Secrets of Haunted House

Last updated

Secrets of Haunted House
Secrets of Haunted House 1.png
Secrets of Haunted House #1 (April–May 1975), art by Luis Dominguez.
Publication information
Publisher DC Comics
ScheduleBimonthly (#1–14)
Monthly (#15–46)
Format Ongoing series
Genre
Publication date(#1–14) April–May 1975 – October–November 1978
(#15-46) August 1979–March 1982
No. of issues46
Main character(s) Cain, Abel, Eve, Destiny, Lucien
Creative team
Written by
Penciller(s)
Inker(s)
Editor(s)
List

Secrets of Haunted House was a horror-suspense comics anthology series published by American company DC Comics from 1975 to 1978 and 1979 to 1982.

Contents

Publication history

The series began in April–May 1975. [1] [2] Like its predecessor Secrets of Sinister House , Secrets of Haunted House was originally "hosted" by Cain, Abel, Eve, and Destiny who had moved over from Weird Mystery Tales . By issue #10 (Feb.–March 1978), Destiny was the only one of these who remained a regular. In issue #40 (Sept. 1981), Abel returned with no further mention of Destiny.

A Secrets of Haunted House Special was published in 1978 as part of the DC Special Series umbrella title. [3] Secrets of Haunted House was a temporary victim of the so-called "DC Implosion". With issue #14 (Oct.–Nov. 1978), it was cancelled but revived a year later with issue #15 (Aug. 1979). The title continued until issue #46 (March 1982). [1]

The Mister E character was introduced in issue #31 (Dec. 1980) by writer Bob Rozakis and artist Dan Spiegle [4] [5] and became a recurring character for the next ten issues. The final Mister E story appeared in issue #41 (Oct. 1981). [6]

The series' letter column was titled "The Haunted Mailbox".

Collected editions

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cain and Abel (comics)</span> DC Comics characters

Cain and Abel are a pair of fictional characters in the DC Comics universe based on the biblical Cain and Abel. They are key figures in DC's "Mystery" line of the late 1960s and 1970s, which became the mature-readers imprint Vertigo in 1993.

<i>House of Mystery</i> Horror, fantasy, and mystery comics series

The House of Mystery is the name of several horror, fantasy, and mystery comics anthologies published by DC Comics. It had a companion series, The House of Secrets. It is also the name of the titular setting of the series.

<i>House of Secrets</i> (DC Comics) Anthology comic book series

The House of Secrets is the name of several mystery, fantasy, and horror comics anthologies published by DC Comics. It is notable for being the title that introduced the character the Swamp Thing. It had a companion series titled The House of Mystery.

Dan Spiegle was an American comics artist and cartoonist best known for comics based on movie and television characters across a variety of companies, including Dell Comics, DC Comics, and Marvel Comics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Golden (comics)</span> American comics artist and writer

Michael Golden is an American comics artist and writer best known for his late-1970s work on Marvel Comics' The Micronauts and The 'Nam, as well as his co-creation of the characters Rogue and Bucky O'Hare.

Romeo Tanghal is a Filipino comics artist who has worked primarily as an inker. He became well known in the industry in the 1980s for his work on DC Comics' The New Teen Titans.

Mister E is a fictional character appearing in magazines published by DC Comics. Created by Bob Rozakis and Jack C. Harris, the character first appeared in Secrets of Haunted House #31 and was a recurring character for ten issues. He was then radically redesigned by Neil Gaiman for use in The Books of Magic, after which he appeared in his own mini-series and was a recurring character in Vertigo Comics titles owned by DC.

<i>G.I. Combat</i> American war comic (1952-87; 2012)

G.I. Combat was an American comics anthology featuring war stories. It was published from 1952 until 1956 by Quality Comics, followed by DC Comics until its final issue in 1987. In 2012 it was briefly revived.

The "DC Explosion" and "DC Implosion" were two events in 1978 – the first an official marketing campaign, the second a sardonic reference to it – in which DC Comics expanded their roster of publications, then abruptly cut it back. The DC Explosion was part of an ongoing initiative at DC to regain market share by increasing the number of titles they published, while also increasing page counts and cover prices. The so-called "DC Implosion" was the result of the publisher experiencing losses that year due to a confluence of factors, and cancelling a large number of ongoing and planned series in response. The cancellations included long-running series such as Our Fighting Forces, Showcase, and House of Secrets; new series introduced as part of the expansion such as Firestorm and Steel: The Indestructible Man; and announced series such as The Vixen which would have been the company's first title starring an African-American woman. Former flagship series Detective Comics was also considered for cancellation. Some of the material already produced for these cancelled series was used in other publications. Several of the completed stories were "published" in small quantities as two issues of Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, whose title was a reference to DC's Golden-Age Comic Cavalcade series.

