Poe 1973, Pt. 1

(Continued from Poe 1972, Pt. 2)

NIGHTMARE  12
"PREMATURE BURIAL"

Skywald Publications was the work of Sol Brodsky & Israel Waldman.  While they had a small run of color comics designed to imitate Marvel, their biggest output and claim to fame were their B&W "Horror-Mood" magazines, done very much in the mode of James Warren's CREEPY and EERIE.

Al Hewetson, a writer & editor, soon joined the company and eventually became full editor when Brodsky returned to Marvel.  Hewetson determined to give Skywald's horror line a more "literate" feel than Warren's had, resulting in, among other things, no less than 19 Edgar Allan Poe adaptations between 1972-75.

Here we come to the 1st of these...

     "THE PREMATURE BURIAL".

While the theme is a very familar one to anyone who's read or watched various film adaptations of Poe, having turned up in several stories, including American International's "HOUSE OF USHER", "PIT AND THE PENDULUM" and "THE OBLONG BOX", the original story is more obscure, perhaps due to the AIP "adaptation" having starred Ray Milland rather than Vincent Price.

Although elements had found their way into Prize's BLACK MAGIC #28, titled "Buried Alive!", and Editora Outubro's CLASSICOS DE TERROR #12 ("I'm Alive!"),  nobody between 1944-72 had really done a "proper" adaptation of it, making this one, with Spanish artist Juez Xirinius the 1st time it was done in a comic-book story as Poe originally intended it.

The first 2 pages as published required one read across from the left to the right page.  Therefore, as I've done with the Jesse Marsh 20,000 LEAGUES and the Mort Drucker RAVEN, I'm re-formatting the pages to fit this blog!

NIGHTMARE  12
cover by VICENTE SEGRELLES   (Skywald Publications  /  April 1973)

"PREMATURE BURIAL"  /  Version 6
Adaptation by Al Hewetson  /  Art by JUEZ XIRINIUS  /
Pages 16-17  (reformatted)

Page 18

Page 19

Page 20

Page 21

Page 22

Page 23

Like many American publishers, Skywald stories were reprinted by a wide
variety of publishers overseas, usually in a jumbled, chaotic, haphazard way. 
Semic in Finland and Semic Press in Finland were two examples...

SARAJAKIRJA:  SHOKKI
cover by VILLANOVA   (Semic  /  Finland  /  [June] 1974)

MACABRE STRIPPOCKET  1
cover by ??   (Semic Press  /  Netherlands  /  1975)

As a bonus, here's 2 pages of this story, reprinted in Finland!

SHOKKI  1  /  Page 36

Page 37

Eternity Comics, for a few years, was a very successful small publisher, who split their output between a number of original series, licensed series, and reprints of old comics.  This included quite of few of the Poe stories from Skywald!  "The Premature Burial" was reprinted here.

EDGAR ALLAN POE:  THE BLACK CAT And Other Stories #1
cover by BROOKS HAGAN  (Eternity Comics  /  September 1988)

Copyright (C) Skywald Publications.

Scan of NIGHTMARE #12 cover from the GCD site.
Scans of NIGHTMARE #12 interiors from the Tebeos de Factura Hispana 2 blog.
     Special thanks to Jose Ruiz DelAmor.
Scans of SHOKKI #1 from the Muuta Net site.
Scan of MACABRE STRIPPOCKET #1 from the GCD site.
Scan of THE BLACK CAT And Other Stories #1
     from my collection!

Restorations by Henry R. Kujawa

For more:
Read about Edgar Allen Poe at Wikipedia.

Read about Skywald Publications Wikipedia.
Read about Skywald Publications at The Horror-Mood blog.
Read about Sol Brodsky Wikipedia.
Read about Al Hewetson Wikipedia.
Read about Juez Xirinius at Tebeos de Factura Hispana 2.
Read about Vicente Segrelles at Wikipedia.

Read about THE CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER at Wikipedia.

Read about THE PREMATURE BURIAL at Wikipedia.
Read the complete story at the Poe Stories site.
See the PREMATURE BURIAL Gallery of Illustrations.

     Audio:
Hear the CBS RADIO MYSTERY THEATER episode!

     Comics:
Read the Steve Ditko PREMATURE BURIAL adaptation!
Read the George Evans PREMATURE BURIAL illustrated story!
Read the Gedeone Malagola PREMATURE BURIAL adaptation!
Read the Juan J. Aguilar PREMATURE BURIAL illustrated story!
Read the Juan Porredon Morillo PREMATURE BURIAL adaptation!~

Read the Juez Xirinius PREMATURE BURIAL adaptation!
Read the Cirilo Munoz PREMATURE BURIAL adaptation!
Read the Vicente Alcazar PREMATURE BURIAL adaptation!

See my Edgar Allan Poe overview at this very blog!

(Continued in Poe 1973, Pt. 2)