Doctor Horror!!

Something a little different again from today's trip to the Digital Comic Museum, as I find another horror story in a non-horror comic! This comes from the pages of Captain Battle No.2, published by New Friday Publications way back in the fall of 1941....

Wow...so even if man can't defeat pure evil, if this tale is anything to go by, we can always rely on nature itself to sort things out if it gets out of hand!

Perhaps not as scary or freaky a story as normal that one, but I thought it would be an interesting look at a comic strip that appeared before the horror comic boom in the '50s! Thanks to Rolster who uploaded the comic to the museum for us to take a look at....

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Sorry for the no-show yesterday, but I had the return of some horrendous toothache which I'm hoping to fend off until I can get to November when I have a pre-arranged visit my dentist, my very own Doctor Horror....I'm not looking forward to it as it's a wisdom tooth with a cavity!

Anyway, hopefully it'll stay manageable, and I'll see you back here tomorrow...in the meantime, click the button below to be whisked off to the Countdown Hub where you can check out what the other Cryptkeepers have been up to... like My Enduring Bones who has been taking some night shots with their camera in a spooky old cemetery!

Spook Sightings of Yester Year - No.32 - Mysterious Humanoid Light Beings of 1889 (and 2015...and 2020...)

 

Like the last, this story also comes from The St. Louis Globe Democrat, 19th January 1889 ....

Mysterious Lights.

[Maple (O.) Correspondence Cincinnati Enquirer.]

William Daugherty is a young man living a mile east of here, and the one who first saw these mysterious lights. Mr. Daugherty, on the night of January 4th, came here to church, there being a protracted meeting in progress here, and after church accompanied Miss Lydia Trisler, a young lady living one mile south of here, home.  After seeing the young lady safe at home started on his return, then having two miles to go, taking the road. After travelling about a quarter of a mile Mr Daugherty discovered a very strange light about a quarter of a mile in advance of him, off the road to his left.  As he came on a quarter of a mile the light was then directly to his left and near a stretch of timber about one sixth of a mile from him and the road.

Mr. Daugherty concluded that he would stop and see what the light was and what it was going to do, but when he stopped the light came toward him at such a speed that he was alarmed, and came on to the house of Mr. Smith Poe, which was only about 100 yards from where he stopped. He there called, and Mr. Poe and his family came out to see the mysterious light. By the time Mr. Poe and his family came out, there were two distinct lights, which had the form of a human, and were in the air about 10 or 12 feet high; but while Mr. Daugherty was talking with them the lights became stationary. As soon as Mr. Daugherty started on towards here the lights started, which fact was noted by Mr. Poe and family. Mr. Daugherty stopped some two or three times before reaching here, noticing that each time he stopped the lights also stopped. 

Upon reaching here he stopped and knocked at the door of the writer, and upon going to the door told him to see the strange lights which had been following him for some time.  After stepping to the pavement we could plainly see the lights, which were at this time about a quarter of a mile distant, and were suspended in the air over the barnyard of Mr. John Crawford.  The mother and brother of the scribe also stepped to the pavement and beheld the mysterious lights.

At the time we stepped out of the house there was a light of great magnitude illuminating the western horizon, which resembled the aurora borealis, or northern lights. The sky was very clear, many stars to be seen shining.

The lights, as soon as suspended in the air over the barn-yard buildings of Mr. John Crawford, were in the form of human beings, the head, arms, body and legs being very plainly seen by all the lookers on - twelve in all. There were two lights; one that was more brilliant than the other, and which was as bright as the noonday sun. They were about 3 feet in height, and all present could easily see the corn-crib of Mr. Crawford, a quarter of a mile distant, so bright were the lights. Seeing that Mr. Daugherty was greatly alarmed on account of the lights following him, I asked him to remain during the night.  Mr Daugherty said he would stay over the night, and the lights glided quietly down to about the height of the fence and disappeared.

Noticing this fact, Mr. Dougherty became very much alarmed. Coming into the house, I noticed the hands on the clock marked 11 o'clock.  After seating ourselves around the fire about five minutes passed and we then thought we would look out for the lights. On going out on the pavement the mysterious lights were not to be seen and the western light, which resembled the aurora borealis, had disappeared. All the bright shining stars were gone, and the clear sky, which had been seen but five minutes before, was obscured from view by a streak of thick black clouds, stretching from horizon to horizon, and every thing assumed midnight darkness.

