By Alex Toth, Bob Haney, George Kashdan, Ed Herron, Jack Miller, Carl Wessler, Dennis O’Neil, Steve Skeates, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Gerry Conway, Jack Oleck, Mike Friedrich, Alan Riefe, Dave Kaler, Phil Seuling, Jack Phillips, Murray Boltinoff, Sergio Aragonés, Nick Cardy, Carmine Infantino, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Neal Adams, Mike Sekowsky, George Tuska, Wally Wood, Dick Giordano, Joe Orlando, Bob Brown, Gray Morrow, Murphy Anderson, Pat Boyette, Bill Draut, Howard Sherman, Howard Post, Jerry Grandenetti, John Celardo, Art Saaf, Jack Sparling, Michael Wm. Kaluta, José Delbo, Lee Elias, Sid Greene, Jeff Jones, Tony DeZuñiga, Bernie Wrightson, Jim Aparo, John Calnan & many & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3022-7 (TPB)
American comic books struggled until the creation of superheroes unleashed a torrent of creative imitation and invented a new genre. Implacably vested in World War II, the Overman swept all before him (and the far too occasional her) until the troops came home and more traditional genres supplanted the Fights ‘n’ Tights crowd.
Although kids (of all ages) kept buying, much of the previous generation also retained a four-colour habit, but increasingly sought more mature themes in the reading matter. The war years altered the psychology of the world, and as a more world-weary, cynical public came to see that all the fighting and dying hadn’t really changed anything, their chosen forms of entertainment (film and prose as well as comics) reflected this.
As well as Western, War and Crime comics, escapist comedy and anthropomorphic animal features were immediately resurgent, but gradually another periodic revival of spiritualism and interest in the supernatural led to a wave of increasingly impressive, evocative and even shocking horror comics.
There had been a sector of supernatural stars before; even a pantheon of ghosts, monsters and wizards draped in mystery-man garb and trappings: The Spectre, Dr. Fate, The Heap, The Heap, Mr. Justice, Sgt. Spook, Frankenstein and dozens of others). However, these had been individualistic victims of circumstance, with the vague force of “The Unknown” acting as a power source for super-heroics. Now the focus shifted to ordinary mortals thrown into a world beyond human ken or control with the intention of unsettling, not vicariously empowering the reader.
Almost every publisher jumped on an increasingly popular bandwagon, with B & I (which became the magical one-man-band Richard E. Hughes’ American Comics Group) launching the first regularly published horror comic in the Autumn of 1948 – although Adventures Into the Unknown was technically pipped by Avon, who had released an impressive single issue entitled Eerie in January 1947 before launching a regular series in 1951.
By this time Classics Illustrated had already long-milked the literary end of the medium with adaptations of The Headless Horseman, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (both 1943), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1944) and Frankenstein (1945) among others.
If we’re keeping score this was also the period in which Joe Simon & Jack Kirby identified another “mature market” gap and invented the Romance comic (via Young Romance #1, cover-dated September 1947). They too saw the sales potential of spooky stories, resulting in the seminal Black Magic (1950) and boldly obscure psychological drama anthology Strange World of Your Dreams (1952).
National Periodicals/DC Comics also bowed to the inevitable, and in 1951 launched a comparatively straight-laced anthology that nevertheless became one of their longest-running and most influential titles – The House of Mystery. When the hysterical censorship scandal which led to witch-hunting hearings was curtailed by the industry adopting a castrating straitjacket of self-regulatory rules, HoM and sister title House of Secrets were dialled back into rationalistic, fantasy adventure vehicles, which nevertheless dominated the market. This was the status quo until the 1960s when superheroes (which had started to creep back after Julius Schwartz began the Silver Age of comics by reintroducing The Flash in Showcase #4, 1956) finally overtook them.
Green Lantern, Hawkman, The Atom and an avalanche of other costumed characters became a gaudy global bubble of masked madness which forced even dedicated anthology suspense titles to transform into super-character split-books.
However, nothing combats censorship better than falling profits and Silver Age superhero boom stalled and crashed as the 1960s ended, leading to surviving comics publishers agreeing to loosen their self-imposed restraints against crime and horror comics. Nobody much cared about gangster titles at that time, but since the liberalisation coincided with another bump in global interest in the supernatural, a resurrection of scary stories was a foregone conclusion…
Even ultra-wholesome Archie Comics re-entered the field with their rather tasty line of Red Circle Thrillers…
With Tales of the Unexpected #105 and House of Mystery #174, National/DC switched back to anthology horror material, before creating an all-new title to further exploit our morbid fascination with all thingies fearsome and spooky (even resurrecting the cancelled House of Secrets in late 1969) for those heady days when it was okay – and profitable – to scare the heck out of little kids by making them laugh.
