Cool Ass Comics: Monsters, Ghosts & Other Things That Go Bump In the Night

I figured I'd run off another entry while I had some of the comics out this evening. Most of the books featured here are one's I bought with my allowance when I was a kid and are presented here "uncut", warts and all complete with worn and crinkled covers.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #279

HOUSE OF MYSTERY started out as a horror comic akin to the EC comics of the day. When the controversy surrounding those grim, yet artistic endeavors brought an end to such lurid storytelling, DC's series morphed into a superhero book such as DIAL H FOR HERO. Later on, it returned to strictly terror tales. It lasted 321 issues.


SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE was another DC horror title that ended in 1982. This issue, #43, was one of the last. The run ended with issue #46.

GHOSTS #71

GHOSTS was yet another horror title from DC, the home of such famous characters as BATMAN and SUPERMAN. GHOSTS ran for 112 issues ending in the early 80's around the time some of their other horror titles finished up there runs. Below are two additional GHOSTS covers as well as a look at the back covers for retro reasons.

GHOSTS #86

GHOSTS #89

Below is the back cover of GHOSTS #86 advertising a poster for something called STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE (1979).


And then the back cover for GHOSTS #71 features a cool ad for some BATTLESTAR GALACTICA model kits. Anybody have these?


Charlton Comics had their own line of horror titles and they were told in the same style as everyone else's. All seemingly inspired by the trailblazers at EC comics, the Charlton series of spooky stories consisted of titles such as GHOSTLY TALES, GHOST MANOR, HAUNTED and BEYOND THE GRAVE. Below are a series of covers for some of them.

GHOSTLY TALES (#131)

GHOSTLY TALES (#158)

HAUNTED #75 (1984 reprint)

BEYOND THE GRAVE #7 (January 1983 reprint)

GHOST MANOR #71

GHOST MANOR #76

Comic book movie adaptations were a regular occurrence back in the day. Here's one for the movie THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS (1986). Sometimes, movie adaptations would be broke up over several issues and other times, they'd be crammed into one 60 to 80 page comic book. The latter is the case with this one. The comic ends with the theatrical ending and not the original, downbeat ending.

Lastly, it's a couple of horror themed CONAN style comic books. One from DC and the other from Marvel.


This is ARAK, SON OF THUNDER issue #12. This issue obviously took inspiration from CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981; there's also a multi headed dog creature). This series featuring a Native American hero lasted for 47 issues.


This is CREATURES ON THE LOOSE #22. It featured the first of eight appearances by THONGOR, a character modeled after CONAN. This Marvel series frequently dealt with stories about monsters and fantasy characters. The series lasted for 37 issues. There was also to have been a live action movie in the 1970's from Amicus, the lead rival to Hammer Films, but the company went bankrupt before the film could be mounted.

UNTIL NEXT TIME...