Dashin' Don Heck in Tower of Shadows - 1970

Wow, is this a tale from 1970, when Marvel was the grooviest comic book company ever! All the Marvel trademarks are here: hip, NYC scene, cool jargon; and an innate since of . . . well, cool – which came from Swingin’ Stan Lee. This tale of hippies and Hell comes from Tower of Shadows No. 4, March 1970, with art by Don Heck and story by Allyn Brodksky. Also, dig this happenin’ cover by Marie Severin (Pencils) and Herb Trimpe (Inks). Side note: Love the reference to the television show, Dark Shadows. That exemplifies how very cool Dark Shadows was then - all the cool kids (or destined to be cool kids) rushed home from school to watch it.

Weird War Tales - Ernie Chan - 1973

Here comes a typically fine tale from one of my favorite DC titles from the 1970s, Weird War Tales. It features the stately, authoritative artwork of Ernie Chan (often credited a Ernie Chua); who did such wonderful work at Marvel on Conan the Barbarian.

This is from issue No. 17, September 1973. the cover is done by George Evans (whenever you see World War I planes on a DC cover, look for George Evans).

Lee Elias in The Witching Hour - 1974

Here's a dark, antebellum tale written by George Kashdan with artwork (pencils and inks) by the prodigious Lee Elias, who did tons of classic horror in the 1950s for Harvey's Black Cat comic. This tale easily demonstrates Elias still had is chops into the 70s and, not for nothing, drew an extremely attractive Cynthia, who was the witch co-host of stories from The Witching Hour; along with her less attractive (depending on tastes) witch sister, Mildred. Cynthia was the cool sis, too, speaking always in hipster jargon (a strange meld of beatnik and hippy talk). Oh, for those interested Hag Zebulah's snaky chant, "Obsurum per obscurius . . . Ignotium per Ignotius," is latin: "The obscure by means of the more obscure. The unknown by the more unknown." Who ever said comics weren't educational?

From The Witching Hour No. 46, Sept. 1974. Cover by Nick Cardy.

Secrets of Sinister House - Alfredo Alcala!

More from the fine, Filipino artist, Alfredo Alcala (see last post). I like Alcala's work so much I had to offer a second helping. So many of the artist's panels are so finely detailed, and so very well composed. Just beautiful stuff. A fine story, too, from the pen of DC giant, Sheldon Mayer. The swell cover? Michael Kaluta. This comes from Secrets of Sinister House No. 6, August-September 1972.

Alfredo Alcala - "Who Dares Cheat The Dead?"

This cleanly done, Gothic story comes from Ghosts No. 15, June 1973. The appropriately clean, Gothic artwork comes from Alfredo Alcala - frequent contributor to 1970s DC horror anthology titles. I love Alcala's beautiful cross hatching.

Bernie Wrightson at home in House of Mystery - 1972

No artist did horror comics better in the 1970s than all-time terror great, Bernie Wrightson. Mr. Wrightson would have fit in nicely with the great EC comics bullpen of the 1950s - among fellows like Graham Ingels, Jack Davis, Reed Crandall, and many more masters. He just had that slimy touch.

Wrightson did the cool cover on this issue as well. This comes from House of Mystery No. 204, July 1972.