Happy Halloween 2025

A happy Halloween to all, as Flash, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern join in on this cover to Comic Cavalcade #12 (Fall, 1945), with the heroes drawn by E. E. Hibbard, Harry Peter and Martin Naydel.  

An Unexpected Witch

Another horror host, this one, the Mad Mod Witch (also known later as the Fashion Thing), who first appeared in Unexpected #108 (August-September, 1968) in a story by Dave Wood, Jack Sparling and Rocco Mastroserio, and continued regularly in the title up to Unexpected #116 (December-January, 1969/1970), missing Unexpected #113, but appearing with other horror hosts like Abel and Cain in DC Special #4 (July-September, 1969), and then in Witching Hour #13 (February-March, 1971) with the Three Witches....and popping up here and there over the years, most notably in a few issues of Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

She made a few cover appearances, including Unexpected #109 (October-November, 1968) by Jack Sparling, Unexpected #111 (February-March, 1969)  by Nick Cardy and Unexpected #114 (August-September, 1969) by Neal Adams.

Remembering Artist Bernie Wrightson

Remembering artist Bernie Wrightson on his birthday (October 27, 1948 - March 18, 2018) with his cover to Doctor Strange/Silver Dagger #1 (March, 1983) with reprinted Stephen Strange's battle against the Silver Dagger from Doctor Strange #1, #2, #4 and #5.

More Weird Science

More Weird Science, with the second (and sadly last) collections of Weird Science from Ross Cochran in 1980s, featuring classic Weird Science tales from EC, this time, with covers by Wally Wood!

Volume 3 features Weird Science #12 through #17.

Volume 4 features Weird Science #18 through #22.

Remembering Artist Al Feldstein

Remembering artist Al Feldstein on his birthday (October 24, 1925 - April 29, 2014) with a couple of covers featuring his EC work, but are from Russ Cochran, as that company reprinted much of the EC comics in the 1980s, including these two volumes, featuring Weird Science.

Volume 1 reprinted Weird Science #5, #6 and #12 through #15.

Volume 2 reprinted Weird Science #7 through #11.

A Scarlet Witch Solo

Though Wanda had been around the Marvel Universe since the earliest days of the X-Men and the Avengers, her time was spent mostly as a team member.  

It took until 1994 and the end of the Avengers West Coast for the Scarlet Witch to get her first four issue mini-series, where she faced the Demons of Dark Design, Master Pandemonium and Lore (all under writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and artists John Higgins and Mark McKenna).

Scarlet Witch #1 and #2 (January and February, 1994)

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Scarlet Witch #3 and #4 (March and April, 1994)

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Remembering Artist Nick Cardy

Remembering artist Nick Cardy on his birthday (October 20, 1920 - November 3, 2013) with something a little unexpected....a couple of his covers to Unexpected (#120 from August-September, 1970 and #139 from September, 1972) which give you signs of warning...that these couples ignored!

Frankenstein Monster Meets Dracula

It's a battle of monsters that is a Universal theme, but here is the tale of the first battle of the creation of Frankenstein and the lord of the vampires, Dracula...

...brought to you as only the mighty Marvel could at the time!

The Fury Of A Fiend!

There was a bit of a set up for this, in Frankenstein #7 (November, 1973, by Gary Friedrich, John Buscema and John Verpoorten, with Frank Giacoia).  The Monster, in the later 1800s, fell in with a group of gypsies, falling for the beautiful Carmen Burnemissa.  Working with her grandmother, Madame Marguerita, the Monster went along with them, heading to Transylvania in the Monster's pursuit of the last surviving Frankenstein (as the Monster wanted to end his creator's bloodline).  

Secretly, Marguerita was a vampire, feasting on the village....and bringing down their wrath on the gypsy caravan.  The Madame led the monster to a cave, where she said the last Frankenstein lay dead....but, after the monster cleared the boulder blocking the cave, they found her true goal....the undead body of Dracula!

My Name Is...Dracula--

Here, the battle has truly begun, in Frankenstein #8 (January, 1974, by Gary Friedrich, John Buscema and John Verpoorten, with Buscema inking his own cover).  The Monster, enraged by the trickery of the Madame, ends up fighting Dracula (surprised by the monster's strength, and still weak from his own resurrection).  The sounds of the battle drew Carmen to the cave, where threatened by her own grandmother, the monster slew the madame, revealing to her granddaughter that she was a vampire. 

The battle ended as Dracula disappeared in the melee, with the monster and Carmen discovering that the villagers had slain all the gypsies.  Furious, the monster left to attack the village, leaving an unconscious Carmen behind.  Meanwhile, Dracula searched the village for sustenance, but the villagers were prepared to ward off his attacks.  So, wandering the countryside, Dracula found the unconscious Carmen, and fed.  The monster set upon the village, who were also ready for him, and bound him to a lamppost, building a fire around him to end the monster.

The Vampire Killers!

