Joe Orlando (1927–1998)

Secrets of Sinister House has a more distinct identity than some of DC's other horror titles; it actually starts off as The Secret House of Sinister Love and features issue-length stories, as opposed to The House of Mystery, The House of Secrets, and The Witching Hour!, which crammed three or so stories into each issue. In addition, the stories have a unique theme: gothic romance. Which seems to mean young ladies being lured into strange houses on strange pretenses to be manipulated into show more marriages. So kinda weird, but strangely enjoyable-- how many variations on that theme can be devised?

Not a ton, as with issue #6, the series switches to the more traditional collections of stories, but in the interim there's some strangely enjoyable stuff; the full-length stories mean these stories have much more of an impact than some of their contemporaries. Particularly there's some lavish artwork from some of DC's best, like Alex Toth in "Bride of the Falcon" (a young woman in Venice), or Tony Dezuniga in "Kiss of the Serpent" (a young woman in India).

The later issues lose this gimmick, but it still seems more cohesive than in some series. I did enjoy the creativity of "The Hag's Curse" and "The Hamptons' Revenge" (written by Sheldon Mayer, art by Sam Glanzman), two stories of different time periods that literally run in parallel to each other-- take that indie comics innovators of the 2000s. We even get a story that seems rooted in DC's "Great Disaster," with "When Is Tomorrow Yesterday?" (written by Sheldon Mayer, art by Alfredo Alcala). The book does begin to get kinda dumb with its own theme by the end, though, such as issue #16, where each story is about a literal "sinister house"! Lame.

I picked this volume up because, as with its contemporaries, its host was reclaimed by Neil Gaiman as a resident of the Dreaming in The Sandman. But Eve is a virtual non-entity in these pages. The Secret House of Sinister Love actually begins as hosted by Cain, pulling out a file from the House of Mystery. Finally, with issue #6, Eve gets an amazing introduction, where Cain and Abel run away from the Sinister House because they don't want to be there when "that thousand-year-old female horror arrives!" (she's apparently been sleeping), but after that, she's just a recycled Alfredo Alcala headshot at the beginning of each story, with no personality. She does have a raven with her, though-- Matthew's predecessor? There's even an appearance in one story of three witches living in an apartment together-- Mildred, Mordred, and Cynthia of The Witching Hour! perhaps?

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Like all the titles in the DC horror renaissance of the late 1960s and 1970s, House of Secrets has its individuality drained out of it by the slow diminishing of its frames; what were once multi-page stories are now panels (or rarely a whole page) in an issue. It's disappointing, especially as the reason I am reading this is the presence of Abel, our stuttering, terrified host.

What are particularly charming are the recurrent "Cain & Abel" pages, single pages of three panels by Sergio show more Aragonés, each panel showing Abel and his murderous brother doing something different together. Sometimes these are simply Cain belittling or pranking Abel, but others give us something more-- Abel getting something good because he is good, Cain causing his own comeuppance, or at their best, a brief glimpse of the true affection the brothers share. In one, they stroll through a crowd of people horrified by a triple-bill of horror films they have just scene, the only ones smiling; I love the idea that they spend their time popping from the Dreaming over to Earth to see horror films. My favorite is one where they are playing what looks like "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots," only their two boxers are hugging, embarrassing them. It's all a warped but endearing depiction of brotherly love.

Individual stories still manage to do some good work, though. There's some child creepiness at work in "Goodbye, Nancy" (written by John Albano, art by Vic Catan, Frank Redondo, and Abe Ocampo), about a kid's odd new playmate.  "Small Invasion" (written by Sheldon Mayer, art by Alex Niño), about an alien who means to conquer the Earth but ends up working in a logging camp, is oddly charming, and has some amazingly grotesque art. "A Lonely Monstrosity" (written by John Albano, art by Nestor Redondo) is a cruel tale about a couple who scheme to deprive a grotesque-looking man of his own fortune. I really liked "Skin Deep" (written by Jack Oleck, art by Alfredo Alcala), about an ugly man who commits murder and disguises himself to marry an attractive woman under false pretenses, as well as "Act III Eternity" (written by George Kashdan, art by Jess Jodloman).

