"The End" Week: the Witching Hour #85!

Pretty sure this was in my pile of Halloween comics, but it just so happened to be the last issue, so it ends up here! From 1978, the Witching Hour #85, cover by Luis Dominguez.

I wonder if the Three Witches--Mildred; Mordred; Cynthia--still had jobs after this in DC's other horror books, or if any horror stories had to have the host sections redrawn to be Cain, Abel, or Destiny. The first story, "Rat Bait" hinges on a pretty big coincidence: a destitute and widowed zoologist seeks shelter, at the home of Dr. Rackow, who is experimenting-slash-tormenting rats. The rats have to suffer challenges that should be beyond them, but Rackow has been implanting brain cells from higher species in them...which higher species, Rackow? The zoologist is convinced to hang out a while, but notices he feels worse and worse as the rats seem to improve by little leaps and bounds: of course, Rackow had been taking bits of his brain! But, the rats aren't just getting smarter, they also wanted revenge...I mean, they probably wanted revenge before, right? Ah, let's move on. (Story by George Kashdan, art by Fred Carrillo.)

Next, "Has Anybody Seen My Head?" (Story by Carl Wessler, art by Jerry Grandenetti.) This story is set in 1920's France, but Jean dresses like a leprechaun, including a green derby. Still, I guess if you're the executioner, you can wear what you like! Jean plots against his romantic rival, the handsome murderer Paul Bonnard, for the hand of the lovely Marie. Paul had killed a guy, pushing him off a bridge, but had been acquitted and couldn't be retried. Jean murders a drunk in their boarding house, pins it on Paul, and gets to lop of his head in le guillotine. Then, Jean has Paul's body taken to a local mad scientist, and has his head transplanted onto it! Now tall and handsome...or at least tall? He could now ask Marie to marry him, but she has some bad news about a pre-existing condition...

"Dirge for a Deadly Duet" is a short, hackneyed number with hitmen trying to change their faces, with less than ideal results; then the cover story, "Our Subject for Tonight is Fear." (Story by George Kashdan, pencils by Ernie Patricio, inks by Ernie Santiago.) Michael Bannion gets an untimely midnight phone call, that the Rathkill School will accept his nephew Steven. The kid knows his uncle is trying to ditch him, but the school is both exclusive and odd, with oddly robed teachers, and a no-contact policy during the school semester. Steven is issued a pet raven, in an off-brand but seemingly egalitarian witch's school; and returns to avenge his dead dad. Well, at least it didn't take seven books to do it. (I did like Steven telling his aunt sure, he heard his uncle getting murdered, but he wasn't allowed in his study!)