Back to World War II (Blackhawk #251–73)

I've chronicled here DC's various attempt to keep the Blackhawks a going concern after World War II. They had them battle aliens (see #3 below), then supercriminals (#4); later they the made them into counterinsurgents (#5), superheroes (#6), and mercenaries (#7). Each attempt ended in failure, the Blackhawks being cancelled or reinvented yet again.

In 1982, though, the same new approach was taken twice over, which was to go back to an old approach. I've already written up the 1982 Blackhawk novel (#8 below), but at the same time that novel came out, the comics themselves were taking the same approach: going back to World War II.

But of course. What other approach was there? Some concepts are endlessly adaptable; Superman might have been devised during the Great Depression as an expression of populist sentiment, but he has worked and continues to work in different contexts. But other concepts are not. The Blackhawks are an expression of a particular time and place. They are about banding together to fight the Nazis... and though I can see some ways in which they might be made to work otherwise (I did like the brief run of the Blackhawks as counterinsurgents), by and large they become pointless if you have them do anything else.

So, even though the 1982-84 run picks up the numbering from where we left off in 1977, with issue #251, the story does not. Instead, we essentially have a total reboot.* Artist Dan Spiegle and writer Mark Evanier take us back to 1940, before the U.S. even entered the war, and the Blackhawks were an indenpendent organization of pilots battling the Nazis. The series's twenty-three issues cover June through September, predating even the timeframe of the original run from Quality Comics—but in a contemporary, 1980s style.

from Blackhawk vol. 1 #256 (script by Mark Evanier, art by Dan Spiegle)

To me, this is clearly the best that Blackhawk has been so far. And (even though I am hopeful I will enjoy future permutations of the concept) if you told me this was going to be the best it ever was, I would neither be surprised nor disappointed. This is surely the plantoic ideal of a Blackhawk comic, back in its original time and place but with modern stylings of character and plot. (Well, I guess the 1980s aren't modern anymore... in fact they're as old now as the original Quality comics were when this run came out! But to me, anyway, the 1980s and '90s are when superhero comics largely peaked in any case.) Evanier and Spiegle, in both writing and art, treat the Blackhawks as distinct personalities with real characters, and weave them into ongoing plotlines.

Missteps here are rare, but there are two particularly praiseworthy stories, in my opinion. The first is #253, "The Private War of Hendrickson." In this issue the Blackhawks learn that even though Hendrickson is always writing letters to his wife... she has in fact been dead for a year! And the letters bear little resemblance to reality, because in the letters he portrays himself as a respected elder of the squadron due to his experience in the First World War, but in reality while the other Blackhawks respect his sharpshooting, they have a tendency to treat him as an elderly fussbudget when he gives advice. Has Hendrickson lost his connection to reality? It's a great character-focused story with a solid twist at the end.

The other really good story is #265, "What's the Matter with Chop-Chop?" Evanier treats what you might call "the problem of Chop-Chop" (here named "Wu Cheng") head on. From the beginning, Evanier and Spiegle treat him as a real person; there's no queue or other visual stereotypes, and when he speaks with an accent, it's to deliberately fool racist Nazis into underestimating him. In the lettercol, Evanier opines he's not totally sure what to do with the character—but after he prints some letters praising him for moving away from the stereotype, a newspaper in Virginia actually ran an op-ed claiming that by attempting to not be racist, Evanier was being historically inaccurate! This very obviously gets Evanier's dander up, and in #265, Wu Cheng gets fed up with the way everyone else on the squadron treats him. Eventually his anger boils over and he demands to know why he doesn't wear a uniform... and no one is able to answer him! It's a good depiction how racism doesn't have to be sticking people into concentration camps, it can also be unquestioned assumptions driving your behaviors. He gets a real uniform and to use his real name.

(If the story has a downside, other than the ease by which the other Blackhawks recognize their own fault, it's that Wu Cheng then takes a leave of absence from issues #266 to 272, so we get to see very little of the new incarnation of "Chop-Chop" in the series.)

from Blackhawk vol. 1 #263
(script by Mark Evanier, art by Dan Spiegle)

Dan Spiegle is an artist previously unknown to me, but he's great. Good faces, good storytelling, good action. In fact, one of my few complaints about this series is that it clearly deserved better printing! This was the era of DC's beautiful Baxter series, like The Omega Men, Infinity, Inc., or Sun Devils, and I think Spiegle's work would have looked so good on that crisp white paper instead of with the blurry printing it sometimes gets here.