Returning to the house I asked Mr. Daugherty what he thought was the cause of these strange lights, and why they followed him. Mr. Daugherty said he was not a believer in ghosts, spooks or tokens, but that he believed they were a token of warning to him of some danger. Mr. Daugherty further said that he had several times of late seen some very strange lights. When going home late at night he had seen a light pass from the barn to the house, but when he would enter the house and ask if any one of the family had been out with a lantern or light, they would answer in the negative, which fact Mr. Daugherty regarded as a strange occurrence. Among the number who saw these mysterious lights was Rev. Melvin of Neville, O., who was conducting the series of meetings here.  Rev. Melvin is a disbeliever in ghosts, spooks, tokens, etc., but remarked that these lights were very mysterious. I was informed that the same mysterious lights were witnessed at Hamersville, O., but what these lights were and what caused them remains a mystery to our vicinity.

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So, the pictures that you see throughout this post obviously aren't from 1889...so when and where are they from?  Well in Sequoia National Park, California on August 9th, 2015, several people reported seeing a very similar sounding humanoid figure, and it was captured on a telescope camera and video...and compared to the Michelin Man, because of it's shape....and there's also footage of another...

What do you guys make of this? Sceptics attribute the shape to a novelty or weather balloon, a distant drone, or an optical/camera distortion magnified by high zoom in low-light mountain conditions, and most sensible people would be inclined to agree...until you take into account the similar thing that was on show in the skies in 1889...(although the 1889 one is stranger, as it occurred at night!)

And then there's this.....

On March 6, 2026, eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives requested access to 51 potentially UAP-related records allegedly held by the Department of War and the Intelligence Community. The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) identified a collection of responsive materials held on a classified network. Many of these materials lack a substantiated chain-of-custody.

AARO assesses that this video, whose uploader-defined title is, “NAG UAP 1 Jun 20,” is likely derived from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform operating within the United States Central Command area of responsibility in 2020. A user uploaded this video to a classified network in June 2024...

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Weird, huh....I wonder what to make of it all? I only found out about the newer sightings when i went looking for images for the newpaper post, and I realised immediately how similar and maybe connected they were. Is it the same thing/things?? And what, if anything are they?  Maybe we'll never know!

Okay, now it's time to go check out the other Cryptkeepers taking part in the Countdown by clicking the badge below...or you could head straight over to Spooky Moon where things are getting ready for Halloween!

Cinema of Stuff Presents...Tales From The Crypt (1972) .... AND....The Vault of Horror (1973)

 

Amicus Productions loved to put out anthology horror films in the 60s and 70s... They produced seven in total, and so tonight for your viewing pleasure, here's a double bill of two of these movies...both based on the EC horror comics of the same names!

Amicus founder and producer, Milton Subotsky was a huge fan of the comics, and eventually managed to persuade his business partner Max Rosenberg that buying the movie rights would be a good idea...

William Gaines, EC co-editor and copyright holder, insisted on script approval. With a budget higher than most previous Amicus films, American International Pictures chipped in with some extra cash. 

Despite being a fan of the comics, Subotsky had reportedly actually read paperback reprints rather than the original comic books, and that possibly is why only two of the stories are actually based on Tales stories, with the rest being Vault of Horror and Haunt of Fear stories.

Peter Cushing (still haunting my blog...) was offered the role of Ralph Jason in the Wish You Were Here tale, but wanting to try something different, he instead went for the role of Arthur Edward Grimsdyke in the Poetic Justice tale!

Here then is the first feature....Tales From The Crypt!

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As if to counter what happened with Tales from the Crypt, none of the stories in the sequel The Vault of Horror actually appeared in the comic, with one coming from Shock SuspenStories and the rest all appearing in Tales...

One cool thing to note in this movie is that in the story Bargain in Death, Maitland (Michael Craig) can be seen reading a copy of the novelisation of the earlier Tales film! Geoffrey Davies and Robin Nedwell, who both appeared in the British TV series Doctor in the House are in the same segment.

