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Friday, December 01, 2017

Number 2136: Horror story

We are kicking off December with a horror story called simply “Horror Story,” from Atlas’ Spellbound #2 (1951).

“Horror Story” is creepy, with that Bill Everett touch; just a bit of cartoony in with his depiction of monstrous villainy. It is not a real story about the real world of horror comics, but is fun because it might have made the readers of the time think it reflected the everyday life in the production of comic books. At least until the editor got to the cemetery.








Here are a couple of my favorite Everett horror stories, originally posted in 2011. Just click on the thumbnail.


9 comments:

JMR777 said...

That was some horror tale. What could be worse than becoming a part of, and being trapped in, the world of horror?

Morbid said...

I have to say there must have been seriously wrong with our hero if he left a woman like that in the office to go out hunting for some weirdo horror creator who calls himself Morbid.

Darci said...

Marie: There's no Mr. Morbid in the phone directory.

Well, duh!

I think what Bill Everett might have found most outlandish about this script was the idea of some editor going out of his way to get a paycheck in the hand of a creator?

Brian Barnes said...

Everett knew how to draw women, didn't he?

There was a lot of "horror writer/editor gets his" stories in pre-code, and this is certainly a good entity in that series. Everett gets the short end of the stick with the muddy printing, but his skill shines through. From every monster (including the pretty adorable wolfman!) to our Scrooge-ian editor, this is just a great piece of work. Fun story, great art.

Brad S. said...

Hi Pappy! Fun story. I’ve read some Atlas horror in collected editions, but the whole “you see the ghoul...you walk toward him” in every single story gets tedious ...the artists deserved a little variety!

Pappy said...

Marci, as you can see by the note above yours, there is a Morbid. Here is his website. Morbid artwork

I do agree with you, Darci...the editors of comics were most likely to stiff the artists rather than go visit a stiff.

Morbid, thank you for giving us a look at your old school horror comics artwork. Good luck with your projects.

Pappy said...

Brian, I get a lot of joy looking at Bill Everett's artwork. The best of it is what he was having most fun drawing, and I know he really enjoyed his assignments to draw horror.

Pappy said...

JMR777, well, that "world of horror" you mention seems to be my lot...but then I have to stop reading these old comics for a while.

Grant said...


I definitely agree with Morbid about the Marie character. Bill Everett evidently didn't believe in the "girls who wear glasses" cliche.