.... and slowly, surely, they drew their plans against us......

For the second time in nearly 60,000 years, Mars will is unusually close (35,000+ million miles away) to the Earth and is currentrly visible as a yellow twinkle just above the horizon.....
Now the chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one.... but still.....
Here's the original Halloween treat.... "The Broadcast that frightened America" as a big fat encode (50+ megs!)... the original Mercury broadcast of "War of the Worlds" with Orson Welles, plus the Lux Theatre adaption of the George Pal film....

1938 - "War of the Worlds"


1955 - "War of the Worlds"

PS. As an added surprise, hear H. G. Wells meet Orson Welles! 'Nuff said!


PPS. Don't forget to stop by and see the Zombie Astronaut (link to the right there...) for more War of the Worlds stuff!

Skywald "Horror-Mood" Magazines!

OK good people, i must admit. i'm almost all horror-ed out, and hopefully you have a pretty good idea of who these guys are by now....if not, here's some covers to get you up to speed.....













OK then... so let's 'dig in"......(So sorry about the coupons cut out from Psycho #8, but dem's da breaks.....)


Nightmare #7


Psycho #8

...and he looks like this?

...here's a nice pic of me playing records at the Love Parade recently held here in San Francisco. Yes, i'm sticking my tongue out, i'm so mature....

The Vanishing Men! - Again!?!

Another little piece of weirdness, Steve Ditko style.... i'm assuming it's another Joe Gill "masterpiece".... from "MYSTERIES OF UNEXPLORED WORLDS #24....

& now the link ACTUALLY WORKS!

The Vanishing Men!

Baron Weirwulf! No, that's his name! Really! And his library is haunted! No Foolin'!

In the 70's, the arrival of Nick Cuti at the Big C was a MAJOR re-vamp of the horror line. New titles and new hosts. The best of the new lot (in terms of the use put to) was the Baron and his great little one pagers...... Over at Warren, Creepy's Loathesome Lore was pretty good, but some of these one-pagers by Don Newton are just great!







For a while, HAUNTED was one of the BEST horror anthology comic books on the market at that time. Way better than anything DC was doing in the anthology books, and Marvel was just doing all those reprints....


Unfortunately, as time went on, the "reprint rot" set in......





But for about a year or so........

More SOTI Pre-Code Horror Repost! Sheeesh!

Again, for my pal Jimbeaux, here's some CLASSIC Pre-Code HORROR.........
First up is "Journey into Fear" #15 from that fine Canadian publisher Superior. That art in this issue looks like more "Iger shop" assembly line stuff, but the STORIES!!!!
Hoo-hah! Journey into insanity is more like it. Who wrote this stuff? Delirious and illogical, the four stories in here are like bizarre fever dreams from hell, and yet, they have an almost self-deprecating quality, as though the writer and artist were giving you a metaphorical "sly wink"... as if, it didn't need to make TOO MUCH sense, because it's just a STORY... a scary story, but still fiction designed to thrill in its unreality. Campfire tales, if you will. Hardly deserving of THIS response.....

Apparently, this book (or panels there-of) is featured in the notorious "Seduction of the Innocent", but i can't tell you which story or page. i looked through this puppy real hard and couldn't find ANYTHING that was really offensive or gory, so i'm at a bit of a loss as to what was so disturbing about this particular book. But i also like a good zombie movie (heck, i probably like the bad ones even more) , so i may be a bit more tolerant than most. One icky, nasty Pre-code horror comic, just for you! Journey into Fear #15


And here's another Pre-Code gem... Black Magic #25 with killer Simon & Kirby material! i'm speechless over this amazing book! The last story is especially worthy...... 'Nuff Said!


...and speaking of worthy!!!! WEB OF EVIL #3 by Jack Cole!
Hooboy! i love this book! Now THIS is a horror comic! Did i say that i love this book!? Sharp, crisp art, great stories... lovely lovely stuff. Definitely CLASSIC Pre-Code Horror!
WEB OF EVIL #3


This was my first horror book i put up, many moons ago.....art by Bob Powell, Howard Nostrand and the usual suspects.....
BLACK CAT MYSTERY #44


Now let's take a peek at Black Cat #47, shall we?
The artists in this issue are Howard Nostrand (doing his best Jack Davis imitation on "Low Noon"), Joe Certa and Bob Powell. I can't identify the artist on "TORTURE", a nasty Kafka-esque nightmare that has to rate as one of the NASTIEST comic book stories i've ever read. The cover is by Lee Elias. It has very little to do with anything inside the book, but it's pretty powerful, none the less.
Y'know, i find it more than jus' a lil' perverse that the same folks at Harvey Comics, who published this gem of whacked-out over the top horror and mayhem, went on to later and greater success with Casper, the Dead Baby & Richie the Little Trust Fund Jerk.
BLACK CAT MYSTERY #47

Be warned...EVERYTHING comes down on All Hallows Eve to make room for the BIG HALLOWEEN TREAT. Okey-dokey?