 Another noteworthy fact is that the brother and sister in Midnight Mess are played by actual brother and sister Daniel and Anna Massey...

Now, lets finish up with our second feature....The Vault Of Horror!

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I hope enjoyed that slightly more fact-filled visit to the Cinema of Stuff...I thought I'd put a little bit more effort in for this double bill, as they are two horror classics! 

Anyway, if you're still looking for more thrills, spills and spooky chills after that double whammy, you canhope on over to the Countdown Hub and see what the other Cryptkeepeers taking part have been up to by clicking the badge below... like Jamdin over at Moongem Comics who has been taking a look at old Dark Shadows catalogues amongst other things this Countdown! 

Halloween School Book Club (Pt.3) Monster Mix - A Book of Great Things To Make and Do!

 

So way, way back in the blogs of time (2017) I did a couple of posts (here and here) where I mentioned getting a few books from the school book club that proved my interest in spooky stuff started at a very early age....

Well, I've found another couple of books that hammer that point home more than ever, so without further ado lets take a look at the first..

I must have picked this up again at a later date, because I definitely remember cutting my original book to pieces and sticking pictures from it into other things, but while this might not be the original, it is essentially exactly the same, and I have very fond memories of trying out at least a few of the things within it's pages.

One of the first being those bumpy eggs! Pretty sure I had a go at some Blob Juice at some point as well....

I always loved the design of this puppet, and the photo of the actual real-life model on the cover always made me want one exactly the same. As of yet, I've never gotten around to actually putting one together though! So maybe that's something to try in time for next year's blog....

I think I did attempt the Handy Monster though, and also this Spouting Spook below!

These riddles are definitely something I cut from the book and stuck in other places, which I must have regretted eventually which of course caused me to rebuy the book at some point!

And I seem to remember definitely having one of these at some point too, so I must have made, or gotten someone else to make me one back in the day! 

As I'm sure you'll agree, it's a great, fun-filled book full of stuff for youngsters to get up to for Halloween or any time of year, so I made a point of not posting the whole thing...you can find a copy in the Internet Archive's library to borrow if you can't find the actual book, but I heartily recommend you find the whole thing somewhere, coz it's brilliant!

(*Edit - Sorry,when I first uploaded this the images were quite small..have fixed this now!)

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Hope you enjoyed that! I do have another book that I'll take a look at later in the month, but for now I recommend you go check out what everybody else has been up to over at the Countdown Hub by clicking the badge below....or you could head staright on over to see Erick at Wonderful Wonderblog who a few days ago looked at some great spooky tree decorations, either for now or Creepmas!! I'll see you here again tomorrow!

Vintage Halloween Cards! (Hopefully no repeats!)

 Had a looong day today, so here's a quick Halloween Card post! Hope you enjoy them...I've tried to find some I don't remember seeing before!

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Be sure to go check out what eevryone else is up to over at the Countdown Hub by clicking the badge below, or you could hop straight on over to Calling All Crafters who is not only showing off an awesome Halloween Junk Journal, but who also managed to give me a jumpscare without trying! 

Bay of the Tresses!!

 

Today's visit to the Digital Comic Museum finds us a tale of pure greed and betrayal, allegedly out on the waves of Scotland's seas, although I've never heard of  Bornan Bay..although maybe they changed the name?? Anyway, thi scomes from the slighly less usual source of Hillman Periodical's Airboy Comics,  Volume 9, Issue 4...dated May 1952!

Well, I guess it was a case of HAIR today, gone tomorrow for greedy old Albert!  That's what he gets for trying to LOCK away his wealth! It ended up being a tale of SHEER terror. I mean, if he had been a nice chap he could have got the wealth, married Maria and lived happily ever after, but I guess he just didn't CUT it!!

(Sorry!)

Thanks go to freddyfly who uploaded the comic to the museum for us to find!

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Be sure to head over to the Countdown hub and check out what the other Cryptkeepers are up to today by clicking the badge below. They all have loads of cool things to look at...like Action Figure Barbecue, who is taking a look at the Baja Hauler from Hot Wheels!!