Craig Yoe’s Haunted
Horror gathers choice stories from less-remembered fifties horror comics
like Voodoo, Worlds of Fear, and Adventures
into Darkness. IDW’s hardcover anthology of the series’ first three issues,
Haunted Horror: Banned Comics from the 1950s,
made a pretty strong case for these comics with their weird stories and weirder
artwork. The next few issues gathered in a new volume called Haunted Horror: Comics Your Mother Warned
You About aren’t quite as out-there, with stories leaning more heavily on clichés
and oddly enough, sports, a topic that doesn’t mix well with horror’s dank
atmosphere, and the misogyny of the bowling tale “Night Owl” is more repugnant
than its predictable conclusion.
There’s still a good deal to enjoy in this latest volume, particularly
in the run of stories that follow those blah sports ones. “Valley of Horror”
gets things back on track with a motorist suffering from mistaken identity
issues, Jack Cole’s classically morbid artwork, and a welcome dose of humor and
imagination. “Dragon Egg” is like a collaboration between Ray Harryhausan and
the Crypt Keeper. “Ghoul’s Bride”, with its Lon Chaney-inspired creature, and
the vampiric “The Night of Friday the 13th” sport the book’s most
striking art. “The Thing from Beyond” has its grossest. “The Improved Kiss” is
a truly gruesome mingling of historical and supernatural horrors. The first
half of the book has a couple of good pieces too in “Goodbye… World!”, a cuckoo
tale of locust-sympathizing space harpies, and “The Devil Puppet”, which
features what may be the most evil evil puppet in a long history of evil puppet
stories.
Though these non-mother-approved tales are a milder bunch
than last year’s banned ones, there’s still plenty to drool over, and as
always, IDW packages these tasteless tales in lovingly tasteful fashion.