Other standouts include #258, "The Death of Blackhawk Island!", where a prototype Nazi atomic bomb destroys Blackhawk Island, complete with a Cold War–era frame decrying nuclear weaponry, and #271, "The Silent Treatment," where Gaynor, the Blackhawk substituting for Wu Cheng, reveals his true colors. There are lots of ongoing subplots; perhaps most prominent is the beautiful Nazi superspy Domino, who ends up having a thing for Blackhawk and vice versa... but is too far gone for any kind of love to every be realized. It's the kind of ongoing melodrama that I dig.

I do have a couple complaints. The first is that while we have those two issues focused on Hendrickson and Wu Cheng, the other characters rarely get that kind of focus. Evanier always gives them stuff to do, but most issues focus on Blackhawk himself, not any of the others. And I must admit that I do kind of miss the vibe of those early Quality issues, where the rogue status of the Blackhawks meant that even Allied command was rarely happy to see them; here, they're taking orders from Allied and palling around with Winston Churchill, and I miss that harder edge. The other thing is... not enough dogfights! C'mon, give me just one tense plane-on-plane battle!

The last highlight of the series is the "Blackhawk Detached Service Diary" entries. Many issues have a sixteen-page main story about the whole team followed by an eight-page back-up focusing on just one character; what makes these particularly enjoyable is that they are drawn by many great comic artists: Dave Cockrum, Alex Toth & Frank Giacoia, Joe Staton, past Blackhawk artist Pat Boyette, and even future Blackhawk writer/artist Howard Chaykin. Two issues (#260 and 268) are even entirely made up of "Detached Service Diary" entries with a slight frame story. Lots of solid stories here, but my favorites were probably "The Funny Man!" (#260, art by Dick Rockwell), where Hendrickson meets a stand-up comic who dares to criticize his superiors; "The Big Dealer!" (#265, art by Pat Boyette), where André's plane is stolen by a black market racketeer who sells it for parts; and "The Aritst!" (#272, art by Ken Steacy), where Hendrickson is taken hostage by a Nazi assassin and only a painter of "good girl" nosecone art can save him.

(Oh, and as I've tried to highlight in my post here, some truly excellent covers. Striking stuff.)

I also read an issue of DC Comics Presents, DC's Bronze Age Superman team-up title. In #69 (script by Mark Evanier, art by Irv Novick & Dennis Jensen), Superman travels back in time to World War II to find out why Perry White received a medal for war reporting when he doesn't remember being a war correspondent! The answer involves a Nazi plot to replace Olympic athletes and use Albert Einstein to create supersoliders. It's a bit silly, to be honest; Superman doesn't really get to team up with the Blackhawks. (Note that DCCP #69 came out the same day as Blackhawk #270, but in the lettercol, Evanier indicates it occurs between issues #259 and 261.)

Like I said, I overall very much enjoyed this. In some ways, the 1980s are my favorite era for superhero(-adjacent) comics, applying more sophisticated storytelling techniques and characterization than in the Silver Age, but not yet lost to decompression, gratuitous darkness/violence, and the eternal chasing of "events." Going back to World War II in the 1980s gives us the best Blackhawk of both worlds.

This is the ninth post in a series about the Blackhawks. The next installment is a supplement covering their pre-Crisis continuity. Previous installments are listed below:

1. The Blackhawk Archives, Volume 1 (1941-42)
2. Military Comics #18-43 / Modern Comics #44-46 / Blackhawk #9 & 50 (1943-52)
3. Showcase Presents Blackhawk, Volume One (1957-58) 
4. Blackhawk vol. 1 #151-95 (1960-64) 
5. Blackhawk vol. 1 #196-227 (1964-66)
6. Blackhawk vol. 1 #228-43 (1967-68)
7. Blackhawk vol. 1 #244-50 / The Brave and the Bold #167 (1976-80)
8. Blackhawk (1982)

* It boggles my mind that in 1982, if you were reviving a title that was five years dead and starting a totally new continuity in the process, it was still considered better to number it #251 than #1!

Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years

Justice Society of America: A Celebration of 75 Years

Collection published: 2015
Contents originally published: 1941-2012
Acquired: December 2019
Read: December 2019–September 2023

Writers: Gardner Fox, Robert Kanigher, John Broome, Dennis O'Neil, Paul Levitz, Roy Thomas, Len Strazewski, James Robinson, David Goyer, Geoff Johns & Alex Ross

Artists: Everett E. Hibbard, Martin Nodell, Bernard Baily, Howard Sherman, Chad Grothkopf, Sheldon Moldoff, Ben Flinton, Irwin Hasen, Joe Kubert, Alex Toth, Carmine Infantino, John Belfi, Frank Giacoia, Arthur F. Peddy, Bernard Sachs, Mike Sekowsky, Sid Greene, Dick Dillin, Joe Giella, Joe Staton, Rich Buckler, Jerry Ordway, Arvell Jones, Tony DeZuniga, Mike Parobeck, Mike Machlan, William Rosado, John Dell, Ray Kryssing, Stephen Sadowski, Michael Bair, Dave Meikis, Paul Neary, Rob Leigh, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham, Ruy Jose, Drew Geraci, Nicola Scott & Trevor Scott

When I began my JSA journey way back in December 2019, this 2015 volume had been put on sale on Comixology, so I picked it up; it contains a sampling of stories from across seventy-five years of the Justice Society, ranging from the first original story of the team in All Star Comics vol. 1 #4 (Mar./Apr. 1941) up to its then most recent incarnation in Earth 2 #6 (Jan. 2013). Some of it was redundant with material I was going to read anyway, but it was a good source for stories I would not have otherwise have read, and I sprinkled those among the other tales of my four-year Justice Society marathon. I'll review those ones here, but also point out where you can find my comments on the other inclusions.

All Star Comics vol. 1 #4, 37, & 55 (Mar./Apr. 1941–Oct./Nov. 1950)
These are three classic JSA stories. All Star #4 wasn't their first adventure—but it was their first adventure as a team. The first three issues of All Star had the JSA regaling each other with tales of solo adventures; this one has them all working together, though though do the traditional thing of splitting up to handle their own aspects of the case, and the individual parts are even drawn by each character's usual artist. All three are Golden Age comics: more interesting for what they do than the crude way in which they do it. But I did enjoy the sprawling nature of All Star #4 in particular; it's a whopping sixty pages!

from Justice League of America vol. 1 #82
(script by Denny O'Neil, art by Dick Dillin & Joe Giella)

Justice League of America vol. 1 #21-22, 30, 47, & 82-83 (Aug. 1963–Sept. 1970)
Of course, you couldn't have a Justice Society history collection without JLA #21-22, the story that reintroduced them as denizens of Earth-2 during the Silver Age. But I don't really get what the other ones are doing here; I didn't really enjoy them when I originally read them in the various Crisis on Multiple Earths volumes, and I didn't enjoy them here. It would have been better to use some of the stories that tap into the idea that the JSA has its own history where characters can really grow and change, like JLA #171-72.

Adventure Comics vol. 1 #466 (Nov./Dec. 1979)
This is the Silver Age version of the JSA's disbanding, which I already reviewed as part of All Star Comics: Only Legends Live Forever, and which was also included in Justice Society of America: The Demise of Justice.

from Justice League of America vol. 1 #193
(script by Roy Thomas, art by Rich Buckler & Jeremiah Ordway)

Justice League of America vol. 1 #193 (Aug. 1981)
This fourteen-page backup serves as a prelude to All-Star Squadron. It probably reads weirdly on its own, to be honest, but if you're going to read All-Star Squadron afterward (and I did), it provides excellent context for issue #1. If A-SS is ever collected, I imagine this will be included, but there's no sign of that thus far.

All-Star Squadron #67 (Mar. 1987)
The post-Crisis origin of the JSA, which I already reviewed as part of All-Star Squadron. I would have preferred to see an actual A-SS story, but this is fine.

