The House of Mystery

[johnnystorm]

Well, I've been using the summer slowdown at work to catch up on some reading. Picked up the Showcase edition of House Of Mystery which reprints the first 20 horror comics from 1969-70 or so. Wow, this is some great stuff. I'd read an issue here or there, but this early stuff is so much better than the later more formulaic stuff DC put out.
And the art by Neal Adams, Wally Wood, Bernie Wrightson, Gil Kane, Alex Toth, Al Williamson..it just pops in B/W. And a LOT of great Sergio Aragones cartoons too.

A couple things stick out immediately:

First, there are a lot of longer stories with more involved plotlines.
Secondly, it's interesting to see how often Cain & the House itself are actually part of the story, not just relegated to introducing the story in the first panel. Cain interacts with a number of characters, and is given some background as well.
Third, in one of the stories, they specifically place the House of Mystery itself just inside the Kentucky state line (which side they don't say though). And in the earlier tales, Cain is given a southern dialect in his speech, which actually works if you read it that way "in your head".

A nice book, one of the better trades DC has out in the Showcase series. I guess due to the nature of the series, it doesn't suffer from "overdose" syndrome like a few of the other Showcase volumes I've read (Green Arrow & Wonder Woman come to mind). By that I mean that I had to take a break from reading the other series (of a few days to a week), as the stories became repetitive when read in a single sitting for long. Did not have that with the HOM volume.

[The Toyroom]

I just got that volume also and have been enjoying it....I love the "Page 13" gags and you're right...lots of great Sergio Aragones artwork! Some of the stuff I have read before but there's lots of stuff that's new to me.

And although I'm digging DC's current House of Mystery series, I really wish Cain would come back and they'd use the anthology format throughout the whole book instead of the continuing characters....it's getting a little stale IMO.

[johnnystorm]

I also like the new Vertigo HOM series...much better than the House of Secrets series they tried a few years ago. I agree that it's one of those go-nowhere series...great premise but nothing much happens from issue to issue. Kinda like New Avengers. I do like the Pirate chick though.

I find it interesting that Cain & Able were characters in the storylines originally, and not the buffoonish hosts of the later issues. I liked what Gaiman did with them in the Sandman series, but the later Dreaming sequel series left me flat.
Aren't the Secret Six currently living in the House of Secrets? Not that anything supernatural has happened because of it...and the HOM was the hangout of both Blue Devil and Elvira. I somewhat liked the Elvira series, but it suffered from being one of those DC artist/writer tryout books of the 80s, like most of DC's final runs of war comics.

[The Toyroom]

Aren't the Secret Six currently living in the House of Secrets? Not that anything supernatural has happened because of it....

I think so....I thought that the House of Secrets and the House of Mystery were located in close proximity to each other though....sort of like neighbors.

[johnnystorm]

They used to be across the road from each other, but who knows in today's DC continuity?
Weren't there other houses as well? Sinister House? Ghost Castle was where Lucian the Librarian lived.

Did all the hosts have their own haunted mansions?

[rche]

That really puts the itch in me to check out this comp.

I used to love reading HOM and HOS at my cousins when I was a kid along with Warrens Creepy, Eerie, and Vampi. The Berni Wrightson stuff and Wally Wood - wow. Haven't really seen any of the early magazines/comics in years, but I did like Gaiman's take on the Cain/Able characters and the houses as characters in his initial run of Sandman.

[The Toyroom]

I was just reading up on Cain and the House of Mystery on wikipedia and learned that Cain was modeled after Len Wein!

[johnnystorm]

And Able was another DC staffer, Mark Hannerfield.

[kryptosmaster]

Love the DC horror books. Working on completing most of them. Of course the Swamp Thing issue of House of Secrets may be a hole for quite some time.
Rich

[samurainoir]

They used to be across the road from each other, but who knows in today's DC continuity?
Weren't there other houses as well? Sinister House? Ghost Castle was where Lucian the Librarian lived.

Did all the hosts have their own haunted mansions?

In Sandman and Swamp Thing I seem to recall that The House of Mystery and The House of Secrets were situated adjacent to each other (with a graveyard between?), but given the fact that it's "The Dreaming" it allows for all the different incarnations and iterations that have appeared over the years, kind of a catch all for continuity buffs I guess.

Ghost Castle has been revealed to be the dilapidated remains of the Castle of Morpheus Lord of Dreams AKA Neil Gaiman's Sandman, while he was in exile during most of the twentienth century, having been captured and imprisoned on Earth.

Lucian the Librarian is responsible for all the books in the library in Morpheus' Castle, which contain the all the dreams that ever were and will be, including a great number of titles by popular authors that only existed in their dreams.

Eve lived in a cave in The Sandman IIRC. I actually don't have any memory of Sinister House. Was there ever actually a "Haunted House" that Destiny was shown to live in?

There is one DC Horror Comic Host that wasn't nabbed up by Gaiman for Sandman, James Robinson featured Charity in his run of Starman. Anyone know offhand if they showed her living in the Dark Mansion in Starman?

Have they collected Plop yet? That's the one I have the fondest memories of.


It was Elvira's House of Mystery that was the first iteration of the series I ever encountered. I would later discover that it was the lovely Dave Stevens cover that drew my pubescent self to pick up that particular issue.

Did they ever discuss what Elvira's relationship with Cain was? I think they alluded to her (as a "Valley Girl") in one of Cain's appearances in Swamp Thing didn't they?

[cjefferys]

I might have to pick that book up. I loved reading DC's horror comics when I was a kid, and really liked what Gaiman did with the horror hosts in SANDMAN.

[johnnystorm]

I don't recall if they ever wrapped up the Elvira series...I guess the license was up and sales were down so it went away. There was a subplot about Elvira learning some sort of life lessons from the House and figuring out where Cain was, right? It's been awhile since I read those books. And like you, I'm sure, I mostly just looked at the pictures.


I'd forgotton the Dark Mansion. And I don't know if Secrets of Sinister House actually had a locale. I seem to remember Destiny just appearing in graveyards etc.

[davidb]

There is one DC Horror Comic Host that wasn't nabbed up by Gaiman for Sandman, James Robinson featured Charity in his run of Starman. Anyone know offhand if they showed her living in the Dark Mansion in Starman?

No - the Dark Mansion was long gone. When she first showed up Charity actually mentioned that she'd made a living telling stories she called her "Forbidden Tales from the Dark Mansion" until people stopped coming.

Robinson also played up her horror roots in that appearance by having Jack think that she'd just appeared in an empty storefront. She details her "mystical" arrival - she'd paid movers to pack her things up and move them into the new shop.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I remember reading that the Houses of Mystery and Secrets were in Kentucky, and it was quite a thrill for me, considering my home state rarely got mentioned in ANY comic (and if they did, it was some hillbilly joke).

I was too much of a chicken for these as a kid, but I may have to pick up this volume now. I had an ex-brother-in-law in my teen years that was a big fan, and I loved purusing his copies. Great stuff!

Chris