DC Comics THE WITCHING HOUR!

*Note: Originally written in 2011.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: The Witching Hour! Volume 1 (1969-1972), DC Comics, March, 2011, ISBN 9781401230227.

DC'S lastest release in its ever growing Showcase Presents lineup is a massive 551 page softcover omnibus edition that reprints the first 18 issues of The Witching Hour comic in a variant black & white format. By eliminating the original four-color appearance, DC is able to price the Showcase editions modestly, giving folks an affordable way to get reacquainted with some of their favorite comics, ones they may not have access to anymore. Nick Cardy, an all-purpose artist who drew dozens of Witching Hour covers, also produced the cover art on Volume One, a re-purposing of his own work from Issue #4.

The Witching Hour started its long series run in 1969, eventually ending in 1978 with its 85th and final issue. That was nearly ten years worth of entertaining comic horror stories, or at least as entertaining as they could be within the allowance of the Comics Code Authority, the governing body created by the Comic Magazine Association to censor any and all material that was deemed inappropriate for children. And yet even under this imposition horror stories thrived. By the end of the Silver Age (1970) nearly every comic publisher had at least two bi-monthly horror comics for sale. DC continued to add even more horror titles in the years after the Silver.

Less than half of the stories in Volume One are credited to their actual writers. The remaining contributors are virtually unknown, an unfortunate aspect of comic-book legacy. The names that are given are no doubt familiar to most Silver and Bronze age fans: Sergio Aragones, Murray Boltinoff, Gerard Conway, Mike Friedrich, Dennis O'Neil, Steve Skeates, Len Wein, Carl Wessler and Marv Wolfman. These writers were capable of producing great scripts, and usually did, but they also cranked out a lot of pedestrian material, which in all fairness to them was probably all that was needed to satisfy the comic readership at that time, that being kids 7-15 years old. The stories here certainly reflect that overall output; some are outstanding, some are good, and some are just plain awful. A few could be deemed ludicrous. Nevertheless, all of the stories seem to be enjoyable, at least in one weird way or another.

Hosting each story are three witches: Cynthia, Mildred, and Mordred. Each witch was modeled after Macbeth's Weird Sisters, representing an archetype of the triumvirate woman; Maiden, Mother and Crone. Artist Alex Toth designed their signature look (as seen above), and continued in turn by Mike Sekowsky, Neal Adams and George Tuska.

Nearly every story focused on basic situations of revenge or retribution, ending in clever twists or revelations and usually with death in tow. Fantastic elements were also used as devices to help propel the narratives. These typically included haunted houses, alternate dimensions, paranormal events, inner & outer space, magic (or sorcery), deviltry and time travel. I suppose kids who read these stories on a regular basis were taught valuable moral lessons about the pitfalls of cultivating sin. I know I learned a thing or two. 

Though for myself, the main lure of buying comics was to collect the art itself, and to a large extent the artwork in the early years of the Witching Hour is worthy of collecting. Top notch illustrators like Bernie Wrightson, Bill Draut, Neal Adams, Gray Morrow and Alex Toth contributed regularly to the series, but alas, as always with comics, so did several of their obviously less talented colleagues. One of those unfortunates was Jack Sparling, who drew, unmercifully, the dumpiest characters in all of comicdom. His presence in any comic practically ruined it for me, even if his grotesque, unattractive style can be defended for its recognizable vigor.  

Below are some example pages of the artists that I do admire, starting with Alex Toth, a Comic Book Hall of Fame inductee. Toth illustrated four of the series best stories, and he also provided the important framing introductions, interludes, and epilogues in all of the early issues.

An icon in the field of comics, Alex Toth (1928-2006) started his career in the 1940's drawing syndicated strips and comic books. By the late 1950s he was working primarily for Dell, where he illustrated the comic book Zorro and several other media tie-in books. Hanna-Barbera then hired him in the early 1960's as a storyboard and animation design artist. His most famous creation for them is probably the Space Ghost. Toth's animation style has been parodied on the Cartoon Network and other cable shows, a definite sign of his respect and influence within the medium, and in fact he is considered a "Giant of 20th Century Cartoon Design" by animation enthusiasts. Since 1995 several books have been published by and about him, and his status as both an artist and creator continues to grow with each passing year. Pictured above is a prime example of his minimalist, almost patented style, and his unique draftsmanship, downloaded from ComputErr, a story written by Sergio Aragones in Issue #8 (note the clever use of punch holes outlining each panel; that's how computer cards looked in the 1970s).

