The House of Mystery #191-192

The House of Mystery #191-192

Originally released in 1971

Written by Len Wein, John Albano, et al.

Art by Bill Draut, Jim Aparo, et al.

I chose to look at another anthology series today, DC's House of Mystery. My original choice was Sandman by Neil Gaiman, but that included the Golden Age superhero Sandman, seemingly in a major role, so I thought that might be going against my premise for this week.

The comic is a series of disconnected stories narrated by Cain, who had previously appeared in Swamp Thing. (I was unaware that his appearance was connected to a particular series like this one) Cain's narration kind of reminds me of the Crypt Keeper from Tales Of The Crypt Keeper, keeping a grim but amusing tone.

I chose the first issue based on the cover, though the story didn't match the tone.  In it, a kindly old puppeteer dies, and his puppets come alive to seek revenge, though they only do so to the cruel investor who was responsible for his death.  It's not the only misleading cover out there, of course (there are plenty of issues of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen that have Superman or Jimmy betraying each other), but it didn't match the story.

Other stories were included, with the last one only being two or three pages long.  The last story is about a prowler on a wintry night, which could have had a much darker ending than the one it had, though thankfully it didn't go in that direction . (given that the other two stories involved the death of innocent men, they could have chose to end it on a lighter note)

The next issue has more of a horror element to it, with a husband and wife finding a large homeless man living in their new house.  The wife's pity for the man, and the husband's jealousy, leads to tragedy, though it takes a few unusual twists and turns to get there.

Some unintentional amusement can be found in the word choices and how they've changed over time - another story about a hideous hunchbacked man who finds a magic mirror that improves his appearance says that the mirror made him straight.  He's presumably referring to his back, but to modern audiences, it sounds very different.

While I feel like I would have preferred Sandman from what I read of it, these were all right. It's a shame that the non-superhero selection on DC Universe Infinite seems so limited, but I'll look into what they have for the Vertigo imprint later in the week and see what catches my eye.