Haunt of Horror #1 - Marvel

This was Marvel's most across-the-bow shot at the type of magazine Warren was doing at the time. Other ones, like Dracula Lives! and Doc Savage, were more Marvel-style, from starring one central character to the way the stories were told.

The cover is by Bob Larkin, and it's an interesting hybrid between the type of horror they wanted to do and the more safe, almost cartoon-ish approach they were known for. I mean, that girl doesn't look that scared, really, and the big skull in the foreground, bathed in golden light, looks like something off of a Hardy Boys book cover. Not to say its a bad cover, but it's a bit benign for the Warren-esque horror Marvel was trying to emulate.

After a genuinely horrorific frontspiece by Alfredo Alcala(featuring a topless succubus, a rotting corpse, a zombie, and assorted demons), this issue opens up with "Rats!" by Gerry Conway and Ralph Reese, about a miserable, mean little man who refuses to kill any rats. Living in New York City in the seventies, that's a tough standard to maintain.

Next is a text piece about the new mag, called "The Hint of Horror", and then a prose story by George Alec Effinger called "Heartstop" with cool spot illustrations by Walt Simonson.

The next comic story is "The Last Man!", which is a reprint tale about a homicidal murderer who is convinced Earth is under attack by flying saucers. Its uncredited, but its a tight, fun little five-page tale. Fourth is "His Own Kind!" by Roy Thomas, Val Mayerik, and Mike Esposito, adapted from the story by Thomas Disch. It's a fanciful tale told by a woodnymph about a werewolf and is nicely rendered by Mayerik.

Conway and Ernie Chua handle "The Nightmare Patrol" about an army patrol that runs into a ghoul while in Vietnam. As if being in Vietnam wasn't bad enough!

Next is "In The Shadows of the City" by Steve Gerber and Vincente Alcazar, a grim, mood-drenched tale about the paranoia that sets in while living in New York City. I have no idea if Gerber was in fact living in the Big Apple when he wrote this, but I wouldn't be surprised; the story feels like something a writer would come up with in the middle of a hot summer night, when its eerily quiet and you can't sleep.

Not a bad start to the magazine, even if the contents are sorta all over the place, from grueshome horror to sci-fi fantasy to psychological dread. But there was more after this issue, so we'll see later how well Haunt of Horror kept the scares going...