Friday, January 27, 2023

Well, he's not peeing on anything, that's a plus.

Am I just gettting around to reading this now? Because I mentioned it about a year ago, some black-and-white horror mags I picked up while looking for Monsters Attack #2. Of course I read it, and then order some more horror mags: comics just lead to more comics. From 1992, Dread of Night #2.
This was part of a short-lived stable of horror B&W magazines from Hamilton Publishing; in fact this was the last issue of this title. I don't think any story stuck in mind with me like "Abracadaver" had, but they aren't terribly made. Maybe not EC Comics good, but not Gold Key bad? It's a sliding scale...
Highlights include "The Wolf Woman of Roxbury," in which a merciless slumlord doesn't so much become a beast, as she was one already; and "Monsters 101," where a monsters' club gets word of a professor's planned lecture, that they think would mock them. Maybe a smidge, but not in the way they would've thought. ("Wolf Woman" Written by Link Yaco, art by John Heebink; "Monsters 101" Written by Nart Gertler, art by Batton Lash.)
But, as you can see, Hamilton was doing a good job of trying to cross-sell their titles. Or trying, anyway! This issue was cover-dated February 1992, so I wonder if Grave Tales #3 hadn't already come and gone by the time it hit the stands. The above story, "Role Model" per the GCD was written by Jeff Bailey and Marty Golia, with art by Joe Staton; and along with the obvious Calvin & Hobbes influence, it was also a riff on longtime DC feature Cap's Hobby Center! I've already made the order for that on eBay; we'll maybe see it in another year, the rate I'm going...

2 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Seems like a nice collection so far. I wonder how many of these titles they were able to sell before stopping.

Definitely reminds me at some point I REALLY should seriously consider buying some EC Comics horror trades. Bought my brother in law some and he loves them & he's not even a huge comics' fan/

H said...

They need to bring back those gag/helpful hints strips. It'd help break things up a bit better and keep issues on time more often. Plus, they're a lot of fun and some writers/artists do their best work/most of their work in that format.