Hallowe’en Countdown VII, Day 19

« We’re all dancing in the darkness. » — Nora Louise Kuzma

This time around, our spotlight singles out a somewhat obscure horror title from the 1950s, Standard’s Adventures Into Darkness.

While it arguably wasn’t anything truly special, its pages were host to scores of notable cartoonists, among them Alex Toth, Jerry Grandenetti, George Roussos, George Tuska, Ruben Moreira, Mike Sekowsky, Jack Katz, Ralph Mayo, Murphy Anderson, Nick Cardy, Rocco Mastroserio, Ross Andru, John Celardo, Gene Fawcette

My curiosity about this title was piqued at an early age, when tiny-but-alluring reproductions of some of its covers ran in editions of The Overstreet Comic Book price guide.

Here they all are, nice and big and colourful. Oh, and you can read them all here for free!

This is Adventures Into Darkness no. 5 — the first issue — don’t ask — (Aug. 1952, Standard). Cover by George Roussos (1915-2000).
This low-key entry is Adventures Into Darkness no. 6 (Oct. 1952, Standard). Cover by George Roussos. Though unspectacular, this theme would be taken up and imitated (with variations) a bunch of times, which goes to demonstrate some folk’s morbid fear of marriage.
This is Adventures Into Darkness no. 7 (Dec. 1952, Standard). Cover by the remarkably driven Jack Katz (b. 1927)… a most interesting man.
This is Adventures Into Darkness no. 8 (Feb. 1953, Standard). Cover by future Charlton Comics pillar Rocco “Rocke” Mastroserio, already showing his tremendous potential as a cover creator. One of my all-time favourite bloggers (et cetera!) Jason Willis, loved this cover so much that he used it to create a bonafide animated commercial for the issue! Bless you, Jason!
This is Adventures Into Darkness no. 9 (Apr. 1953, Standard). Cover artist unknown… and what’s going on here? Did the femme fatale turn her unsuspecting victim into a werewolf, or did she doom him with a deadly dose of acid or some other poison?
This is Adventures Into Darkness no. 10 (June 1953, Standard). Cover by Ross Andru… possibly my very favourite cover of his — lord knows he dragged his reputation through forty miles of bad road with his dire late 1970s work at DC.
This is Adventures Into Darkness no. 11 (Sept. 1953, Standard). And we’re back to Mr. Roussos, who provides more of a crime comic cover this time around. Still grisly, though!
This is Adventures Into Darkness no. 12 (Dec. 1953, Standard). Cover by Mike Sekowsky… those cute little caps the mine demons are wearing are a bit of a Sekowsky trademark.

We skip over issue thirteen, not through superstition, but because it’s already been featured in our Mike Sekowsky spotlight — and with good cause, as it’s a spiffy one!

And finally, this is Adventures Into Darkness no. 14 (June 1954, Standard). Cover tentatively attributed to Ross Andru.

A fifteenth (well, eleventh, really) issue had been in the offing, but as censorship tore the comics industry apart in 1954, plans to publish it were abandoned… which brings us full circle to one of our earliest countdown posts on that very topic.

-RG

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