<i>The Unexpected</i> (1968 comic book)

The Unexpected was a fantasy-horror comics anthology series, a continuation of Tales of the Unexpected, published by DC Comics. The Unexpected ran 118 issues, from #105 to #222. As a result of the so-called DC Implosion of late 1978, beginning in 1979 The Unexpected absorbed the other DC horror titles House of Secrets, The Witching Hour, and Doorway to Nightmare into its pages. Horror hosts featured in The Unexpected included The Mad Mod Witch, Judge Gallows, Abel, and the Witches Three.

<i>Batman Family</i>

Batman Family is an American comic book anthology series published by DC Comics which ran from 1975 to 1978, primarily featuring stories starring supporting characters to the superhero Batman. An eight-issue miniseries called Batman: Family was published from December 2002 to February 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Rozakis</span> Writer

Robert "Bob" Rozakis is an American comic book writer and editor known mainly for his work in the 1970s and 1980s at DC Comics, as the writer of 'Mazing Man and in his capacity as DC's "Answer Man".

<i>Ghosts</i> (comics)

Ghosts is a horror comics anthology series published by DC Comics for 112 issues from September–October 1971 to May 1982. Its tagline was "True Tales of the Weird and Supernatural", changed to "New Tales of the Weird and Supernatural", as of #75, and dropped after #104.

<i>Marvel Graphic Novel</i> Comic book series

Marvel Graphic Novel (MGN) is a line of graphic novel trade paperbacks published from 1982 to 1993 by Marvel Comics. The books were published in an oversized format, 8.5" x 11", similar to French albums. In response, DC Comics established a competitor line known as DC Graphic Novel.

David Vern Reed, was an American writer, best known for his work on the Batman comic book during the 1950s in a run that included a revamp of the Batplane in Batman #61 and the introduction of Deadshot in Batman #59.

<i>Secrets of Sinister House</i> Horror-suspense anthology comic book series

Secrets of Sinister House was a horror-suspense anthology comic book series published by DC Comics from 1972-1974, a companion to Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion. Both series were originally inspired by the successful ABC soap opera Dark Shadows, which ran from 1966 to 1971.

<i>DC Special</i> Comic book anthology series

DC Special was a comic book anthology series published by DC Comics originally from 1968 to 1971; it resumed publication from 1975 to 1977. For the most part, DC Special was a theme-based reprint title, mostly focusing on stories from DC's Golden Age; at the end of its run it published a few original stories.

Jack C. Harris is an American comic book writer and editor known mainly for his work in the 1970s and 1980s at DC Comics.

Cary Burkett is an American radio broadcaster and former comic book writer best known for co-creating the DC Comics character Nemesis with artist Dan Spiegle.

John Calnan was an American comics artist best known as the co-creator of Lucius Fox with writer Len Wein.

References

  1. 1 2 Secrets of Haunted House at the Grand Comics Database
  2. Overstreet, Robert M. (2019). Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide (49th ed.). Timonium, Maryland: Gemstone Publishing. p. 986. ISBN   978-1603602334.
  3. "DC Special Series #12 (Spring 1978)". Grand Comics Database.
  4. Manning, Matthew K. (2010). "1980s". In Dolan, Hannah (ed.). DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 189. ISBN   978-0-7566-6742-9. In the last feature of its thirty-first issue, a story by writer Bob Rozakis and artist Dan Spiegle, a new monster hunter named Mister E was introduced.
  5. Rozakis, Bob  ( w ), Spiegle, Dan  ( p ),Spiegle, Dan ( i )."The Twice-Cursed Man"Secrets of Haunted House,no. 31(December 1980).
  6. Rozakis, Bob; Rozakis, Laurie  ( w ),Spiegle, Dan ( p ),Spiegle, Dan ( i )."The Blood Curse of Maule's Well!"Secrets of Haunted House,no. 41(October 1981).