Edited until #14 by Dick Giordano, The Witching Hour first struck with a February/March 1969 cover-date (actually on-sale from December 19th 1968) and from the outset was an extremely experimental and intriguing beast. This amazingly economical Showcase Presents collection reprints the first 19 issues, covering the first three years as a fear fad grew to become the backbone of DC’s sales. It is perhaps the most talent-stuffed title of that entire period…
In this graphic grimoire, the cool and creepy horror-hosts who traditionally introduce the entertainment are three witches. Based as much on Macbeth as the ancient concept of Maiden, Mother & Crone, this torrid trio constantly strove to outdo and out-gross each other in the telling of terror tales. Moreover, Cynthia, Mildred and Mordred – as well as shy monster man-servant Egor – were designed by and initially delineated by master illustrator Alex Toth, making framing sequences between yarns as good as and sometimes better than the stories they brazenly bracketed.
One minor quibble: records from the period are not complete and occasionally a creator is unknown, but this volume also sadly misattributes the artist too. I’ve attempted to correct the mistakes when I’m certain, but please be warned and beware – I’m not always right either…
Following a stunning Nick Cardy cover, Toth started the ball rolling by introducing the sinister sisters and their ongoing contest before Dennis O’Neil & Pat Boyette relate the story of a time-travelling tap-dancer in ‘Save the Last Dance for Me’.
Toth wrote and limned a compelling period piece of peril in ‘Eternal Hour!’ and Jack Sparling related the eerie fate of wave-obsessed Stanley’s search for ‘The Perfect Surf’.
Toth’s scary sisters closed out the premier issue (with, I suspect, additional inks from Neal Adams), but still found room for ‘Silk Gauze’, an informational page by persons unknown which first appeared in Tales of the Unexpected.
Although attributed to Toth, #2’s introductory episode is by his old Standard Comics stable-mate Mike Sekowsky (inked by Giordano), leading into Sparling/s dream-chiller ‘Scream!’, after which José Delbo delineates a shocking period tale of slavery and vengeance ‘The Trip of Fools!’ before Sid Greene’s ghost story ‘The Beat Goes On!’ and Sparling’s ‘Once Upon a Surprise Ending!’ end an issue regrettably short on writer credits.
Following another Sekowsky/Giordano intro, Toth & Vince Colletta illustrate Don Arneson’s medieval mood masterpiece ‘The Turn of the Wheel!’ whilst Alan Riefe & Sparling tell a decidedly different ghost-story in ‘The Death Watch’, after which Steve Skeates & Bernie Wrightson debut a decidedly alterative fantasy hero in ‘…And in a Far-Off Land!’, followed by the first of a series of short prose vignettes: anonymous fright-comedy ‘Potion of Love’.
Toth illustrates the sisters’ ‘Witching Hour Welcome Wagon’ (a useful identifying rule of thumb for the uninitiated is that the master usually signed his work – and was allowed to…) after which new kid Gerard Conway scripted spectral saga ‘A Matter of Conscience’ for art veterans Sparling & George Roussos. Anonymous prose piece ‘If You Have Ghosts’ precedes smashing yarn entitled ‘Disaster in a Jar’ (Riefe & Boyette) before Conway scripts period witchfinder thriller ‘A Fistful of Fire’ for Delbo – a vastly underrated artist who was on the best form of his career at this time.
Toth’s Weird Sisters close out that issue and eerily, hilariously open #5 before Wrightson lavishly embellishes a nifty but uncredited (as is every script in this one) nautical nightmare ‘The Sole Survivor!’, followed by text-teaser ‘The Non-Believer! and Boyette’s stunning, clownish creep-feature ‘A Guy Can Die Laughing!’
Stanley Pitt & Giordano’s dating dilemma ‘The Computer Game’ was one of the first to explore that now-hoary plot and, after Toth signs off the witches, there’s an added single-page black-comedy bonus from Sid Greene in ‘My! How You’ve Grown!’
