Jack Oleck - House Of Mystery

[dem]

Jack Oleck - The House Of Mystery #1 (Warner, 1973)

Bernie Wrightson

Chamber of Horrors
Nightmare
Collector's Item
Born Loser
Tomorrow, the World
The Haunting
You Only Die Once
Act of Grace

Blurb:

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 THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY #1

If you enjoyed Oleck's handling of the Tales From The Crypt and Vault Of Horror novelisations, here's more of the same. These stripped-back ultra-cliched horrors really suit his spartan prose style - just don't expect to be too terrified and they'll do the trick! Great Bernie Wrightson illustrations throughout.

Chamber Of Horrors: Westville. Paranoid Frank Benton meets beautiful, booted, mini-skirted Anna Vargas at a rock concert and is invited back to the desolate Victorian home she shares with her brother, Jan, and sister, Catherine. When Frank catches two shadowy figures moving a coffin into the house he becomes suspicious and calls in the sheriff. The law-man is shown three elongated boxes in the cellar, intended for mushroom growing, according to Jan. Frank is not convinced. He denounces the trio as vampires, much to the sheriff's embarrassment. That night, Frank sets out to destroy the undead. Things don't go quite to plan ...

Collector's Item: The thirty pieces of silver Judas Iscariot was paid for betraying Christ have a terrible power over those who are exposed to them. Collector John Grantham falls under their evil influence and clubs to death their present owner, his friend of thirty years Paul Turner. Horrified at what he's done he flees into the busy street ....

Nightmare: Kelso, whose single pleasure in life is ruining the happiness of others, wanders off in disgust when the tour guide starts babbling about the ghosts of Druids performing human sacrifices at Stonehenge to this day. A storm erupts and Kelso, trying to find his way back to the coach, winds up back at the ancient stones. With six robed figures closing in on him ....

The Haunting: Newly-weds Joel and Peggy Sawyer shrink from the shadowy presences which permeate the house by the cemetery. With the visit of a young girl and a tiptoe through the gravestones, the full horror of their situation is brought home to them ....

Bernie Wrightson

[dem]

Jack Oleck - The House Of Mystery #2 (Warner, 1973)

Bernie Wrightson

Wolf Spawn
Sweet Smell of Success
Island of the Damned
When Dead Men Walk
Message From Beyond
Sacrifice
Never Say die
Donovan's Demon

Blurb:
CAN YOU ENDURE THIS HOST OF HORRORS?
Only THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY could serve as home for these eight tormented souls!

Eight people trapped in the dark corridors of the supernatural...
Eight people enmeshed in evil...
Eight questions from ... A DARKNESS FULL OF DEMONS.

Langley — was it possible that his sister was really a werewolf?
Martin — his wife was dead, so how could she continue to torment him?
Tobin — why did others have to die, so that he might live?
Akins — did the vampire exist, or was he right to scoff at the idea?
Grant — how could a dead man destroy his perfect swindle?
Irena — what was the agonizing, soul-shattering price she was to pay — for murder?
Walker — what happens to a hoodlum who doesn't deserve to live — and refuses to die?
Donovan — was the demon that he called up his servant — or his doom?

... eight tales of ghosts and ghouls, of witches and vampires and things that go bump ...
Read them at night — and wake up screaming!

TERROR IS ALWAYS WAITING JUST INSIDE THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY #2

Includes:

When Dead Men Walk: Castle Hargri, Transylvania. Tony and Lisa Atkins honeymoon in the ancient castle despite the warnings of the burgomaster and the police chief that a centuries old vampire remains active in the vicinity. Tony is sceptical but his wife allows herself to be persuaded by obsessive vampire-hunter Dr. Xaviar that the undead are real and she must seek out the tomb of this particular specimen and destroy it.

Wolf Spawn: The old legend has it that every few generations the Langley blood will produce a werewolf. When the mutilated remains of two farmers are discovered on the moors it seems the curse has struck again. Prime suspect is Carol Dunstan (nee Langley), who wandered off into the dark alone that night and returned home with her dressing gown blood-splattered and ruined. Her husband contacts her brother who, incredulous at first, slowly comes to accept that Carol is the killer and after a third throat-ripping he loads up with silver bullets and hunts her down.

The Sweet Smell Of Success: After thirty years of married Hell, Anthony Martin, put-upon husband of Edith, can take no more. He lures her to the steps leading down into the cellar, one shove, and ....

Now he stands beside the coffin. Free at last! But - hold on; I recognise those footsteps ...

[dem]

Bernie Wrightson Born Loser. See the entire gallery HERE

If, like me, you've been looking for an easy read to get back into the swing of things, then these Jack Oleck adaptations of hokey comic strips may well do the trick.

Born Loser: Homer is nine months into a joyless marriage with domineering, perpetually whining Helen (she looks nothing like her picture). It's true that Homer married for money, but where once there was a semblance of love, now there is nothing but misery. When she tires of belittling him for his uselessness, Helen derides his interest in Black Magic.

One evening Helen returns home unexpectedly early from Church to find Homer admiring his DIY altar in the attic. Building to one of her best ever rages, she kicks him, trashes his creation and shreds an irreplaceable Grimoire into the bargain. It is the final straw.

Homer seethes. Work provides no escape - he's employed as an accountant by Helen's equally belligerent father - until he embarks on an affair with similarly downtrodden colleague, Judith Cooper. When Helen laughs off his request for a divorce, Homer does what any sane person would do in the circumstances and summons a Demon. It doesn't work, but through his efforts he accidentally develops the ability to "die" for several hours at a time. The stage is set for Homer to murder his rotten wife and escape the chair, as there's no point frying a corpse. Surely even a BORN LOSER like Homer can't louse this one up!

