Fate of Alberto

Back in January 2008, I posted two stories from the August 1954 issue of Tales of Horror #12: "Welcome to My School", and "The Pallbearers." Today's fateful post comes from the same issue, and it's a wonderfully wicked tale of black magic and epic DOOM, superbly visualized by Ellis Eringer. I have to say, as good as today's story is, it's nothing compared to the fascinating man who illustrated it, find out more about Ellis "Papa Duke" Eringer and click HERE!

Number 1198: Jet Powers and the big bad bug

We learn in the third and final Jet Powers story from Jet #1 (1950) that Jet is an environmental disaster. He not only uses the potent insecticide DDT but he carries around in his aerocar — a combination plane and space vehicle — a can of lead-based paint. Well, paint me red with lead and spray me with DDT...then call the Environmental Protection Agency.

But, of course, in 1950 both of these products were common and legal. DDT was taken off the market decades ago because it got into the food chain and killed more than the insects it was designed to kill, and we know that lead is bad stuff. But they didn't know that in 1950, and thank goodness for that, otherwise how would Jet Powers have figured to kill the big insect that is the advance bug for an alien invasion?

This is a re-scan of a story I showed years ago, drawn by Bob Powell. Other stories from Jet #1 were shown in Pappy's #1127 and Pappy's #1141.

Frew #1229: The Assassination of President Lincoln (1999)

Writer:  Tony de Paul

Artist: Cesar Spadari

Download 

All credits go to "Laki". 

The Man Who Tricked the Devil!

Today we have the last story (thank the lard) from Tales of Horror #7 1952, aka the crummiest comic book in my collection... NOTE: when I say "crummy" I'm talkin' about a multitude of things like the print failure! every page loose! zero spine! fallin' apart / brittle condition! -- I certainly have nothing against the art or stories. So for you issue completists, also see: "Dinky!", "Die for the Beggar", and the really great "Beast from the Deep!" that we posted waaay back deep in the 2008 THOIA Archives!

Splash art recycled

When I'm the Evil Genius

I will not give my enemy 24 hours to get off Earth and never return. Previous posts in the "When I'm the Evil Genius" series.

Number 1197: Jess Jodloman — you axed for it!

I'm showing this five-pager from DC's Unexpected #176 (1976), because of the artwork of Jess Jodloman. Jodloman was one of the artists who were part of the Filipino invasion of the early '70s. Because they were already fully formed as artists when their work appeared in the States they stepped right in as total comics professionals. I visited a table at an early '80s San Diego Comicon with stacks of art by Filipino artists, all for the bargain price of $15 a page! I chose some of the best I could find, and page two of "What Haunted Herbert" was one of them.

Jodloman's busy brush inking style wasn't especially well served by DC's printing in the '70s. I saw a lower quality of printing at the time, where fine lines got broken up and details got muddy. I wish I could have afforded to buy more of the fantastic original Filipino artwork by Jodloman and the others I thought were also excellent artists. In retrospect, even at the time $15.00 wasn't much to pay for pages like this, but I was on a budget. Ah, to be rich, a one-percenter loose at a comic convention!

Number 1196: A is for Airboy, Zz is for Zzed

Zzed was a villain who fought Airboy more than once. This story is Zzed's first appearance.Zzed is an immortal who has been around a couple of thousand years. He cannot die until the world ends, an event he's trying to bring about. That's pretty heavy stuff!

Ernie Schroeder drew the stories Zzed appeared in. I've shown a two-part story featuring this character, which appeared a few months after this issue. In the bass-ackwards way things work in this blog, they are in Pappy's #1120 and Pappy's #1121.

From Airboy Comics Volume 6 Number 12, 1950: