Castle of Horror #1

1978. Cover price 35p.
68 pages. B&W contents.
Portman Distribution Ltd.

We Take You Into Nightmare Worlds of the Living Dead
The most shocking terror tales you've ever read

Edited by Alan McKenzie.

Painted cover by Jose Antonio Domingo.
r: The Haunt of Horror (Cadence Comics Publications) #03 (Sep 1974).

Contents:

 2 Castle of Horror Introductory text by Alan McKenzie (? uncredited). / Contents / Indicia.

 3 Morbius the Living Vampire pin-up; a: (uncredited).

r: ?

 4 Morbius the Living Vampire A Taste of Crimson Life, part one: Fast of Blood w: Doug Moench; a: Sonny Trinidad.

15 Morbius the Living Vampire A Taste of Crimson Life, part two: Temptation w: Doug Moench; a: Sonny Trinidad.

23 Morbius the Living Vampire A Taste of Crimson Life, part three: Feast of Blood w: Doug Moench; a: Sonny Trinidad.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #10 (Apr 1975).

29 The Rats! w: Gerry Conway; a: Ralph Reese.

r: The Haunt of Horror (Cadence Comics Publications) #01 (May 1974)

37 Blindspot! w: Gerry Conway; a: Virgilio Redondo & Alfredo Alcala.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #10 (Apr 1975).

46 A House of Pleasure the House of Death w: Doug Moench; a: Mike Vosburg & Howard Nostrand.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #10 (Apr 1975).

56 Lilith, Daughter of Dracula pin-up; illustrated by Pablo Marcos.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #06 (Aug 1974).

57 Lilith, Daughter of Dracula UNTITLED w: Steve Gerber, from a script by Marv Wolfman; a: Bob Brown & Tom Palmer.

r: Vampire Tales (Marvel Monster Group) #06 (Aug 1974).

67 Get Your Teeth into the Next Issue preview.

68 On Sale Now in-house advertisement for Tales of Terror.

A remarkably effective cover promises much for the daring reader, using a visual language more common to European film posters than British comics. A group of walking dead slowly advancing upon a woman in a torn dress speaks to a more mature, more dangerous, branch of horror. It may not accurately represent anything within Castle of Horror's first issue, but it is a cover which has always appealed. Amando de Ossorio would have loved this image - its that good.

But we can't look at this title without addressing the major flaw. This is a collection of Marvel horror strips, so holding out hopes for boundary-pushing, violent mayhem is going to result in rather disappointed readers. It is a surprise that material collected from various Marvel magazines is so good, although (as is to be expected) nowhere near as tantalising as promised by first impressions.

Michael Morbius. You had the world at your feet. Winner of the Nobel Prize. Loved by the beautiful Martine despite your physical hideousness. But you didn't have your health. A rare disease of the blood was gnawing at your life. Your precious life. In desperation you dabbled in forbidden research to stave off your illness. The ghastly pallor of your features and your craving for blood was the result of experimenting with vampire bats and electric shocks. You have your life but it cost you your soul. You are forever...

Morbius, the Living Vampire

Nikos Michaels arrives in Painesville, Penn., population 93, at the home of Alicia Twain in order to rent a room. Alcia is only renting her room due to her husband's death in a mining disaster, and has been struggling to meet the mortgage on her home. His insistence on keeping his face covered, and not merely against rain which has fallen upon the town for three days, arouses suspicion that he is a fugitive from legal difficulties, but Nikos' request for seclusion and privacy wards off Alicia's inquiries.

Once alone in the room, Nikos removes his face covering to reveal the visage of Morbius, wracked with pain from the lack of blood. His anguished cries startle Alicia, and she ascends the stairs to check on her guest, who is desperately struggling to control his blood-lust, determined that no more innocent lives shall be taken in order to sustain his hunger. Morbius decided to take the room so that he could search for a cure to his condition, and his privacy is utmost. Unaware of her guest's true nature, but needing money his stay will generate, she leaves him alone.

As hunger pangs wrack his body once more, Morbius smashes carefully mounted scientific apparatus in frustration. Hearing the noise above, Alicia grows concerned about the welfare of her guest, but upon entering his room Morbius throws the carcass of a rat at her. Leaping through a window to escape her gaze - to prevent himself feasting on her blood - he glides off to seek solace elsewhere. Alicia searches his room for answers, discovering a journal of work notes in the name of Michael Morbius.

In the town, ravaged by hunger and soaked by rain, Morbius happens upon a copper ore miner who is heading to a bar - before he can feed, his conscience reasserts, and he wanders off dejected. Abe Whittaker, unaware of his near miss, informs his colleagues that Alicia has met her mortgage payment, meaning the bank can't foreclose on her property, as Morbius walks on, through rain, forest, and delirium alike. Heading instinctively back to Alicia's house, he is surprised to discover Alicia awaiting his return, and aware of his identity.

Abe rouses the other miners with the fact that Alicia is sitting atop the richest lode of copper in the state, and, with every other source within sixty miles mined out, they have no choice but to obtain her property one way or another. Alicia tends to Morbius, helping him through the worst of his withdrawal symptoms short of offering her blood. The miners arrive as she is descending the stairs, rocks shattering windows and covering her in shard of glass - enraged, she confronts them, only to be struck down by Abe's pick-axe.

Finding Alicia's corpse, Morbius is devastated at the pointlessness of her murder, and - no longer able to control the urge - laps at her spilled blood. Launching himself from the cliff, he streaks towards the town. Seeing those he holds responsible, he strikes. As they recover their senses, the miners, led by Abe, amass to take down the maniac in their midst. Grabbing the murderer, Morbius raises Abe's corpse aloft and feasts on his blood. Only when all responsible are dead at his feet does the living vampire pause.

This is some of the best artwork to feature Morbius, his wide, blank eyes showcasing the pain and conflict perfectly, Sonny Trinidad creates a great amount of tension in even the most innocuous of panels. This is an amazing little tale, perfectly paced by Doug Moench, owing as much to westerns as horror in its setting and cast of characters. Squint a little and you might discern spaghetti westerns buried in the mix of influences.

The one drawback to hailing this as a classic horror story is, even with a greater flexibility through the magazine format, this persists in depicting the ridiculous superhero-type costume through the main sequence. This is the artistic equivalent of having Sherlock Holmes' deerstalker and pipe present irrespective of the narrative and setting. While there is a lot to love about both story and art, the lingering influence of Marvel's mainstream comics hangs around like a bad smell.

Johnny attempts to stop his landlord throwing a beer bottle at a rat, successfully preventing Mr. Krespi from killing it. Johnny tells him that life is more important than anything, and the enraged man dismisses Johnny as not being worth beating up. Keeping to an organic lifestyle, Johnny refuses to take public transport, and maintains a vegetarian diet, much to the consternation of his neighbours, and is horrified when Chrissy kills a roach in their apartment. Lashing out at her, he is immediately regretful of his action.

Chrissy leaves, calling him crazy, and walks to calm herself down - when she encounters a group of rats on the street. Johnny runs downstairs at her scream, but is kept from exiting the building by those taking sanctuary from the rats. He manages to get out to the street, discovering Chrissy's bones among the swell of rats, just before the rats swarm him.

There must have been something in the air during the seventies. The Rats! appeared in the US in April 1974, the same year as James Herbert's novel of the same name, and just short of three years after Willard's premiere. This was right around the time The Muppet Show was broadcast, with Rizzo the Rat often highlighted - in fact, so visible were rats in popular culture throughout this period that it is astonishing to see how deeply the iconography has embedded itself into comics, film, television, novels, and other media.

It is a shame that more isn't made of these flesh-stripping little monsters - furry piranha on four legs. While I could do without more of the rather flat and one-note Johnny, there's a lot of mileage in the critters which take the title, as their appearance here is merely to act in service of the plot. Very attractive art doesn't hurt, and this is easy on the eye. Ralph Reese delivers a lot more than the script really deserves, providing The Rats! with a solid and creepy setting.