Bill (William) Draut (1921-1993) was another excellent draftsman who had a long and productive career in comics. Some of his best work was done for the Witching Hour. Draut began drawing professionally in the 1940's, doing newspaper comic strips before signing on with Jack Kirby and Joe Simon at Crestwood Publications. His ability to draw people and faces were honed while working on their romance titles. He also worked for Harvey Comics in the late 1950's. Then, after a brief stint at Charlton, he began his longtime association with DC, primarily illustrating, but not limited to, their horror, romance and war titles. The above two pages (page 2 & 7) are from The Big Break!, a story written by Steve Skeates in Issue #7. The black & white format actually accentuates Draut's clean ink lines and deep contrasts--to me it's almost an improvement over the four-color method used in the originals.

Pat Boyette (1923-2000) almost single-handedly kept Charlton Comics alive during the Silver and Bronze Ages, writing and drawing hundreds of stories for the low-budget publisher. Some of his work for them is rather shoddy, a likely result of his overworked schedule. But when he applied himself properly he was as good a stylist and draftsman as there was in the business. While freelancing at DC, he delivered some of his finest illustrations. Pictured above is a page from the premier Issue (#1) of The Witching Hour, showing Boyette's inimitably detailed, yet slightly wooden style, and his signature use of diagonally shaped panels. The story is Save the Last Dance For Me!, and it was written by the great Dennis O'Neil.

Former DC editor, writer and artist Carmine Infantino (1925-2013) had only one story published in The Witching Hour, a reprint from Sensation Comics (DC, May-June, 1952) titled Fingers of Fear. It's my favorite story from the entire series, not only because of Infantino's solid perspectives and sure-handed lines (pun intended), but because his story shares the same title with my favorite horror novel, written by John Urban Nicolson and published by Covici Friede in 1937. It also happens to be a prime example of the ludicrousity I mentioned earlier. Shown above is the splash panel and one of the pages from Issue #17. The prolific and always dependable Joe Giella was the inker for this story.

Gray Morrow (1934-2001) was a distinguished illustrator noted for his style and exceptional realism. He also painted paperback covers for more than three decades, chiefly science fiction, and worked periodically on syndicated newspaper strips. Morrow was also one of the regulars at Warren Publishing, producing superb covers and and interior art for their magazines Creepy, Eerie and Blazing Combat. Along the way he found time to work on comics, mainly for Timely, Atlas, and Classics Illustrated. Eventually he wound up working for DC in the early 1970's, illustrating stories for their horror comics. Pictured above is an excellent example of his work from Issue #13, taken from Alan Gold's and Marv Wolfman's story Maze. This particular example is bold even in Showcase's b&w format, but even more so when enhanced by color, as evidenced above in a scan of the same page from the original comic version.

MY INTEREST in comic books has always ebbed and flowed. It's been that way since I was a teenager, when I first drifted away to pursue other literary interests. Now my attention is back, but my focus is mainly on the Silver Age comics of my youth, which for me constitutes a trip down memory lane. With few exceptions, I rarely collect any of the modern comics and graphic novels that are so plentiful now though I do read as many as time will allow. It's astonishing to see just how far the medium has come since those days when I was a young devotee, sketching away in my Big Chief tablet as I were a prospective cartoonist. These days the variety of styles and subject matter seems far reaching, although in reality that diversity may not be that much greater than it was in any previous era. But the packaging of comic art has evolved dramatically since then, some of it for the better, some of it for the worse. While I would prefer to see all of the old comics reprinted in color, and that color closely resembling their original treatment, these black & white Showcase volumes do allow us to see comic illustrations from an unusual perspective, one that kids of my generation never had privy to unless we bought dedicated black & white magazines like Creepy and Eerie. 

I've thoroughly enjoy reading the Showcase editions, especially the horror reprints. They're easily recommended, not only from an aesthetic point of view, but because they're solid examples of the mediums ability to effectively transmit genre stories.

[© November, 2019, Jeffersen]