Sekowsky & Giordano limned Dave Kaler’s take on the sisters’ intro for The Witching Hour #6, after which a far darker horror debuts as ‘A Face in the Crowd!’ (Conway, Mike Roy & Mike Peppe), wherein Nazi war-criminal and concentration camp survivor meet in an American street; Marv Wolfman & Delbo described a tale of neighbourly intolerance in ‘The Doll Man!’ and ‘Treasure Hunt’ by Skeates, John Celardo & Giordano show why greed isn’t always good. Also included were Conway’s prose tale ‘Train to Doom’, ‘Mad Menace’ – a half-page gag strip by John Costanza, and ‘Distortion!’; another Greene-limned one-pager.
Toth & Mike Friedrich were on spectacular form for #7’s intro and bridging sequences, whilst Bill Draut was compulsively effective in prison manhunt saga ‘The Big Break!’, with scripter Skeates also writing modern-art murder-mystery ‘The Captive!’ for Roussos. Friedrich & Jack Abel then advise a most individual baby to ‘Look Homeward, Angelo!’, Whilst text piece ‘Who Believes Ouija?’ and Jack Miller & Michael Wm. Kaluta’s Gothically delicious ‘Trick or Treat’ round out the sinister sights in this issue.
Sergio Aragonés & Neal Adams provide the witch-bits for #8, bracketing their satanically sardonic ‘Above and Beyond the Call of Duty!’, as well as ‘Three Day Free Home Trial!’ (Aragonés & Cardy) and staggeringly inventive ‘ComputERR’ by that man again and Toth.
‘The Career Man’ is a witty but anonymous prose piece and the issue closes with a Twice Told Tale by Ron Whyte & Sparling, as an urban myth is exposed at ‘The Sign of the Hook!’
Toth & Draut began #9, after which Bob Brown & Murphy Anderson illustrate ghostly tale ‘The Long Road Home!’ and, after text story ‘The Dark Well’ peripatetic, post-apocalyptic, ironic occasional series ‘The Day after Doomsday’ (Len Wein & Sparling) makes a welcome appearance.
Delbo delightfully delineated a terrifying tale of Old China in ‘The Last Straw’ and, after George Tuska takes over the Weird Sisters link-segments, a doomsday debacle closes the dramas with a ‘Trumpet Perilous!’ as drawn by Sparling & Abel.
The witches opening issue #10 are once more by Toth & Draut, promptly followed by a magnificent illustration job by Gray Morrow on regrettably uncredited ‘A Warp in Time …Loses Everything!’ after which the all-word ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’ precedes Conway & Toth’s superb forbidden romance ‘Hold Softly, Hand of Death!’. Tuska handles the Sisters before Sparling’s faux-fact page ‘Realm of the Mystics’ ends this excursion into outer darkness.
Toth drew the intro and Jack Oleck’s The Mark of the Witch’ (inked by Draut) in #11, whilst – following text-tale ‘Retired Undefeated!’ – Tuska inspirationally illustrates creepy chronal conundrum ‘The Sands of Time, the Snows of Death!’
TWH #12 was similarly blessed as, after a sinisterly sexy Skeates/Toth intro, the devilish duo then describe an horrific ‘Double Edge’ battle between witch-queens and valiant mortals, followed by a Machiavellian actor’s ‘Double Take’ (Skeates & Tuska) and a demonic duel and ‘Double Cross!’ by Skeates & Gil Kane. The ever-anonymous prose piece is mordantly merry ‘The Dead Can’t Talk But…’
Giordano’s last issue as editor was #13, opening in grand style as fellow comic book hosts Cain, Abel and the Mad Mod Witch (from Houses of Mystery and Secrets and The Unexpected, dis-respectively) attend ‘New Year’s Eve at the Witching Hour’ (illustrated by Adams), followed by a marvellously experimental psycho-thriller by Alan Gold & Gray Morrow entitled ‘The Maze’; a far more traditional but no less scary story ‘The Accursed Clay!’ (Miller, Sparling & Frank Giacoia) and just plain strange tale of ‘The Rush-Hour Ride of Abner Pringle!’ by Wein & Delbo.
As an added treat the text token is ‘The Witching Hour Mistree’ by that shy but not retiring rogue Egor and what looks like Sal Amendola…
When veteran editor Murray Boltinoff assumed the reins with #14 (April-May 1971), an element of experimentalism was surrendered but more conventional material was no less welcomed by the horror-hungry readership: more proof, if any were needed, that artistic endeavour and envelope-pushing aren’t to everybody’s taste. Tuska replaced Toth as regular illustrator of introductory and bridging sections, but otherwise most fright-seeking kids could hardly tell the difference.
The all-science fiction issue opens with a beautiful yet oddly-stilted yarn from Conway & Jeff/Catherine Jones exploring the solitary burdens of ‘Fourteen Months’ in deep space, and ‘Which Witch is Which?’ (Kaler and Stanley & Reg Pitt) depicts the comeuppance of an intergalactic Lothario.
