Magazine Morgue

One of the cool happenings of the comics scene in the 1960s and 1970s was the rekindling of interest and love for the movie serial, a weekly episodic adventure showing at your local cinema. Serials ran from 1912 (What Happened to Mary?) until 1956 (Blazing the Overland Trail). Each episode would end in a cliffhanger, an OMG scene involving a thrilling impending death along the lines of how the hell will he (usually a man) survive going off that cliff in a car, or jump out of the crashing airplane without a parachute, or not breathe his last (from toxic gas or rising water or lack of air ), or escape the insidious torture device, or avoid being crushed by (something big), or catch onto something as he falls off a building, and so on.

Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers were my favorite serials. Both had ray guns, death beams (Star Wars, anyone?), spaceships, robots, weird aliens, merciless evil adversaries, wild monsters, and sultry princesses and damsels in distress, and men and women in tights. One magazine that devoted pages to the appreciation of serials was Larry Ivie’s Monsters and Heroes. In issue 6 (1969 and only 35 cents!), he covered Flash Gordon. Here’s the article.

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Monsters and Heroes Issue 6
Flash GordonRead More »

This is a cool monster magazine from the 1990s. Nice coverage of older and more recent alien monster movies. Normally I would not post scans for a magazine from the 1990s due to copyright ownership, but I believe the corporate entity that issued this one is no longer active. I believe this was the only issue. 

ComicRack and YakReader version: Download Space Monsters One Shot

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UFO Universe Presents
Space Monsters Issue 1 (1990)Read More »

More gore in store for you in Terror Tales Vol. 9, issue 4. Lots of pages to spread the black bloody around too. It's funny but I'm not a fan of gore onscreen: I like my horror suspenseful and atmospheric, and with special effects or gore that fits into the storyline for a reason. But with horror comics, the fun is seeing how creatively the illustrator can render the terror, whether through gory scenes or beautifully horrible inky shadows filled with monsters and body parts. Of course, women victims seem to get the sharp edge wearing the least amount of clothing, whenever possible. Tells you something about illustrators for this stuff: like they're mostly men with some developmental issues. But their developmental issues are our gain, so yay all those troubling issues! Art therapy is good for the soul, right?

In this issue, a superb inside cover splash page starts things off (though I bet the full illustration is even more naughty), and The Headless Ones have an itch they can't scratch, which is a par for the course in Heads of Terror. And if the terror is not taking place on an island or a dungeon or a sinister house, there's always a cave to light a fire in and warm up the monsters, as in The Cave Monsters, with kinetic artwork by Ruben Marchionne. Only to be followed by another stunner by Alberto Macagno in River of Blood.

ComicRack and YakReader version: Download Terror Tales Vol 9 Issue 4

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Terror Tales Vol. 9 Issue 4 (1978)Read More »

Some terrifically gruesome stories in this one for you to sink your teeth into and warp your mind. No holds barred artwork delivers the goods, which in this issue are body parts, monstrous hungry sea witches, and bodies long dead but still moving to feed the crocodile god. Lots of hungry creatures in this issue. Those bulging eyes in The Demon's Night will keep you wide awake and The Bloody Statues will remind you of a Roger Corman movie. You've been warned. Don't blame me if you have nightmares.

ComicRack and YakReader version: Download Terror Tales V4-1

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Terror Tales Vol.4 Issue 1 (1972)Read More »

Here’s some more terror for you, wrapped in a truly hideous cover. More monsters, more doom for hapless mortals, and more engrossing art to put a spell on you. After you’ve read a few of these stories you’ll notice that a lot of evil and horror erupts between unhappy couples, the dead play mischief, and skeletons abound. And women get tied up and traumatized and faint a lot.

ComicRack and YakReader version: Download Terror Tales Vol6 Issue 2

Don’t get all choked up, there are more magazines to see From Zombos’ Closet.

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Terror Tales Vol. 6 Issue 2 (1974)Read More »

The later issues of Terror Tales, and all other Eerie comics publications, rehashed stories and elements from earlier covers to save money. In this issue, Pool of Horror is reprinted, though I forget from which issue, but hey, enjoy the wonderful black and white art and the usual tropes of political incorrectness (ah, the 1970s), and revel at monsters not caring a wit about it, of course. One story, The Day Man Died, is par for the course of 1960s and 1970s angst about the future, where robots would do all the work. leaving man to idle away his time in endless fun stuff. Seems the writers of these stories forgot the most important thing: You need to buy a robot first, and lord knows how much that will cost. So maybe the story title should have been The Day Those Who Could Afford the Luxury of a Robot Died.

ComicRack and YakReader version: Download Terror Tales Vol5-4

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Terror Tales Vol.5 Issue 4 (1973)Read More »

The classic, I Chopped Her Head Off! is in this issue. If you ever wondered why parents and decent citizens (don’t you love that term?) ganged up on the comics industry forcing the bland comics code on us all (but a boon to magazine sales), this one story captures everything you would put on a poster illustrating the evils of comic books. And you can color it in! Yes boys and girls, you too can be seduced by the dark side, just a few color pencils needed. Now that’s one thing I bet you hadn’t thought about. Just print out the pages of this splaterific issue of moral decay and bamm! instant adult coloring book! You can thank me later. Just don’t tell your parents and loved ones where I live. I’ll deny everything.

ComicRack reader version: Download Terror Tales Vol.2 No.1

Don’t be terrified! Here are more magazines From Zombos’ Closet .

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Terror Tales Vol. 2 No. 1Read More »

The lead off story, Isle of the Demons, will have you in stitches, assuming they can find all the pieces. If that weren’t nauseatingly enough for you, Evil Monsters will bring you past dripping, oozing labyrinths of slime, past plopping whirlpools of filth (whew!). Mere mortals had a tough time in horror comics, that’s for certain. In Death Strikes Four, the amount of narrative and dialog text (a staple of early horror comics), just may kill you before the clock strikes, but the art is fabulous as you wait. And talk about chasing time, that clock has long hands and a homicidal temperament. This is one of my favorites! Oh, and there’s a detective who tries to Bury Her Deep, but she keeps bobbing up with the tide, and a hangman at the end of his rope, and a witch who…well, you know, it’s all there in gory black and white. Enjoy.

ComicRack reader version: Download Terror Tales Vol.2 No.4

Take a stab at more terrorific magazines From Zombos’ Closet.

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Terror Tales Vol. 2 No. 4
July 1970Read More »

An interesting escape into the wrong body, Satan dances into mischief, a burning desire flames up, people are doomed, scientists screw up, and the art is to die for (which apparently many people do in horror comics). Enjoy.

ComicRack reader version: Download Witches Tales V5-1

No need to scream. You can catch up on more horrible magazines From Zombos’ Closet.

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Witches’ Tales Vol. 5 No. 1
January 1973Read More »