"This Crypt, This Comic, These... COMMENTS!!"
In the bashful Bronze Age of American comics, an oft-observed phenomenon from Marvel Comics was the mystery comic reprinting old horror stories from the Atlas era. One example of this phenomenon was The Crypt of Shadows, which debuted with a cover date of January, 1973. Here's a review of this item:
‘Midnight on Black Mountain’ is the five-page story of one Paula Harper, an unemotional, scheming woman who disposes of men and collects their money. Into this life come two men: her doctor, who gives her a year to live, and Walter Mead, with whom she has fallen in love. Walter, however, wants nothing to do with her, for she is a witch - the only way she can disprove this assertion of his is to go to Black Mountain at midnight, where and when the witches gather and cavort - if she is not a witch the witches shall reject her. This is an interesting set-up and the twist is not one I saw coming. Nicely-plotted, with rather fine, if over-detailed, art by Mort Lawrence. It is sometimes known to the aficionados as E-538.
This is followed by ‘Where Monsters Dwell,’ or B773 on its payslip, with art by Basil Wolverton, in which Dr Leon Korber invites the editor of the Benton Dispatch, Reese by name, to his lab after Reese has scoffed in print at the Professor’s claims of wild inventions. If I say that the Professor’s latest invention is a lamp which projects an entryway to a weird dimension, you can guess what happens next, if not the semi-ending. About Basil Wolverton I can only say that he is one of those creators one likes or not. This story is six pages long.
The third story is drawn by Jay Scott Pike and entitled ‘Don’t Look!’ and numbered A 537. A mad old man bursts into the office of Patent Lawyer Harold Whitney with a strange mirror, which can show the viewer what anyone will look like in the future. The twist is only obvious just before the ending, and I’d say this is a rather good example of its genre.
Finally, A 300, or, if you want to be less formal, ‘The Scarecrow’ - like the previous story, also reprinted from the first issue of Journey into Mystery - is a five-page twist on the Charles Atlas sand-kicked-in-face ad. Russ Heath’s art probably suffers most by the reproduction methods employed by Marvel in the early 1970s,with Pike a close second of the artists in this reprint collection.
The cover is a new one by Gil Kane, illustrating the first story and, in my opinion, promising more than it delivers. However, if you can pick this up at a reasonable price, it offers half an hour or so of tolerable entertainment for those who like 1950s horror comics.
‘Midnight on Black Mountain’ is the five-page story of one Paula Harper, an unemotional, scheming woman who disposes of men and collects their money. Into this life come two men: her doctor, who gives her a year to live, and Walter Mead, with whom she has fallen in love. Walter, however, wants nothing to do with her, for she is a witch - the only way she can disprove this assertion of his is to go to Black Mountain at midnight, where and when the witches gather and cavort - if she is not a witch the witches shall reject her. This is an interesting set-up and the twist is not one I saw coming. Nicely-plotted, with rather fine, if over-detailed, art by Mort Lawrence. It is sometimes known to the aficionados as E-538.
This is followed by ‘Where Monsters Dwell,’ or B773 on its payslip, with art by Basil Wolverton, in which Dr Leon Korber invites the editor of the Benton Dispatch, Reese by name, to his lab after Reese has scoffed in print at the Professor’s claims of wild inventions. If I say that the Professor’s latest invention is a lamp which projects an entryway to a weird dimension, you can guess what happens next, if not the semi-ending. About Basil Wolverton I can only say that he is one of those creators one likes or not. This story is six pages long.
The third story is drawn by Jay Scott Pike and entitled ‘Don’t Look!’ and numbered A 537. A mad old man bursts into the office of Patent Lawyer Harold Whitney with a strange mirror, which can show the viewer what anyone will look like in the future. The twist is only obvious just before the ending, and I’d say this is a rather good example of its genre.
Finally, A 300, or, if you want to be less formal, ‘The Scarecrow’ - like the previous story, also reprinted from the first issue of Journey into Mystery - is a five-page twist on the Charles Atlas sand-kicked-in-face ad. Russ Heath’s art probably suffers most by the reproduction methods employed by Marvel in the early 1970s,with Pike a close second of the artists in this reprint collection.
The cover is a new one by Gil Kane, illustrating the first story and, in my opinion, promising more than it delivers. However, if you can pick this up at a reasonable price, it offers half an hour or so of tolerable entertainment for those who like 1950s horror comics.