Number 620


Halloween tales of sex and death


It's a special Halloween edition of Pappy's today, featuring two of my favorite all-time subjects, sex, as in illicit and otherwise not normal, and death, as in dead people up and walking around, looking for that aforementioned sex.

What better way to remember deceased loved ones than to have them coming in the door at midnight stinking of decomposition, rotting flesh dripping from their bones, maggots crawling from their eyesockets, looking for a little lovin'! Works for me!

First up is a tender tale of unrequited love from Twisted Tales #1, written by Bruce Jones and drawn by the incredible Alfredo Alcala. Then a story of a love worth waiting for, even after death! It's drawn by Good ol' Ghastly Graham Ingels from Vault of Horror #19. The original art scans are taken from the Heritage Auctions site.

Bonus!

From Creepy #3, a 1965 Joe Orlando-drawn tale of morbid revenge that fits into our theme. This seems like Horror Comics 101: husband killed by wife and her lover, then returns from grave. It's written by Arthur Porges, an author who wrote hundreds of stories over the years that appeared in mystery magazines like Alfred Hitchcock's, etc. He was very prolific. So what was he doing writing a pseudo-EC Comics story for Creepy, when Archie Goodwin is credited for all other stories in the magazine? Damned if I know!

I believe it was Porges' only story for Creepy. I wonder why he named the cuckolded husband Arthur, after himself...?

Number 566


Forbidden Tales of Oleck and Alcala


A while back I showed you a couple of 1970s DC mystery stories by writer Jack Oleck and artist Alfredo Alcala, and because I admire both of them for their craft at horror, here are two more from that duo. "Head Of the House" is from Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #9, and "The Monster" is from the subsequent issue, Forbidden Tales #10, both dated 1973.

"The Monster" is another from the same swamp that produced the 1940 Unknown story, "It!" by Theodore Sturgeon, which in turn influenced Air Fighters Comics' Heap, Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, Ring-A-Ding the Thing-Thing (that last one I made up), et al. The swamp monster is a genre unto itself. I like Oleck's snap ending to "Head Of the House" because of its ghoulishness. And what can I say about artwork by the late Alfredo Alcala except that it is always a joy, no matter the subject.

Number 502


Oleck and Alcala


Two stories set in the past by longtime comic book scripter Jack Oleck and Philippine comic artist Alfredo Alcala: "Lady Killer" is from DC Comics' 1974 Weird Mystery Tales #10, and "A Second Chance To Die" is a black and white strip from Marvel's Tales Of The Zombie #7.

I love the way Alcala captured the look of Victorian England in "Lady Killer." His intricate brushwork was perfectly suited for the strip. "Second Chance" is a sadistic revenge story. The former feels like an old Atlas horror story, and the latter seems more like an EC story. No surprises, there, because Oleck wrote for both Atlas and EC.

In his Grantbridge Street blog Joe Bloke ran a ghoulishly funny strip by the Oleck/Alcala team from Plop! #2.