[killercrab]

Thanks so much for the link to the rest of the illustrations. I'd only seen a few before - the rest are new Wrightson pics to me and I thought I'd seen alot of his work! '72 was a particularly good vintage for Wrightson fans. Must find a reasonably priced copy of this book now.

KC

btw there's a second book!

[dem]

Jan 8, 2014 10:04:09 GMT killercrab said:

Thanks so much for the link to the rest of the illustrations. I'd only seen a few before - the rest are new Wrightson pics to me and I thought I'd seen alot of his work! '72 was a particularly good vintage for Wrightson fans. Must find a reasonably priced copy of this book now.

KC

btw there's a second book!

And it is more of the same in every respect!


Got them from the lovely Ken Cowley in pre-internet days, along with a poster for Horror Stories/ Terror Tales trading cards. One of the best bits of mail order business I ever did.

[ripper]

Hi Dem. I enjoyed Oleck's Amicus novelisations; spartan, as you say, with not an ounce of fat on the bones. This sounds an interesting read but am I correct to assume that there wasn't a House of Mystery 2? Also, was it originally published by Warren, who published the Creepy and Eerie comic magazines? The stories in House of Mystery sound similar to those that you might find in the Warren comic titles.

On a similar note, I think that there were several slim paperbacks published probably in the early 90s that novelized stories from the EC horror comics. There were, I think, 4 stories per book with illustrations, and each story was introduced by the Crypt-Keeper, Old Witch or Vault-Keeper. They were aimed, I believe, at younger readers and published probably in the USA.

[dem]

Jan 9, 2014 11:52:36 GMT ripper said:

Hi Dem. I enjoyed Oleck's Amicus novelisations; spartan, as you say, with not an ounce of fat on the bones. This sounds an interesting read but am I correct to assume that there wasn't a House of Mystery 2? Also, was it originally published by Warren, who published the Creepy and Eerie comic magazines? The stories in House of Mystery sound similar to those that you might find in the Warren comic titles.

On a similar note, I think that there were several slim paperbacks published probably in the early 90s that novelized stories from the EC horror comics. There were, I think, 4 stories per book with illustrations, and each story was introduced by the Crypt-Keeper, Old Witch or Vault-Keeper. They were aimed, I believe, at younger readers and published probably in the USA.

Click HERE for the House Of Mystery 2 details, Rip. I don't think there were any more after that. The House Of Mystery books are not as wildly entertaining as his Tales From The Crypt and Vault Of Horror adaptations, but still good fun and Mr. Wrightson's artwork is a plus (though he woman in the Born Loser illustration has a really weird backside).

Never heard of these EC novelizations from the 'nineties, but they sound right up my street. Anyone have more info?

[ripper]

Thanks for the information on House of Mystery, Dem.

I think that the 90s Tales from the Crypt paperbacks were published by Random House in the USA around 1991-1992 and written by Eleanor Fremont and possibly also Ellen Weiss. They were definitely aimed at children and were rather slim. I had one by Elenor Fremont and bought it direct from the USA around 2000 while on an EC kick. I haven't seen it for a few years now. It's probably lurking in some obscure corner of Ripper Towers. If I remember correctly, there were 4 stories, all adapted from the comic books, one of which may have been "By the Fright of the Silvery Moon," about a werewolf no doubt, and another possibly about a couple who come across an old, seemingly deserted fun fair and go on the Tunnel of Love ride and discover that the mannequins in the displays are actually the corpses of murder victims.

[ripper]

Just noticed that KC and your good self had already mentioned House of Mystery 2...don't know how I missed that :-).

[droogie]

Those Random House 90's books are all for sale, very cheap; you can find them on Ebay now. I believe there were only 4 volumes published.

[dem]

Thanks for the info, gents. I'm sure William M. Gaines would appreciate the irony that the horror comics which led to his being hauled before the U.S. Congressional Inquiry should now provide inspiration for a series marketed as 'Juvenile fiction.'

[dem]

Bernie Wrightson

Island of the Damned: "Misshapen and bent, he dragged one foot as he walked and his face was ugly. But it was not his face or his limp that drew the eye. He was a hunchback, with one shoulder tormented so far out of shape that it rose to the height of the velvet cap he wore, forcing him to carry his head at an angle, so that he had the appearance of an idiot."

France, 1690. Count Phillipe Lamarre has purchased a small island where he and fellow monstrosities may enjoy some respite from the glare of superstitious peasants. Irena, a beautiful gypsy, is determined to separate the Count from his vast fortune, even if she must suffer his creepy caress to do so. Together with lover, Corvio, she contrives a diabolical scheme to first wed, then murder the hideous one. Alas, there is something she's not taken into consideration, but then, why would she? "No! No man can have two - two - !"

Message From Beyond: Grant, phony medium, attempts to part another grieving widow from her late husband's loot. Unfortunately, this mundane crime short is more representative of House of Mystery than the exciting Island of the Damned.

[andydecker]

I had to re-read them for a project a few month ago. Maybe it is my dark mood, but I came to the conclusion that most of the stories just didn't made any sense in terms of plot. I even looked up a few of the earlier comic versions. I didn't mind the missing logic in the 4 or 5 pages stories in DCs House of Mystery, you can only do so much in such a limited space and a good artist can make it appear much more coherent as it is.

I also liked Island of the Damned, but more because its casual outragousness and because everybody was a villain. Message from Beyond was nonsense from the first page onward.

The best in this still is Wrightson and his art.