Zonker

I kind of like this one. This one was pretty good too!

Origin / 1st app. Belladonna.

I'm continuely amazed at the things you can learn around here... Did/does he/she still work and, if so, what name does he/she draw under? Jim Rob gave us the scoop last time around. Page down that thread for a link to a first-hand account from Jones.

With Death and Raven also?

Roger that! What's also a bit different recently is the still-increasing cover-centric focus that comes from (of course) CGC and things like this thread and the Shiverbones website. Lots of DC collectors probably knew about HoM 186 with its double-dose of Adams & Wrightson stories. But how many until recently cared about (for instance) HoM 267's Kaluta mermaid cover? I see Bronze horror on the same trajectory as the Adams covers of Batman 217-250: a rising tide lifting the entire title for a certain period, with individual minor key issues (Bat 232/234/251, potentially HoM 174) spiking upwards beyond that.

From the scan, your copy appears to be thinner than normal for this issue. Are you sure it's not missing a page or two?

A pleasure as always Chris!

Yes, it is! As much as I love most everything Archie Goodwin did, his previous tenure on Star-Spangled War continued the silly convention of never showing the US face. It was silly because at the inevitable unmasking moment in the story, you'd have US pulling off his mask, to reveal layers and layers of bandages underneath! I mean, I'm willing to buy the implausibility of the "Mission:Impossible" plastic face mask, but never could get past the stack-up of face + rolls of bandages + mask. When Orlando took over the book as editor, he brought in David Michelinie as scripter, who really kicked things up a notch. I first read one of the Michelinie/Talaoc US stories in the Fireside Books' America at War reprint: I was struck how authentically brutal Michelinie's stories were for a mid-1970s book. Great stuff!

Yeah, noticed that myself. I've always thought Cain was added on as an editorial after-thought to that story. You saw that a lot with the reprints during the 52-page period, where the stories were retroactively adopted as being narrated by Cain. IIRC, the epilogue to Nightmare also has Cain tacked on, and drawn in a very non-Adams style? I wonder if Adams completed the story and then shopped it around to Marvel, Warren, and DC?

So here's my list, in order of publication 1- House of Mystery 179. First of all, that eerie dark-green lightning-flash cover by Adams. Then Wrightson's first professional work. And an Orlando/Adams artistic collaboration. 2- House of Mystery 186. Another Adams & Wrightson two-fer. Adams' "Nightmare" is probably the most beautifully-drawn single story in the title's history. Wrightson's story in this issue about the Egyptian cats I'm convinced was the inspiration for Gaiman and Kelley Jones' "Dream of a Thousand Cats" in Sandman 18. (When I first saw Kelley Jones' work, I had him pegged as a Wrightson-wannabe-- and he really channelled Berni on the particular story). 3- House of Secrets 92. Yes, it is over-valued, perhaps over-rated. But c'mon: First ever Swamp Thing. And that cover! 4- House of Secrets 96. Another of Wrightson's best covers. This issue makes the list on the strength of the cover plus the Wally Wood short story "The Monster." 5- House of Secrets 151. As others have pointed out, an artistic high-water mark from cover to cover. I'd stopped paying attention to the horror books by the time Adams and Wrightson stopped drawing any stories, so only recently came across this as a back issue. But Michael Golden and Art Suydam were worthy successors to Adams, Wrightson and Kaluta.

.5-- If you haven't already, steer on over to the home page of this thread's co-founder: www.shiverbones.com And, if you're primarily interested in collecting based on cover image, I'd recommend you take a gander at the early run of Unexpected. In the 110's you have Adams and by the 130's you have Nick Cardy, frequently drawing mini-skirt-clad babes in jeopardy. (it was the 70's after all) I don't find the stories in Unexpected to be the equal to HoM/HoS, but those are some nice covers.