Justice Society of America vol. 2 #10 (May 1993) / All Star Comics vol. 2 #2 (May 1999) / JSA #25 (Aug. 2001) / Justice Society of America vol. 3 #10 (Dec. 2007)
A number of modern age revivals and/or flashbacks that I've already reviewed: the 1990s one, an installment of The Justice Society Returns!, an issue of JSA (included in JSA by Geoff Johns, Book Two), and an issue of Geoff Johns's second Justice Society revival. For every single one of these series, I would have picked something else. I was glad to see the 1990s revival here, because it's often overlooked... but surely the first issue would make more sense than the last. The installment of The Justice Society Returns! included here doesn't even make sense in context, much less out of it; literally any other issue of the event would have been better. The JSA issue is part of a tedious crossover with Hawkman; there surely must have been a better option. And the last inclusion here is from another big event, Thy Kingdom Come; I would have picked Johns's last issue on the series, "Happy Birthday Stargirl!"

from Earth 2 #6
(script by James Robinson, art by Nicola Scott & Trevor Scott)

Earth 2 #6 (Jan. 2013)
I mean, I guess they had to include some issue of Earth 2 here, and someone must like it, but this just confirmed to me that everything I suspected about the series was true. This has character names from the JSA, but making them contemporary characters battling the apocalypse means they lose everything that makes the JSA interesting and enjoyable.

Overall, a pretty mixed bag, to be honest. Some necessary inclusions, but some pretty questionable ones, too.

This post is the penultimate in an improbably long series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Power Girl Returns. Previous installments are listed below:

What Is... The Gothic?

This is a question I've been thinking about recently, because I'm reading a book about "Gothic science fiction," but I'm not convinced that I have the world's strongest grasp on what the Gothic is, beyond a genre where vaguely spooky things happen.

That's not quite true. Like many things literary, I was forced to confront its nature by teaching-- though I prepped a discussion on the Gothic that I didn't actually end up teaching, because my class turned out to have plenty of other things to say about Frankenstein, and so we didn't get to it. But on my PowerPoint slides, I wrote stuff like "Elements of the supernatural" and "Wild and desolate landscapes, ruined abbeys, feudal halls, medieval castles with dungeons" and "Refuses to resolve contradictions or settle ambiguities; leaves the contradictory and paradoxical, finding only unresolvable moral and emotional ambiguity" and "Renegotiates the line between 'good' and 'evil'." (I suspect a lot of this is probably derived from The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory, which has turned out to be quite a useful investment as a teacher of literature.)

Interestingly, when looking up my Frankenstein slides, I also found where I discussed science fiction, and let me tell you, these two definitions of sf seem a little strange juxtaposed against one another:

“…[L]ess congenial to SF is the fantasy (ghost, horror, Gothic, weird) tale, a genre committed to the interposition of anti-cognitive laws into the empirical environment. …[T]he fantasy is inimical to the empirical world and its laws.” --Darko Suvin

“Science fiction is the search for a definition of mankind and his status in the universe which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge (science), and is characteristically cast in the Gothic or post-Gothic mode.” --Brian Aldiss

The emphasis here is mine. There's a very big divide there as regards the interaction between science fiction and the Gothic! Something to ponder in my review of this Gothic science fiction book, perhaps.

Anyway, the real problem is that it's just a genre I haven't read very much of; a look of the top items tagged "gothic" on LibraryThing, for example, reveals a mix of books I haven't read and books I think are more Gothic-influenced than outright Gothic. I've never read The Castle of Otranto or The Monk or any of those V. C. Andrews novels where a woman's face appears through a cutout on the cover. (I think my mom owned a number of these.)

What I have read, though, is comics. Specifically the complete run of The Sinister House of Secret Love, a short-lived DC comics series of Gothic romance tales from the 1970s. It lasted for four bi-monthly double-sized issues from Oct./Nov. 1971 to Apr./May 1972 before being retooled with issue #5 as Secrets of Sinister House. That version actually lasted until issue #18, but from #6 onward it was a pretty generic 1970s horror anthology comic, featuring a number of eight-page stories in each issue. It's those first five issues that are something special:

Such glorious covers! They're real treasures of 1970s comics, with art by heavyweights such as Tony DeZuniga, Dick Giordano, and, best of all, Alex Toth. They all draw such lush imagery, dripping with atmosphere. (And, of course, the ladies are all good-looking, and typically end up experiencing adventures in their flimsy nightgowns.)

from Secret House of Sinister Love #3
script by Frank Robbins, art by Alex Toth & Frank Giacoia
courtesy The Alex Toth Archives

You gotta love those 1970s fashions! (Surprisingly, I think, for the Gothic, I'm pretty sure all the stories are set in the present day, despite the present scarcity of ancient families inhabiting medieval castles.) This is actually the first time I've seen one of these in color; the reprints in Showcase Presents The Secrets of Sinister House were in black and white, and probably all the better for it-- Toth and Giacoia have amazing linework that really stands on its own without the colors.

