Psycho #8 & #9 - Bring on the HORROR-MOOD!

Horror - Mood! That's what it was all about during the later issues of Skywald Magazines output, under the direction of "Archaic" Al Hewetson. A lot of the stories didn't make too much sense when examined closely, but the writing style was all about mood and atmosphere, and Al got some excellent work from talents such as Doug Moench, Ed Fedory and more. During this middle period of Skywald (when both these issues were produced) we see some of THE best writing ever done in the genre of horror for the sequential medium. The art (especially Pablo Marcos and Ramon Torrens) is also worthy of mention, but like the 70's Warren product, could be great one story and lousy the next.

PSYCHO #8 or here too!

This cover below (and the story inside) are pretty good indicators of things to come in the coming weeks, as we examine this line extensively. This is pretty visceral, gut-wrenching, nasty stuff that scared the utter cr*p out of me as a teenager and in some cases even disturbs me today. Al and crew were not taking any prisoners at this point - they were obviously very serious about writing stories that cared little for logic or happy endings and often had all the surreal qualities of fever dreams and nightmares. The only other stuff that still gets to me in this way is the best of H. P. Lovecraft. Don't say i didn't warn you.....

PSYCHO #9 or here too!