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House of Mystery #225 - Splash page with Creepy Host and Skeleton Crew!

Artist: Frank Thorne (All)

Artwork Details

Title:	House of Mystery #225 - Splash page with Creepy Host and Skeleton Crew!
Artist:	Frank Thorne (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Splash Page
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	220

Description

A pretty damn beautiful page, this - and a really fascinating one. Visually powerful and arresting, a creepy hag-like host (I'd love to know who - any ideas? Almost all of these HOM tales were narrated by Cain in the 1970s, but this is an exception - and despite the blueline margin note with Cain's name, this ain't him - so it must be an indicator to swap this horror host out for Cain) is seated in the foreground, raven atop their fireman's hat, feet resting on tombstones, as an old-time fire-truck speeds by, driven by a literal skeleton crew! An amazing page which has to be seen and handled to soak up the sheer brilliance of the design and detail. One of the best HOM splash pages I've ever seen, and almost unbelievably, it wasn't used! Certainly not in it's complete form, anyway - the additional images show the actual used splash for the story - hilariously and rather disturbingly titled, 'Firemen, Burn My Child!' - which bears no resemblance to this dazzling piece, and the front cover has a heavily cannibalised version without one-tenth the impact of the splash here. Clearly this beauty was languishing in the D.C. drawers for years - stamped N.P.P. (Non Published Page?) in 1973, '74, '75 and '76, finally Written Off in 1977! This really is oozing with clues as to the production process, and indeed the selection process which determines what finally sees publication. It may not have seen publication in it's full form (and that is inexplicable to me), but man oh man it feels like a piece of pure Bronze Age D.C. history...

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	Greedy Collector 9/8/2025 1:41:00 AM
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	Mickey Alderson 9/8/2025 12:18:00 AM
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