These Gothic romance comics have very same-y plots: a young woman travels to a distant location, usually on a promise of romance and/or to get a job (typically as a governess). Something sinister is secretly going on-- usually the romantic figure is evil. There are minor variations; for example issue #4 takes place in India, and I have a vague memory that in one of the stories, the innocent girl is actually a reporter who knows a fair bit more than she's letting on. What makes them so worth reading is not the stories, but the artwork. I'd love to own these, but even at its cheapest, a single issue is at least $10, if not $30 (and, of course, the Alex Toth one is nigh-unavailable).

from Secret House of Sinister Love #4
plot by Mary DeZuniga, dialogue by Michael Fleisher, art by Tony DeZuniga
courtesy True Love Comics Tales

Do these stories have "Elements of the supernatural" or "Wild and desolate landscapes, ruined abbeys, feudal halls, medieval castles with dungeons," or do they "Refuse[ ] to resolve contradictions or settle ambiguities; leaves the contradictory and paradoxical, finding only unresolvable moral and emotional ambiguity" or "Renegotiate[ ] the line between 'good' and 'evil'"? Kind of. These definitely have the former of those: all the stories imply the supernatural even when natural causes are revealed in the end. I don't think they really feature the project of the Gothic genre, though, just the features: they're pretty, well, generic.

I was surprised to recently come across an instance of the genre recently, however, in the pages of the 1972-73 Marvel series Night Nurse. Night Nurse was another short-lived, four-issue series, this one about three nurses from diverse backgrounds trying to make it in the big city. It's basically exactly what you'd imagine: lots of melodrama (usually with men telling the nurses they can get married... if the women give up their careers) and hostage crises. In the 2000s, one of the nurses was repurposed as a character running a free night clinic for injured superheroes, which inspired an appearance by Rosario Dawson in a similar capacity on Netflix's Daredevil series.

"This is Daredevil, Matt Murdock. This is serious. We don't have time for jokes!"

I guess because of this, Marvel released a reprint volume containing all four issues of Night Nurse, plus one of the modern issues of Daredevil where the character appeared. Imagine my surprise, though, when after three issues of hospital drama, issue #4 turned out to be a stereotypical Gothic romance comic!

In issue #2, Christine Palmer-- who gave up a life as a Midwestern debutante to be a nurse-- fell in love with a gifted surgeon who turned out to be an alcoholic and was stealing drugs to pay off a debt and committed a hit-and-run on the daughter of his best friend, the police commissioner and botched the surgery that should have save her life. Also her jerk dad turns up and pressures her to come home even though in issue #1 he said he'd let her do her own thing. In issue #3, Chris is nowhere to be seen; one of the other nurses mentions she disappeared after all the brouhaha of issue #2.

In issue #4 you find out what she did: answered an ad for a live-in nurse at a creepy seaside manor! She has to walk there in a storm because none of the locals will come close; there's a sexy heir in a wheelchair, a creepy aunt, and a creepier butler; mysterious lights blink at night; and did that seaside railing just happen to collapse... or is someone trying to kill her!? It has very little to do with nursing, but is a perfect example of the Gothic romance comic. (Though Winslow Mortimer is not quite the right artist for the project. It's hardly his fault; his clean linework and straightforward style was really well-suited for the naturalistic tone of issues #1-3. He does manage to work in the obligatory gratuitous nightgown shot.)

from Night Nurse #4
script by Jean Thomas & Linda Fite, art by Winslow Mortimer
courtesy Sequential Crush

I don't know why this issue exists. Was it a desperate attempt to save a sinking series? Night Nurse #4 came out in May 1973, long after the retooling of The Secret House of Sinister Love ought to have shown there really wasn't a market for this kind of thing! And would sales figures for issue #1 even have been in before production of issue #4 began? Maybe scripters Jean Thomas and Linda Fite just really liked Gothic comics and thought they were a logical inclusion in a series about urban nurses?

If anything, it's even more generic than those issues of Secret House of Sinister Love, but its very incongruity contributes to it being a delight. The other Gothic romance comics I know of have never been collected: DC's The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love (1971-72) and Charlton's Haunted Love (1973-75). I hope that happens, and I hope I come across other Gothic tales as unlikely as that of Night Nurse.

