Halloween Horrors KEN SHANNON "Corpse that Wouldn't Sleep"

It's almost Halloween, so let's present a scary private eye story...

...from the 1950s, the era when horror comics were all the rage, starring private dick Ken Shannon, to whom this sort of thing happened quite often, as seen HERE!

This tale from Quality's Ken Shannon #3 (1952) was one of several cover-featured stories during his run that featured horror comics elements, though the "monsters" were fakes created to cover-up crimes!

The superb artwork by Reed Crandall makes up for the fairly obvious plotting by an unknown writer.

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Valentine's Day Violence HEADLINE COMICS "To My Valentine"

You thought we wuz gonna send roses?

Hell, no!

We bring you the sordid story of the most famous crime ever perpetrated on the Day for Lovers!

In 1947, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby took over editorial control for several titles of the Prize Comics line, giving them much-needed revamps, upping the action and violence quotient.
This tale was from Prize's Headline Comics #23 (1947), the first issue under their stewardship.
When this story was published, the massacre was less than twenty years earlier, and the incident wasn't history, but news the authors read and heard as kids and now re-presented in four-color form.
It's not totally historically-accurate, but then, what dramatization of a real-live event is?

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It's Christmas Crime! DYNAMIC COMICS "Manhunters: Frozen Corpses for Christmas" & JUSTICE COMICS "Murder for Christmas"

Here's a true tale of cold-hearted killing at Christmastime...

...that was told twice in graphic form in tales only a year apart!

Both the writer and artist(s) for this never-reprinted tale from Superior's Dynamic Comics #21 (1947) are unknown to this day.

A year later, penciler Gene Colan and inker Sy Grudko retold the story in Atlas' Justice Comics #4 (1948)!

This wasn't exactly a "hot off the presses" story...even in the 1940s.

The murders had occurred in 1899!

Maclean's, the Time Magazine of Canada had run the story as the premiere entry of a new historical series about the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (aka "Mounties") in 1930, renewing public interest in the murders!
Here's a LINK to that issue!
It's likely the editors and/or writers of both comics came across the story while researching potential plotlines for their true-crime comics!
Bonus: here's a LINK to a recent article with a lot more info that wasn't available to the writer of the 1930 story!

Halloween Horrors FERO: PLANET DETECTIVE "and the Vampires and Werewolves from Pluto!"

Welcome to the only blog that offers you the truth about a major threat to humanity!

We thought this is now the right time to reveal the awesome secret about vampires and werewolves kept from humanity for centuries!

They're from Pluto!

Really!

While Fero did return in the next issue of Planet Comics, the "vampires and werewolves from Pluto" plotline didn't!

In fact, Fero was, without explanation, now an "interplanetary detective" in a future version of New York City, and stayed there for the remainder of his four-issue run.
This premiere appearance in Fiction House's Planet Comics #5 (1940) is credited to "Allison Brant", a pseudonym used by writer/artist Al Bryant who did almost 400 stories during his decade-long career.

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Grimm Fairy Tales presents Vampires and Werewolves

Halloween Horrors KEN SHANNON "Vampire Mob"

It's Halloween season, so let's present a scary private eye story...

...from the 1950s, the era when horror comics were all the rage!

Ken Shannon started in 1950 when Police Comics dropped all their superheroes (including Plastic Man and The Spirit) in favor of crime stories.

Beginning with #103, Ken took the cover and lead story slot until #126.
Simultaneously, Ken received his own title, which ran for 10 issues.
As you can see from the story, Ken was the typical hard-boiled private dick with an internal monologue, obviously patterned after already-popular detectives like Sam Spade and Mike Hammer.
His only distinctive characteristic was that he was of Irish descent.
(In fact, his premiere tale was called "The Mad Irishman"!)
The art for almost all his tales (including this one) was by Reed Crandall, one of the best illustrators in the business who went on to become one of the mainstays of EC Comics, handling horror, war, romance and sci-fi with equal panache.

It's Christmas Crime! JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS "Lady Who Believed"

Here's a Yuletide tale with a slightly-different take on Kris Kringle...

....as a Christmas crime-fighter and defender of the innocent!

This never-reprinted tale is from Atlas' Journey into Unknown Worlds #34 (1955), the first issue published under the restrictive auspices of the Comics Code Authority.

I wonder if it was originally-meant to be as gruesome as EC's legendary "...and All Through the House..."?

We'll never know the answer...but we will return in 2021 with more proof that...

Crime Does NOT Pay!
Merry Christmas
and a
Happy New Year!