Monster of the Day #1661

Some of you may have noticed we were suffering domain name issues yesterday. Of course this immediately motivated me to pathetically bleat for help from Jabootu’s resident superhero Carina Magyar, who quickly put things aright. Thanks for the thousandth time, C!

House of Mystery was DC’s main ‘weird tales’ comic. It started in 1951 (!) and ran for 349 (??) issues. At first it was bland tales of the supernatural–not for DC any of that trouble EC Comics would draw for itself–and after the Comics Code was created and sat hard on supernatural content, it because the house book for Martian Manhunter and more tepid tales of the slightly uncanny. Dial H for Hero and right before cancellation I, Vampire also took over the books for spells.

Finally the code relaxed and things got better (oddly pretty much exactly halfway through the run, with issue 174), and the book really finally went completely into the horror direction, hiring the superb Bernie Wrighton to do covers (including for the first appearance of Swamp Thing) and introducing damned immortal caretaker Cain, of Cain and Abel fame. From the covers the book feature a kiddie team of supernatural investigators, so I suspect the horror wasn’t all THAT hardcore for a while. Still, those covers!

  • While I like the cover, I find the anatomy of whoever is in the house a wee bit off putting.

  • bgbear_rnh

    Get rid of those meddlesome kids while they are young.

  • Gamera977

    I guess it could be holding it’s hand in front of it’s chest but yeah the pose is sorta odd.

  • Gamera977

    Maybe I just have a dirty mind but when I first looked I was thinking the spook was holding another somewhat more offensive finger up…

  • Beckoning Chasm

    “Hey! My eyes are up here, guys!”

  • Eric Hinkle

    I remember getting a few issues of this, usually at 7-11’s and local stores while on vacation with the family. It was good spooky fun.

    And am I wrong or did DC not also do a comic titled something like ‘You Will Believe In… GHOSTS’.

  • Ken_Begg

    Yes! Those covers tended to feature animated skeletons, which I love. They’ve been featured here before.

  • Flangepart

    Or he’s hiring a ‘gesture gnome’ for the effect.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I remember those. Skeleton car drivers, skeleton bell ringers, skeleton gondoliers…