PS. whipped this up real quick just to show y'all how much i love the Comics Code and all that it stands for....

Some spooky tales before bed-time....

Probably not as good as issue #2 (still up for a few more Halloweeny days or so, so be quick & collect 'em all kids...)
but OK none-the-less.... pretty out there cover by Jeff Jones.... apparently publisher Martin Goodman HATED this cover and chewed wunderkind editor Jeff Rovin a new orofice over Jones' work and vowed NEVER to publish his work ever again.... high praise huh? But the Pat Boyette story is pretty solid, and as i get older, i get a growing appreciation for the talent and versataility of the vastly under-rated Ernie Colon, his "Speed Demon" story that closes out the ish really rocks.....
Weird Tales of the Macabre #1


Now THIS is probably the most TOGETHER title the Derby crew ever assembled. Rather than a loose collection of stories, Wayne Howards' MIDNIGHT TALES was always themed in some manner, and this is one of the best. i remember reading this title as a kid and thinking that Wayne Howard was really Wally Wood moonlighting from DC under an assumed name, some of art on these issues is THAT good! Here's a nice pic of Wayne from the text page of issue #1.

One cannot fail to mention the MAJOR contribution on the line during this period by Nicola Cuti, who is probably THE MOST UNDER-RATED writer/editor in the history of comics... somebody has GOTTA write a book about those handful of writer/editors & artist/editors who REALLY changed the medium AS EDITORS... the, shall we say, less that #1 fan faves..... Archie Goodwin at Warren and Marvel/Epic tops the list, Nick Cuti of course, plus Dick Giordano and George Wildman at Charlton, Al Hewetson at Skywald, Joe Orlando & Joe Kubert on the DC Mystery & War lines in the 70's, and a few others who i'm sure will be pointed out to me.....
Midnight Tales #7




How 'bout a quick repost of a couple of cool vampire comics? Ok by you?
Fright #1

Planet of Vampires #3
In other news, i Googled up datajunkie again, and viola! From the french website www.regarde.org - "Inutile mais tellement kitsch", which the handy Babel Fish tells me is "Useless but so much kitsch". Sapristi la conk! Well, i like their kissing, anyway.....

But hey... like i ALWAYS say,,, what do i know?

FANTASTIC GIANTS!

Fantastic Giants reprinting Konga #1 and Gorgo #1 plus 2 short "weirdies"! 64 wunnerful pages of Steve Ditko & Joe Gill! Reposted with love, by request, but for a few days only....WOW! The Halloween fun doesn't stop around here....
(....well, not till November anyway... then watch out!)

CHARLTON MAGAZINES!?!

... i just seem to be in image-crunch mode this week, huh?

PS. In response to many questions and requests, my MAJOR criterion for what i post (after "coolness" factor), is who do, or more importantly, DON'T own it. i have NO desire to get stomped over this, OK? So, check it out, here's the deal.....
If a company went under WITHOUT transferring its' intellectual properties (selling the ownership rights to work done for hire for THAT company to ANOTHER LEGAL entity), after a certain amount of time it falls into the public domain (for stuff prior to the Bern Convention of '76 that is).
Some stuff WASN'T correctly copyrighted, so after 5 years....public domain.
Some was WILFULLY ABANDONED by the originator..(a LOT of old time radio, for example, was LITERALLY thrown in the trash) ....public domain.
Once in the public domain, it cannot be RE-copyrighted as is.

TRADEMARKS (that is say, CHARACTERS) are more like PATENTS, and as such are a whole other world of pain. So, no Question or Blue Beetle pdfs any time soon, as DC OWNS THE TRADEMARKS. AM I BEING CLEAR? The original stories might be in the public domain, but the trademark still holds water, so it's a BIG no-no. Sorry Roberto!

Lastly, i will point out that lawyers, litigation and other fun stuff like that COSTS MONEY, so if i feel that something is, shall we say, "iffy", then i will err on the side of caution rather than have some nasty legal letter in my inbox from some suit trying to justify his salary by "protecting" the "rights" of his employer and going after stuff like this. Think it couldn't happen??? Just ask the "nice" folks a Conde Naste where all the fan sites devoted to THE SH*D*W disappeared to....... see, i'm not even gonna type his full name....that's how scared i am about those knuckle-headed maniacs.....

Long story short...... i don't need no hassles over this, so i try and play it safe.... OK?

your pal,
the datajunkie


(...tap dancing on the thin ice once again.... do de doo.....)