Blindspot! starts with a blind beggar walking along a street, wearing a sign around his neck reading "there, but for the grace of god, go I. Than you for your help." It is a bit heavy handed, and - as he is led by his guide dog, Dutch, into a sidestreet - encounters Sweeney, a vampire. How do we know he's a vampire? He states outright "I ain't got use for money. Not any more. Not since I became a vampire!"

Despite a modern vernacular, this is as close to stereotype as is possible to get, with protruding fangs and slicked-back hair. Killing Dutch with a swpe of his hand, Sweeney then feeds on the dog's master. A girl, having witnessed this, screams, alerting a police officer who arrives on the scene and commands the vampire to stop. Firing at Sweeney, he is astonished to find his weapon has no effect, but before he succumbs to the strength of his undead assailant a group of citizens step in to assist him.

Desperate to escape, Sweeney turns into a bat and takes flight.

Vampires changing into bats ought to be a thing of the past. After Carry on Screaming and Dracula: Dead and Loving It the effect has been successfully ridiculed to the point where usage elicits a smirk rather than solemnity. The change in size is too great to be taken seriously, which undermines the threat this would-be Dracula poses, and it is difficult to approach Blindspot! with sufficient seriousness to accept that scene and move on.

Safely in his dwelling, the vampire recollects the circumstances which led him to his current unlife, but his reminiscence is interrupted when the police officer turns up at his door. Fleeing once more, out into the early morning, Sweeney uses the blind man's glasses and cane to slip into the masses on the streets, but the lenses of the glasses are too dark for him to know that the sun has begun to rise.

An extremely effective final panel, along with some clever twisting of genre standards, doesn't excuse clunky lines of dialogue, the bat sequence, or the poor use of flashback. This is a story which desperately tries to prove how modern it is, but is crippled by various trends which are ubiquitous to Marvel's titles. There is a great idea at the heart of the story, but its execution is flawed. Once again the artwork is stellar, proving that with great scripts this could have been an amazing work.

Zarathon - sullen and dour of face and mien. Not a particularly large man... Indeed, little more than a youth... But grimly determined, and sufficiently prepared to obtain the answers he seeks...

Seeking knowledge of the House of Denied Pleasures, Zarathon asks the Sareena, barmaid of The Broken Mast, what she knows. It is said that nobody ever leaves the house, and within its walls are undreamed of pleasures. Dissatisfied with her answers, he travels to the building in question, just beyond the seaside town of Krindrel. Climbing to a window and entering surreptitiously, Zarathon encounters two beautiful women who he soon realises are vampires.

Managing to destroy them, Zarathon journeys throughout the building, discovering more of their kind. Deep into the bowels of the house, in a locked cell, he discovers King Jarand - his father. Learning that the women feed on travelers, and the house in turn feeds on them. As the vampires arrive to challenge the intruder, Zarathon finds himself in a battle for his life.

While not, by any stretch of the imagination, an original idea, there are enough twists to overdone tropes which keep this from being entirely redundant. The plot could, perhaps, have been slightly tighter, but it is an entertaining and rather amusing break from heavier stories. A few blatant spelling mistakes (preditors?) mar an otherwise average tale.

In a ground-floor apartment in Greenwich Village, Martin Gold discovers the body of his murdered wife. Arrested for the crime, he is taken into custody, though released the next day after two further axe murders in the Village. Wandering the streets, he finds himself at a bookshop where he meets Angel O'Hara, to whom he tells the events which led him there. She asks to go home with him, Mary-Jean's killer returns, axe in hand, as Angel is in the shower, but before his eyes she transforms into Lilith.

Questioning him, Lilith learns his past, and ends his life so that he does not kill again. Lilith, Daughter of Dracula isn't a favourite character of mine, not least due to the awful costume she is lumbered with, but this serves as a rather concise introduction without most of the baggage from her appearances in long-running series. The art is satisfactory, yet there is a sense that the story is rushed - Martin barely grieves for his dead lover before shacking up with Angel / Lilith, and the return of the killer isn't explained.

Not a bad collection, all told, but one which relies far too much on Marvel's mainstream characters.