Also I hope I figure out exactly what the Gothic actually is someday.

Faster than a DC Bullet: The Houses of Mystery and Secrets, Part I: Showcase Presents The Witching Hour!, Volume One

Comic trade paperback, 551 pages
Published 2011 (contents: 1969-72)
Borrowed from the library
Read September 2013

Showcase Presents The Witching Hour!, Volume One

Written by Dennis O'Neil, Alex Toth, Don Arneson, Alan Riefe, Steve Skeates, Gerard Conway, David Kaler, Marv Wolfman, John Costanza, Mike Friedrich, Jack Miller, Sergio Aragonés, Ron Whyte, Len Wein, Jack Oleck, Alan Gold, Murray Boltinoff, George Kashdan, Phil Seuling, Carl Wessler, Charles King, Howie Post, Bob Haney, France "Ed" Herron, Jack Phillips
Art by Pat Boyette, Alex Toth, Jack Sparling, Dick Giordano, José Delbo, Sid Greene, Vince Colletta, Bernie Wrightson, Mike Sekowsky, George Roussos, Stanley Pitt, Mike Roy, Mike Peppe, John Celardo, John Costanza, Bill Draut, Jack Abel, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Neal Adams, Nick Cardy, Bob Brown, Murphy Anderson, Gray Morrow, George Tuska, Gil Kane, Frank Giacoia, Jeffrey Jones, Al Williamson, Carlos Garzon, Wally Wood, Art Saaf, John Calnan, Bernie Case, Tony Dezuniga, Lee Elias, Joe Orlando, Don Heck, Carmine Infantino, Joe Giella, Sherman Howard, Jerry Grandenetti, Jim Aparo

My quest to read every comic remotely linked to The Sandman continues with its (hopefully) last strand: those horror comics whose hosts were later appropriated by Neil Gaiman to be denizens of the Dreaming. The Witching Hour! is hosted by Mildred, Mordred, and Cynthia, the three-part witch-being who popped up in various guises throughout Gaiman's Sandman run. Post-Sandman, the Witches got their own story in James Robinson's awful WitchCraft, but maybe he should have taken a page from this book, because it is good plain fun.

Most of the stories were disposable, but they were usually also enjoyable. The highlight of the book, though, is definitely the frame narrative. Mildred and Mordred are "traditional" witches, while Cynthia is "mod"-- dressing in the latest fashions and using store-bought canned soups in her witches brews. They constantly bicker over what a good witches tale is, as well as how their never-seen manservant Egor should be treated (Cynthia likes him more than the others). Each issue weaves some small plot around their storytelling competition, like an attempt to take a group photograph, new neighbors at the swamp, or a visit from Cynthia's old college flame. Alex Toth usually provides the amazing artwork for these frame stories. The reader is often directly addressed, putting one in mind of the issue of Gaiman's Sandman where the reader is positioned as a dreamer talking to Matthew the Raven, Abel, Cain, et al. in the Dreaming-- which is presumably where all this takes place?

The witches eventually move to an apartment in the city for some reason, which would seem to promise some new hijinks, but unfortunately by that point the frame story has been squeezed down to a mere page or two per issue, rather than its original five or so. I'm not sure why that happened, but it robs the issues in the second half of the volume of a lot of their character.

The stories are pretty good throughout. Obviously a lot are about witches, and ostensibly each of the witches has a "theme" to their stories, but this is honored as much in the breach as in the observance-- Cynthia is criticized for telling "modern" stories, and then one of the other two will come out with one about a psychologist or computer dating! (In fact there are three stories about the perils of computer dating... I wouldn't've guessed it was already a thing and a worry in 1969-72.) I particularly enjoyed "Trumpet Perilous!" (writer unknown, art by Jack Sparling and Jack Abel) for its audacious ending ("I'll grant you a little creativity Mordred--but what are you going to do with the world totally destroyed?") and "The Maze" (written by Al Gold and Marv Wolfman, art by Gray Morrow), which is about a guy trapped in a formless dimension, accompanied by some effective and chilling second-person narration. The whole issue of space horror stories, culminating in, of course, "The Haunted House in Space!" (writer unknown, art by Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon) was pretty fun, too.

It seems unlikely that anyone will be scared by any of the stories in here, but they're pretty enjoyable when you're in the right mood, and those three witches can lift most any material, no matter how weak.