Haunted houses are a traditional setting for certain types of Halloween stories. The old abandoned building that remembers terrible deeds committed there works both as atmosphere and as a bottleneck for more terrible things to happen. These locales began with the Gothic novels, which gave us the haunted castle in the very first one, The Castle of Otranto (1765) by Horace Walpole. Ann Radcliffe and her followers explained away the ghosts with logical explanations that gave us the Scooby-Doo school of ghost hunting. Fortunately, the ghost story writers who came next returned the ghosts to their status as real phantoms.
Comic books used the haunted house too. The very first true Horror comic was Adventures Into the Unknown #1, Fall 1948. It featured a haunted house on the cover and has a story about such a building. (It also did an adaptation of The Castle of Otranto, all courtesy of Pulp writer, Frank Belknap Long.) This comic set the standard form for all the EC comics that are beloved by comic fans later.
So here are thirteen, the perfect number, of haunted houses for your enjoyment. As with most Golden Age comics, the authors are usually not known.
“The Castle of Otranto” (Adventures Into the Unknown #1, Fall 1948) was written by Frank Belknap Long. This classic oldie has Conrad, the baron’s heir, killed by a giant helmet. Isabella, his intended bride, is trapped in the castle while Manfred tries to marry her. She finds the real heir and her future husband. Manfred’s plans are ruined by the ghost that haunts the place. Long manages to fit this novel into seven pages!
“Haunted House” (Adventures Into the Unknown #1, Fall 1948) was written by Frank Belknap Long. Lorna has the two Beaver brothers, Fred and Benny who are detectives, go with her to the reading of her uncle’s will. She will inherit a million dollars if she can stay in the house for one night. The lawyers tells her the place is haunted. The trio go to the house, encounter a ghostly laugh, rattling chains and finally a skeleton. It is the two lawyers, who have embezzled half the fortune. The detectives capture one but the other is dead, killed with the cane seen only in the uncle’s portrait. The idea of a reward for staying a night in a haunted house goes back to the Victorians. FBL has fun with it.
“A Night in Hangman’s House!” (Marvel Tales #94, November 1949) has Duncan and Laura staying a night in an old house when they get lost in New England. They learn that the house belonged to Peter van Kleek, known as Peter the Hangman. Later a rope kills the caretaker and then goes after the couple. Duncan destroys it with an ax. They find van Kleek in the wall behind the fireplace. The body is laid to rest. The lost couple who stay in a scary house is another old cliche, used wonderfully in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
“Horror House!” (Vault of Horror #15, October-November 1950) was written and drawn by Johnny Craig. Henry has a problem. He can’t get his newspaper stories in on time because his friends all come to his apartment to party. He decides to buy an old house to work in even though it is supposed to be haunted. His friends follow him to his house then get the idea to scare the writer. Recorded noises and a fake ghost chase Henry away. When he returns with the cops, he finds his friends driven insane. They have met the real ghosts. It didn’t take EC long to get in on the fun.
“House of Horror” (Tales From the Crypt #21, December 1950-January 1951) was written by Al Feldstein. A fraternity decides to send this year’s freshmen into a haunted house for hazing. The boys don’t come back. They find one, Les Wilton, who is insane and has aged fifty years, his hair turned white. The other three, Arling, Waters and Henderson, are never found. The old house is burned to the ground. The mystery of the others is never solved. This one doesn’t have the comic feel of the last comic, but is actually a little chilling.
“The Monster’s Ghost” (Dark Mysteries #2, August-September 1951) begins with ghost hunter and skeptic, Bruce Gibson, in search of a real ghost. He buys a haunted house despite the warning from a creepy looking man in a top hat. That night the man comes to his house to convince him with devils and sprites at his control. He conjures the monster’s ghost, which is a green giant of a beast. Bruce shoots it with blessed silver bullets. He gets a mystical sword in his chest, which no one else can see. Bruce tries to tell others about his experience but no one will listen. A confusing story but the Orlando art s good.
“The Horror of Van Mort!’ (Mysterious Adventures #4, October 1951) has John Harvin, a believer in ghosts, teased by his friends for his beliefs. He goes to Haversham, the town that has the Van Mort house. The cabbie tells him the history of the place. Squire Von Mort was murdered by his wife and her lover, struck dead with the cane given to him by his betrothed. John’s friends beat him to the house and plan to trick him. John is scared off by the fake ghost but when he returns with the cops, he finds some of his friends insane and one beaten to death with a cane. John destroys the portrait of the squire. A skeleton is found inside the fireplace. This is Johnny Craig’s “Horror House!” and “A Night in Hangman’s House!” plots stolen and combined. The A. C. Hollingsworth art is the best thing here, with a very stylistic look that isn’t usual.