I think Sterling & Shiver get a lot of credit, but agree we're too small an audience to move the market overall. What I do think is happening is two things: 1) Slabbing puts the premium back on the cover image. I think most back-issue collecting, certainly Silver Age and beyond, has traditionally been driven by the desire to get those key issues. Key issues have largely been tied to developments in ongoing characters' continuity, so all anthology books-- including the bronze horror anthologies-- have suffered by comparison. But now, since the books are slabbed, it is the classic cover that commands attention, and here these books are occupying the high ground. 2) The rise of Internet-based tools for comics collectors also promotes awareness of these titles, particularly again the memorable cover images. So these forums do play a small part, but it is also Shiver's web site, the Grand Comic Book Database, Mike's DC Indexes, etc. etc.

I've been looking for this book for a long time. I regard it as the best of the non-GL All-American covers.

Don't you reckon that was the consequence of the Direct Market taking off and the death of newstand distribution? When comics were an impulse buy at the newstand or drug store, the well-executed, provocative cover image was perhaps enough to sell the book. Once the audience shifted to the weekly comics shop consumers, I suppose the publishers decided they needed some continuity to try to keep 'em coming back every month. HoM had I, Vampire Weird War had Creature Commandos Ghosts had Dr. Thirteen (or was it Jonny Peril?) Secrets had Mr. E. ...etc.

Love it! Guess-the-Artist is something we haven't done much of on these boards, but something ideally suited to this medium. I did not catch on to it being Schaffenburger until you revealed it, but you're clearly right. I knew it wasn't Swan, but I was leaning towards Moldoff.

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It's been a lonnnngg time since I read it. As I recall, these were synthetic beings from an alien (perhaps artifically-created?) world. A mad scientist from Earth conditioned them by broadcasting old Universal Studios horror movies! They apparently thought "God" was telling them to become vampires, werewolves and the like. If Rip doesn't like the cover, he probably hates the story. I'll give the resolution away after a... SPOILER WARNING FOR A STORY PUBLISHED OVER 30 YEARS AGO! Superman and Jimmy send the bad guys back to their home world, and reverse the mad scientist's conditioning by de-programming the monsters via non-stop broadcasting of... (wait for it) MGM Musical Show tunes! I'm not kidding. Not Kirby's finest hour...

Last weekend I picked up the second TPB volume of the Jack Kirby Jimmy Olsen series. Mark Evanier writes the introduction, and his comments made me think of your research into various "firsts" on your website. Since there's been a lot of discussion lately about 'hero/horror' books of the early 1970s, I thought it might be of general interest to post here. Evanier claims that Kirby conceived of his vampire/wolfman story for JO 142/143, and then got DC publisher Carmine Infantino to lobby to have the Comics Code changed to allow it. Turns out Marvel had the first Morbius in ASM 101 out first, but it must have been by only a week or two, because each book carries an October 1971 cover date: So, do you think this counts as the actual first DC post-Code vampire? And might it be the first post-Code wolfman anywhere? Let me hasten to add, this isn't much of a horror story... it is firmly in the super-hero genre, but then again, couldn't one say the same of Morbius?

I'm a huge fan of the Kirby/Wood Challengers collaborations. Shouldn't this one be noted as a Scarlet Witch prototype??

Here's one of my 10 cent DC "space" covers

Most of Cardy's covers were un-signed. Seems like he did virtually all the DC 20 cent covers, so maybe he didn't have time to sign 'em! I do remember seeing the full "Cardy" signature on several of the early (pre-#10) Witching Hour covers. A more common sig is the N-within-the-C found on the Witching Hour #32 cover later in this thread.

Yes, they do, but I'd extend that all the way through the Black Orchid covers 428-430 and the Spectre covers 431-440 ( but I know Pov has the Spectres already). And Pov, that Detective 437 is one of my favorites. Check out the Manhunter debut backup story drawn by a very young Walt Simonson and written by Archie Goodwin at the top of his game. The Detective 437-443 run is well worth further investigation, both for the Manhunter stories (the Batman ones aren't bad either), and the great Golden Age retro cover style.

Trading Kudi: - to paull for turning me on to some sweet Kelley Jones Batman issues in trade. - to shiverbones for mid-grade DC Bronze Horror from his website in trade. Accurate grading, great communication, fair trading in each case. Thanks much, guys!

You betcha! And kudos right back for quick payment, overall trouble-free transaction, and of course the Philly Cheese Steak!!!