6th Annual Halloween Horror Comics Covers Thread

[Mister H]

Just bought the edition with the full color covers.

[protector2814]

Lol - Slippery slope my friend. I know you'll love it. I have mine sitting right here next to my computer for reference on this thread. As great as the covers are .... the stories are equally cool. Order 1 or 2 now & you'll have some great reading for Halloween. As I recall, the covers book is the most expensive, so you've already made the "big buy".

[protector2814]

Practically saving the best for last with this Nightmare 1975 Winter Special. I love this cover & have so since I 1st saw it several years ago. Just a great pairing of horror & happiness. I do own this book & will leave it out over the holidays -


And then along came Scream magazine. Starting at the halfway point of the Skywald' publ. history, Scream was their 3rd horror book, so they must have liked the returns on Psycho & Nightmare. Super strong covers on this book.

Scream 1 -


2 -


3 - (keep in mind, the Hammer Dracula' series was hitting hard)

[protector2814]

Let's move on w/ more SCREAM!!!

4 -


5 - (Kind of a Filipino' 70's horror movie vibe)


6 - (whole lot of Cushing's Frankenstein in this cover)


7 -

[Mister H]

I think movie studios should try to emulate the 60's and 70's horror magazine vibe and visuals. I bet that would greatly improve on the generic stuff they've been giving us for years now.

[protector2814]

Originally Posted by Mister H

I think movie studios should try to emulate the 60's and 70's horror magazine vibe and visuals. I bet that would greatly improve on the generic stuff they've been giving us for years now.

Well, I'd agree with you but I think today's younger audience would get completely bored & lost with the pacing. My 20 year old daughter loves modern, pop-out, crap horror but when I watch a 60's/70's Hammer or American International or Italian, etc... movie, she lasts about 20 minutes before bailing.
One thing us lovers of the old stuff do have, is the hundreds & hundreds of 50's/60's/70's horror movies still unwatched. I stumble upon them all the time, especially when I'm streaming one, & 10 more pop up as suggestions. I also probably have 400+ of these movies in my DVD collection & can always pop one in.

[protector2814]

Well, we're geting o the point where Skywald started really winding down. By early 1975, unexpected competition came & Skywald became completely lost/pushed-back on the racks, finally succumbing to it's slow death. WHat really killed it? Well, the Warren titles had existed & sold, side-by-side with Skywald & both seemed to thrive, so it wasn't Famour Monsters, Vampirella, Creepy nor Eerie which smothered Skywald. It was ... Marvel & their recently launched Curtis, B&W, horror lines which buried Scream, Psycho & Nightmare. You see, Marvel already had deep established & well paid for distribution & display (written & unwritten) contracts with chain store magazine racks & newspaper stands. there were no LCS at the time, so a mags. success depended solely on if & how the book was displayed. Along comes Marvel/Curtis & Skywald was pushed way back in order to supply an eye-line on the new titles. No eyes, no buys. SKywald died then & there. It's a shame. As you can see in this thread, Skywald magazines had beyond-gorgeous covers & the interior stories were mostly top-notch. At least we have the reprints.

Scream 8 -


9 -


Winter Special -

[protector2814]

Before I set sail on Skywald, it's worth noting that the publisher did attempt two other magazine format comics that wearn't horror themed yet did provide horror elements or horror-esque violence. Both lasting only two issues each.
Beating Marvel's Ghost Rider by a year, Skyald's Hell-Rider. Created by Gary Friedrich, who would go on to co-create the Ghost Rider at Marvel, this cycle-riding vigilante was more of a straight-up, Punisher style masked wearing hero who's bike spewed fire & often defied gravity. There was a 3rd part to his tale, but that ended up as a back-up story in Psycho #5. One more interesting note, Hell-Rider also created comic's 1st ever Black Superheroine, called The Butterfly, a Vegas singer who used a jet-pack & suction cups.




Comic's FIRST ever Black Female Superhero, The Butterfly!


And then we had Skywald's 2-issue dip into the organized crime pool, Crime Machine. Like EC's Crime Suspence Stories, this comic/mag. fleshed out both real & invented, ultra-violent mob-tales from the Depression era. Stunningly violent, I'm not quite sure who the market was for these 2-issues. I'm guessing it was The Godfather lovers.



Tomorrow - The comic mags. that killed Skywald. Curtis!

*Both Hell-Rider & Crime Machine collected reprints are available from Gwandanaland.

[protector2814]

Out of all the b&w comic-mags. of the 70's I have in my collection, my absolute favorites have to be my Curtis' copies. They were the 1st comic/magazines I can recall seeing on pharmacy magazine stands; they were the 1st my parents said "no" too on account of the intense covers; they were the 1st I smuggled home in my bookbag & had to hide in my room. Curtis comics, at times, tied in with my Marvel color comics. Within the Curtis pages I found Dracula, Lilith, Morbius, Frankenstein's Monster & more. Starting around 1971 & mostly finishing by 1976 (Savage Sword of Conan continued to 1994), Curtis published nine ongoinf Horror Titles with simply amazing, eye-grabbing covers.
Dracula Lives, Haunt of Horror, Legion of Monsters, Masters of Terror, Monsters of the Movies, Monsters Unleashed, Tales of the Zombie, Tomb of Dracula, & Vampire Tales were all produced by Curtis in the early to mid seventies. Here are some of my favorite Curtis' Horror covers -

[Wombat]

I love the cover to #1. I have several in my collection as I can never pass it up when I see it.