There are many more-- despite its lack of the frames I enjoy so much, this is probably one of the better Showcase Presents volumes of vintage DC horror. Much of that is due to the dual artistic talents of Alex Niño and (especially) Alfredo Alcala, whose luscious, grotesque, beautiful art enlivens even the most stale of narratives. Even their lettering is a cut above the rest!

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The House of Secrets begins with a fairly lengthy (for this kind of comic, anyway) origin story for the House of Secrets itself. "Don't Move It!" (written by Mike Friedrich, art by Jerry Grandenetti and George Roussos) tells this whole tale of a house in Kentucky, built by one Senator Sandsfield with his bare hands entirely from materials found in Kentucky, who swore no one who wasn't of "pure Kentucky stock" would ever live in it. Quite what this means, I don't know, but when our story show more opens, the House's new owner is trying to transport it over state lines. (Presumably into Tennessee, as no river is mentioned, and I believe Kentucky's southern border is the only one not determined by a river.) With the House 200 yards from the state line, the owner dies, and the House stays where it is, and some time later, Abel shows up, recruited as caretaker by a mysterious man who turns out to probably be an embodiment of the House itself. How all this squares with the histories of Cain and Abel given in The Sandman, I don't know.

Like in The Witching Hour!, the reader is often a viewpoint character in House of Secrets, coming to visit Abel and hear his stories-- along with Goldie, Abel's friend that no one else sees or hears. In The Sandman, Abel had a pet gargoyle named Goldie, evidently after this invisible friend. The frame stories are fairly fun. They're never quite as complicated as those in The Witching Hour! at its heyday, but they usually run a few pages and feature Abel and Goldie up to something, often investigating the strange House they live in. Cain pops up a lot, and you can see the seeds of their wonderfully macabre relationship in The Sandman, though Cain never murders Abel here.

I liked the reference to a "wandering wolfman" who told Abel one of his stories-- presumably the wolfman's name was Marv. There's even one story where Abel and Goldie wander into the nearby suburbs for some tale-telling, pass through the middle of a tale currently happening, and end up meeting Mordred from The Witching Hour! (In another, all three witches come over for a visit.) Not to mention that at one point, we readers get to enjoy a comic book that Abel himself is reading: "Reggie Rabbit, Heathcliffe Hog, Archibald Aardvark, J. Benson Babboon and Bertram the Dancing Frog" (written by Len Wein, art by Ralph Reese), who end up mocking their own dialogue balloons! House of Secrets is definitely more inventive than the other series in this way, I think. With time, alas, the frames shrink away to just a page or so, and Cain stops appearing.

As in both The Witching Hour! and House of Mystery, there are some good stories here. I particularly enjoyed "Bigger than a Breadbox" (writer unknown, art by Mike Royer and Mike Peppe), where an elderly woman enjoys a postal romance, "The Ballad of Little Joe" (written by Gerard Conway, art by Bill Draut), where aliens mistake a man's beloved puppet for an Earth life-form, "After I Die!" (written by Jack Kirby and Mark Evanier, art by Bill Draut), about a man determined to find out what the dying see, "World for a Witch" (written by Jack Oleck, art by Bill Draut), about a group of orphans whose orphanage-runner escapes her life's misery in a magic picture, and, of course, "Swamp Thing" (written by Len Wein, art by Berni Wrightson), the beginning of that much-famous character.  I also really enjoyed "The Day After Doomsday..." (written by Len Wein, art by Jack Sparling), a recurrent series of two-page shorts about Adam and Gertrude, the last two humans alive after a holocaust (the same as Kamandi's Great Disaster?). They're both kinda hilariously dumb.

Overall, it's another good bunch, and I'm glad The Sandman led me to it, even if the two series don't line up quite precisely. (Well, unless the Dreaming is in southern Kentucky.)

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The introduction of the Purple Man. Fun story, a little goofy like a lot of this era is. Relatively light on the sexism and ableism for this era (though both are still present).