The House of Mystery #1

by Jack Oleck, Bernie Wrightson (Illustrations)

For the connoisseur of terror...

Chamber of Horrors: three coffinlike boxes of earth in the cellar of an old house... Nightmare: a stormy night at Stonehenge and a tourist who missed his bus... Collector's Item: a cursed set of coins, 2000 years old... Born Loser: an ineffectual bookkeeper dreams of summoning demons... Tomorrow, the World: a psychiatrist and a homicidal maniac with a mutual interest in witchcraft... The Haunting: two young couples and one ghostridden house... You Only Die Once: a marriage filled with enough hatred to survive the grave... Act of Grace: a crippled child who escapes from the grimness of orphanage life to his own "Happy Place..."

Eight stories of spine-tingling suspense from DC Comics' classic The House of Mystery, rendered in blood-curdling prose by Jack Oleck, and each accompanied by a brand new title page illustration from comics legend Bernie Wrightson, who also provides a frontispiece and a full colour cover.

Genres: Horror

159 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published April 1, 1973

Reviews

[Nicholas Gibas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great pulp horror read for the most part, with really effective art that adds to the pulpy atmosphere. There is considerable creepy sway from most of the tales found within, only really dropping in quality in the last two stories. You Only Die Once & Act of Grace seem to loose the steam of the rest of the book. One story comes to a head completely awkwardly, the other seems to fizzle out on a low note. If these two had been re-tooled or left out this would have a higher score. Both stories evoke the moods they're presenting, but are seemingly afterthoughts of the author.

[Bill Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice collection of short horror stories, with illustrations by Bernie Wrightson.