As “Al Case”, editor Boltinoff provides text feature ‘Dead Letter Office’ before the issue ends on a classic visual high with ‘The Haunted House in Space!’ illustrated by dream team Al Williamson & Carlos Garzon.
After the usual grisly graphic girl-talk, #15 starts with a murder masterpiece from George Kashdan & Wally Wood, revealing ‘Freddy is Another Name For Fear!’, after which Al Case scripts ‘End of a World’ before Phil Seuling & Gray Morrow steal the show with fearsome fable ‘Bayou Witch’ and Case & Art Saaf ring down the curtain with ‘I Married a Witch!’
Issue #16 saw TWH expand from 32 to 52 pages – as did all DC titles for the next few years – opening doors to a superb period of new material and the best of DCs prodigious archives to an appreciative, impressionable audience. The magic began after Tuska’s punchy prelude with cautionary ‘Never Kill a Witch!’ by Carl Wessler, John Calnan & Bernie Case, after which Boltinoff (as Bill Dennehy) provides a slick, edgy reinterpretation of a classic fairy tale for Morrow to lavishly limn in ‘The Spell of Sinner Ella!’, before switching back to his Case persona for the Tony DeZuñiga illustrated duelling drama ‘You Can’t Hide From Death’.
Classic reprints began with ‘The Wondrous Witch’s Cauldron’ (drawn by Lee Elias from House of Secrets #58), followed by Joe Orlando illustrated, Charles King scripted text piece ‘Last Meal’ and Howie Post & Draut’s ghoulish period parable ‘The Curse of the Cat’: both originally seen in House of Mystery #177.
Kashdan & Heck opened #17 with a modern magic myth ‘This Little Witch Went to College’, after which a classic 1950’s fear-feature from Sensation Mystery Comics #109 saw Carmine Infantino & Joe Giella devastatingly depict the ‘Fingers of Fear!’ whilst – from House of Secrets #46 – Howard Sherman delineated ‘The Second Life of Simon Steele’. Dennehy, Calnan & Colletta provided new yarn with an old moral ‘The Corpse Who Carried Cash!’ before Wessler & mood-master Jerry Grandenetti fantastically finished the fear-fest with ‘The Man in the Cellar’.
The same team opened #18 with ‘The Worm that Turned to Terror’, a schizophrenic slice of domestic hell followed by ‘The Diggers!’: a nasty, vengeful yarn from Bobs Haney & Brown with Giacoia inks, encompassing half a century of French war and regret.
Tales of the Unexpected #13 was the original source of both the Ed Herron/Jack Kirby conundrum ‘The Face Behind the Mask’ and the Herron/Cardy creepy-crime caper ‘I Was a Prisoner of the Supernatural’, after which modernity resumes with Jim Aparo’s ‘Hypnotic Eye’ and Kashdan, Calnan & Colletta’s cautionary tale ‘When Satan Comes Calling!’
The final issue in this superbly spooky compendium is The Witching Hour #19 which – after the customary Tuska drawn kaffeeklatsch with Mordred, Mildred and Cynthia – commences in a stylish, sparkling Jack Phillips & Grandenetti chiller ‘Tomb for the Winning!’, followed by ‘The Four Threads of Doom’ (by anonymous & Cardy, from Tales of the Unexpected #12) after which another anonymous & Tuska provide fresh new thriller ‘Stop Beating, Heart! You’re Killing Me!’.
One final Cardy reprint – ‘The Lamp That Changed People!’ (House of Mystery #20) – follows before this glorious volume of witchy wonderment concludes with Kashdan/Elias shocker ‘What Evil Haunts This House?’
These terror-tales captivated reading public and critics alike when they first appeared, and it’s indisputable that the supernatural sector saved DC during one of the toughest downturns in comics publishing history. Now their blend of garish mordant mirth, classic horror scenarios and suspense set-pieces are most familiarly seen in shows like Goosebumps, Stranger Things and many, many others.
This volume – like so many others – is unavailable digitally, and hard to find in print, but with a growing taste for horror stories manifesting in comics again, perhaps it won’t be long before we can shiver and giggle to classic chillers once more. If you crave beautifully realised, tastefully gore-free sagas of tension and imagination, not to mention a huge supply of bad-taste, kid-friendly cartoon comedy chaos, stay up past The Witching Hour as long and as often as you possibly can…
© 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 2011 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.