Expert: Chris Brown - 9/14/2010

Question
This is probably a long shot, but I have memories of a particular horror comic book or books from the 1970s, probably 1974-1977.  These were books with multiple stories, and I want to say they were DC comics.  I have memories of three separate scenes.

The first recollection I have is a story that involved Vietnamese soldiers brutally betraying, I think, one of their own, and then burying him beneath some floorboards.  

Another story had to do with a guy who somehow became immortal but learned that it could be a double-edged sword as he could still be tortured and feel pain; I have an image of him inside a giant glass flask into which were being poured insects and spiders.  

And finally, I have a memory of a guy living in fear of a giant squid/octopus, and he is all locked up in his house, when suddenly tentacles start sprouting from faucets and drains.

Yes, quite a bit of miscellaneous memories, but I have not yet been able to figure out what these comic or comics were, so I figured I would give it a shot here :)  Thanks!


Answer
Hi Ken

I can't say I recognize any of these specific stories.  It does sound like these were most likely DC comics if they were published in the mid-70s and were standard size color comics.  However, there are only a few titles that DC was putting out at this time in the horror genre.  The comic(s) you are referring to were likely one of the following titles: Weird War Tales, House of Secrets, House of Mystery or the Unexpected.

You can look at scans of the covers of these titles at the following website:

www.comics.org

Here are some links to scans of the individual issues.  Perhaps you will recognize some of the covers.  If you click on the covers, most of them will also have a list of the names of the actual stories inside each issue.


http://www.comics.org/series/1983/covers/


http://www.comics.org/series/1857/covers/


http://www.comics.org/series/791/covers/?style=default&page=5


http://www.comics.org/series/1901/covers/


Hope you see something you recognize.

Chris