The 1972 Gold Key Mystery Comics Digest #10 cover.
Let this be a lesson, kids; always wear a seat belt.
Weird! Eerie! Authentic! Authentic? Well, two out of three ain't too shabby. These Mystery Comics Digests, collecting previous (and some new) Gold Key material, hold a special place in my monster kid memories. Summer days spent absorbing them, drawing recreations of scenes inside, drinking a Nehi Peach soda, with no worries. As a 13 year old kid, there was nothing better.
Such a dense collection of stories was good for a few hours, and each one was a gem. Isn't it interesting how memories can make things like this, which are not really outstanding when looked at today, seem like a treasure? When I re-read them now, it's not with an eye toward how they hold up story-wise, but how it feels to see them again, like a childhood friend, and how it returns me to those carefree golden times.
Slightly smaller, but original artwork without the cover wear of the larger image. The kid is just as dead, though.
But with a cover like the one above, even someone that had never seen it can appreciate it. That's great artwork no matter when it came out. However, if I had been the driver of the yellow convertable, a big red truck with a scary skull floating over it would have been a warning sign.
One thing that the picture doesn't reveal is that the truck was carrying a load of peanut butter, and the guy in the car was eating chocolate. Unfortunately, there were no survivors to enjoy the discovery, so Reese's Cups had to wait til another, less fatal collision to be invented.
"Peek-a-boo!" Another cover that shows skulls are always lurking just below the surface, even in paintings. They are tricky devils, indeed.
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4 comments:
These Gold Key horror comics had such outstanding painted covers. I especially love the Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Grimm's Ghost Stories, and The Occult Files Of Dr Spektor series, and agree with what you say too... only I wish the stories inside were as inspired / horrific, because nine times out of ten they certainly were not. Some of the Dark Shadows stories lived up to the covers though.
I'm having a sudden shock of nostalgia now myself! I had that last comic book myself! I remember mom being appalled by that cover painting of the skull revealed by the knife ... I, on the other hand, was enthralled.
Dane,
Thanks for visting! Yeah, nostagia is a big part of the enjoyment of a lot of the things I post here. And mothers do get appalled by the things the we kids loved. I know there were several magazines I brought home that got confiscated because she thought that such horrors would turn me into an axe murderer or something.
I can only guess what she thought of one of my truly gory comic mags that she took. It grossed even me out when I bought it.
Anyway, hope you come back in the future and find much more from the past that triggers fun memories!
Fangs for the memories! I had forgotten about these, probably have the first one mentioned in the attic.
Really enjoy your site, lotsa cool stuff here!
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