“The Curse of Seabury Manor” (The House of Mystery #1, December 1951-January 1952) Dan plans to stay a night in Silas Seabury’s haunted house. His friend , Bob, tries to talk him out of it. Later Dan shows up and tells Bob what happened. He sat in the creepy house until he heard a noise. Taking his candle, he went to see but only got a vague idea of what lurked in one room. His candle goes out. Dan flees but returns the next night with a camera. Dan comes out of the house, clutching his throat. He has died because of some strange gas. The fumes also ruined the negatives. Bob can’t believe the terror on Dan’s face was because of gas alone. There can be little doubt where the name “Seabury” came from. Seabury Quinn was the biggest writer at Weird Tales for decades with his Jules de Grandin stories. The inconclusive nature of this story was typical of early House of Mystery stories, which tended to be explained away.
“Step Right Into…the House of Horror” (Adventures Into Weird Worlds #6, May 1952) has haunted house buster, Charles Boyd, promising Jean, a reporter, that the haunting is fake. They go inside and encounter a strange dead woman. Boyd insists it’s fake before she touches him. She disappears. Charles insists the house looks normal. Jean tells him this is because he is dead. He looks in a mirror and sees his face has become a skeleton like the ghost’s. A little H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Outsider” (Weird Tales, April 1926) here, I think.
“Haunted!” (Journey Into Mystery #1, June 1952) has a mysterious figure hiding in the old house. A realtor is trying to sell it to a reluctant couple when they see the figure revealed. He is a dead man. They flee. The ghost happily goes back to haunting the house.
“Walking Ghost” (Strange Tales #11, October 1952) A radio broadcaster is doing a show where he will spend a night in a haunted house. We learn the history of Algernon Black, who built the house. Black’s wife, Elena had an affair and Algy killed the man. Elena died from shock as well. Black haunts the house becoming known as “The Walking Ghost”. The radio man finds and is frighened by two skeletons but comes out of the building claiming there are no ghosts. He has become a specter himself. The idea for this story was probably inspired by H. Russell Wakefield’s “Ghost Hunt” (Weird Tales, March 1948).
“The Clutching Curse” (Forbidden Worlds #11, November 1952) has Bob driving Enid, looking for the sight of a battle fought long ago. A ghost causes Bob to run the car into a wall, stranding them there. Enid says it’s almost as if someone had planned it. They go into an old house. The ghost there won’t let them leave, barring them with an invisible barrier. A chandelier falls, missing them. The ghost eventually tells them that they can escape if they defeat the Clutching Curse, a weird cloud of evil created during the war when men were trapped inside the building. Bob and Enid do this by crossing a treacherous plank with waiting ghosts below. The curse is lifted.
“Legacy of Horror!” (Sensation Mystery #113, January-February 1953) has Ralph Emerson getting ghostly visions on a dead channel on his new TV. Ralph gets news from a lawyer he is the sole heir to a recently dead newspaper tycoon. He goes off to live in his new castle, which is reportedly haunted. In his room he is attacked by a specter that tells him tonight he will become a ghost like the old man who left him a fortune. The old man’s ghost warns him to run. Ralph is suspicious and tells Miss White, the tycoon’s secretary, that he thinks the lawyer is behind all of this. Entering his room, he finds the lawyer dressed like the specter. It was a trick to steal the fortune. The lawyer admits to his deceit but he has no recording of the old man. The ghost that warned Ralph was real. DC Comics with the not real/real ending again. This was typical of Sensation Mystery, which wanted to be a Horror comic but couldn’t quite commit.
Just a note on two of the artists in this post: Jim Mooney and John Forte Jr. got their start in the Pulps. Mooney’s first illustration was for “I, the Vampire” by Henry Kuttner (Weird Tales, February 1937). Mooney’s first comic was Mystery Men Comics #9 (April 1940). He later became famous for drawing Spider-Man. Forte started with “Eyes That Watch” (Comet, December 1940). His work was in the Science Fiction magazines. He began in comics with Cow Puncher Comics #2 (September 1947). For more on Pulp illustrators who went into comics, go here.
Just two days to Halloween and this anthology featuring the Book Collector!