The battle ends in Frankenstein #9 (March, 1974, by Gary Friedrich, John Buscema and John Verpoorten, with cover inks by Tom Palmer).  The monster is able to escape fiery death as the villagers rush to face Dracula, who was attempting to feed on another female victim.  The villagers rally against Dracula, but fail, as the count goes to secure a new coffin for his cave.  The monster lets the villagers know he will end Dracula, and that they should not attack him.  Back at the cave, the monster encounters the now vampiric Carmen, who attempts to feed on the monster, paralyzing his vocal cords.  

Overcome with grief, the monster ends Carmen's undead experience.  Dracula is angered the monster would end one of his brides, and fights with the monster, with the monster successfully defeating Dracula (for now).  Even better, at the end, the monster comes into contact with the last surviving Frankenstein (Vincent)....but that is a story for another time.

Remembering Artist Luis Dominguez

Celebrating the birthday of artist Luis Dominguez (October 17, 1923 - July 1, 2020)  with two of his covers to the Witching Hour (#65 from August-September, 1976 and #71 from May, 1977), where the witch Mordred overseas Death taking its victims.

Celebrating Artist Bob Hall

Celebrating the birthday of artist Bob Hall (October 16, 1944) with a west coast party....a party of the West Coast Avengers, that is.  Due to concerns of the Vision that surfaced during the Secret Wars, he enlisted Hawkeye to form a team of Avengers on the west coast, to be better able to handle emergencies.  Hawkeye enlisted Avengers who were in the area, like Wonder Man, Tigra and Iron Man (though he didn't know to start that it was not the original Iron Man-Tony Stark, but instead James Rhodes), and Mockingbird.  This team of unsure heroes faced menaces like the Blank and Graviton in their initial mini-series.

West Coast Avengers #1 and #2 (September and October, 1984)

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West Coast Avengers #3 and #4 (November and December, 1984)

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Cooking With Sabrina The Teenage Witch

Seeing what's cooking with Sabrina Spellman and her aunts, Hilda and Zelda, as Sabrina puts a new age spin on a old cauldron in these two issues of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (#21 from September, 1974 by Dan DeCarlo and Rudy Lapick, and #36 from December, 1976 by Stan Goldberg and Jon D'Agostino).

Remembering Artist Bob Oksner

Remembering artist Bob Oksner on his birthday (October 14, 1915 - February 18, 2007) with a couple of his covers featuring a Mummy....and, though Bob worked on both the Adventures of Bob Hope and the Adventures of Jerry Lewis comics, it seems a shame Bob and Jerry never had a cross over!

Covers from Adventures of Bob Hope #98 (April-May, 1966) and Adventures of Jerry Lewis #94 (May-June, 1966).

My Greatest Adventure With Giant Insects

Before the Doom Patrol took over the title, My Greatest Adventure had menaces that the ordinary humans of Earth had to face...with a bit of a science fiction bent.

Here, two covers by Dick Dillin and Sheldon Moldoff, with humans facing a giant beetle with the transplanted brain of a scientist (#41, March, 1960)  and being taken away by giant ants (#55, May, 1961).

Celebrating Artist Jim Starlin

Celebrating the birthday of writer/artist Jim Starlin (October 9, 1949).  

Known more for his epic space sagas, here, in the earlier days of his career, are a couple of horror comics, Where Monsters Dwell (#18 from November, 1972 and #20 from March, 1973) with Morgumm and Klagg, showing a mix of terror with science fiction.

Beware The Witching Hour

Beware the Witching Hour....and here, there are reasons to with these two covers by Neal Adams for The Witching Hour (#9 and #10 from June-July and August-September, 1970) where Mordred of the Three Witches watched over mayhem about to take over innocent victims....but where were blonde Cynthia and hooded Mildred?

Celebrating Artist Adam Kubert

Celebrating the birthday of artist Adam Kubert (October 6, 1959) with 2 of his covers to Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits Of Vengeance (#5 and #6 of December, 1992 and January, 1993), featuring Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, Spider-Man and Venom.

The other two parts to the story didn't have covers by Adam, and were in Web Of Spider-Man.

Horror In And Out Of The House Of Mystery

Here are a couple of cases of horror around the house....the House of Mystery, that is, with Neal Adams' covers for House Of Mystery #178 and #179 (January-February and March-April, 1969).

Remembering Artist Ramona Fradon

Remembering artist Ramona Fradon on her birthday (October 2, 1926 - February 24, 2024) by stretching things a bit...

...with her covers for Plastic Man, the stretchable sleuth, and his loyal sidekick, Woozy Winks!

Plastic Man #11 and #16 (February-March 1976 and 1977)

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Plastic Man #17 and #18 (April-May and June-July, 1977)

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Plastic Man #19 and #20 (August-September and October-November, 1977)

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Conan Vs The Undead

Switching gears with Conan the Barbarian, here in two issues of Savage Sword of Conan with painted covers by Earl Norem (#39 from April, 1979 and #55 from August, 1980), with Conan facing off against zombies in the land before time!