts unwittingly interfere with the Greek Fates and cause their own capture. Even better--one of the best stories I've read in recent memory, in fact--is "The Lamp That Changed People!" also drawn by Cardy. The wonderfully-named duo of Casper and Jennie Doldrum don't get along very well. Casper spends all of his money on antiques, while Jennie is a luscious shrew who wishes he'd spend his money on her. He brings home an antique lamp and, at midnight, Jennie discovers that its base is a demon who can turn her into any woman she wants to be. She goes through several before the bulb burns out. Next morning, she discovers that Casper sold the lamp to a passing junk peddler. Great stuff! There is some pretty decent cheesecake here and Jennie's face looks like one of Will Eisner's women in one panel, reproduced here. I really liked everything about this story.

A Will Eisner swipe?

Peter: I thought "The Four Threads" was a confusing waste of time. It stole a laugh from me though when Cy is doing an inventory of all the items in his pocket and mentions the key to the safe deposit box where the boys had stashed their loot. Very accommodating of the warden to allow a man on the way to the electric chair to keep all his old belongings! Nick Cardy manages to snag "Best Artist of the Issue" award (by default, mostly) for his art on this and "The Lamp That Changed People," a humorous little bit of fluff with a decidedly EC-like climax. Very enjoyable.


Jack: On the letters page, readers argue about whether the editor should keep or dump the witches who host the comic. The person writing the responses, perhaps editor Murray Boltinoff, blames former editor Dick Giordano for including too many pages featuring the antics of the trio. I think Boltinoff should have kissed Giordano's feet, personally, and I'm in favor of more witch antics!

One more look at Peter's pick for Best of the Month

Oops! Wrong week.