House of Mystery #195 Poster (1973) Bernie Wrightson

Description

A man murders his wife and walls up her body in an abandoned castle to avoid discovery. A large bat harasses him and he assumes that it is his wife risen from the dead as a vampire. Eventually the bat causes him to fall from a height and he breaks his neck. What he didn’t know was that the bat was protecting a nest within the wall. The House of Mystery is the name of several horror-mystery-suspense anthology comic book series published by DC Comics. It had a companion series, House of Secrets. House of Mystery started out as a horror anthology, featuring tales of the supernatural as well as supernatural-themed mystery stories. With the growing backlash against horror comics in the mid-1950s, as well as the advent of the Comics Code Authority and its restrictions on horror-themed storylines (banning stories dealing with such supernatural fare as werewolves, vampires, and such), the series quietly was revamped into dealing with science-fiction type monsters and other mystery-suspense type tales that were permitted by the comic code. With issue #174, EC Comics veteran Joe Orlando was hired by DC to take over as editor of House of Mystery. As the Comics Code Authority was now being challenged by both DC and Marvel over content restrictions, the series returned to its overt horror themes. The first issue under Orlando would be a reprint issue of old horror/suspense stories, as the new direction would truly begin with #175 (July/August 1968). The issue would introduce a new figure to the series, Cain, the “able care taker” of the House of Mystery who would introduce nearly all stories that would run in the series before its cancellation. Cain would also host the spin-off humor series Plop! and later become a recurring character in Blue Devil and The Sandman. Artist Bernie Wrightson’s first professional comic work was the story “The Man Who Murdered Himself” which appeared in issue #179 (March–April 1969). The House of Mystery exists as a location in the DC Universe simultaneously in Kentucky and in The Dreaming. The origins of the House of Mystery are unknown. In fact, very little is known about the House of Mystery in general. The architecture is indeterminate and changes periodically. The same holds true for the inside of the house: the rooms constantly shift, and one never enters the same room twice. The House of Mystery lies in the same graveyard as the House of Secrets, its companion. Whereas Abel resides in the House of Secrets, Cain makes the House of Mystery his abode. Cain is not the only person to have resided within the House; in addition to boarders, including Mister Mxyzptlk, Elvira took shelter within the House. Her brief stay in the House of Mystery is notable for two reasons: first, the House of Mystery is established as being the same House throughout its publication history. Three distinct personalities of the House are shown: the original horror House of Mystery, a dark humor “House of Weirdness”-style which harkened back to Cain’s stint in Plop!, and the current version of the House of Mystery in Kentucky. The second reason is the timing of Elvira’s stay. She took up residence during the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Elvira, tasked by the House of Mystery to find Cain, took over his role of host for a brief period, while Cain was relegated to being the butt of jokes during occasional cameos. The House of Mystery possesses sentience, along with mystic powers. It has possessed someone before, and merged with the House of Secrets briefly. This ties into the constantly shifting appearance of the House of Mystery. It was torn down in the metafictional The House of Mystery #321, but its existence was restored during the Crisis. Batman entered the house in The Brave and the Bold #93, tripped on a floorboard, and would have been shot had his pursuer’s gun not jammed. He never actually met Cain, who instead narrates a story about him occurring in Scotland, which climaxes in a castle he describes as “a house of mystery” rather than “the House of Mystery.” Superman teamed with Cain against Mister Mxyzptlk, who was attempting to take over the House, in DC Comics Presents #53. The House of Mystery appears mainly in various Vertigo titles, especially those tied into Neil Gaiman’s Sandman; it has appeared briefly in Resurrection Man. Bernard Albert “Berni(e)” Wrightson (born October 27, 1948, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.) is an American artist known for his horror illustrations and comic books. With writer Len Wein, Wrightson co-created the muck creature Swamp Thing in House of Secrets #92 (July 1971) in a standalone horror story set in the early 20th century. Wein later recounted how Wrightson became involved with the story: “Bernie Wrightson had just broken up with a girlfriend, and we were sitting in my car just talking about life – all the important things to do when you’re 19 and 20 years old. [Laughs] And I said, ‘You know, I just wrote a story that actually kind of feels like the way you feel now.’ I told him about Swamp Thing, and he said, ‘I gotta draw that.'” Wrightson won the Shazam Award for Best Penciller (Dramatic Division) in 1972 and 1973 for Swamp Thing, the Shazam Award for Best Individual Story (Dramatic) in 1972 for Swamp Thing #1 (with Len Wein). He has received additional nominations, including for the Shazam Award for Best Inker in 1973 for Swamp Thing, as well as that year’s Shazam for Best Individual Story, for “A Clockwork Horror” in Swamp Thing #6 (with Len Wein). He won the Shazam Award for Best Penciller (Dramatic Division) in 1974.