I’ve been posting a lot of these Midnight Mystery Stories covers recently. I’m liking them. For the life of me, I can’t figure out what this woman is doing. Here’s what my imagination is doing with the slouch, the mask, and the doctor bag: You wake up smelling chloroform, and realize that you can’t remember the past few hours, since you met a mysterious, beautiful woman at a street cafe. You see the woman you met there, standing out on the balcony of the room you’re in. She notices that you’re awake and picks up a bag that was sitting next to her. It is at this moment that you realize that you’re tied down in a large tub.

Good Paper

The Killer

The Girl who was Looking for Galagher

The Silver-Topped Stick

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Yes I’m still alive and kicking. Sorry for the lack of reviews lately. I’ve been working on other projects and it’s been cutting into my time spent creeping around in attics and luring poor orphans into the kind of situation pictured above.

This picture delightfully illustrates another one of those situations that happens to me: All. The. Time.

You just never know when you’re going to run into a pair of inbred, head-hunting, Siamese twin, hick brothers who also happen to be members of a rabid red cowl wearing secret society. Let me tell you that every time this happens to me, one of the brothers is ALWAYS missing at least one of this front teeth. They will ALWAYS be found dancing around a giant cursed gem with a head on a stick and terrorizing a redhead who happens to be wearing a crown she just uncovered in a South American archeological dig. And a tube top. My life is that awesome.

IN THIS ISSUE
THE SINGING SHADOWS
A Novel of Weird Enslavement
By VINCENT CORNIER

THE CURSE
OF THE
HOUSE
A Story of
Witchcraft’s Labyrinth
By ROBERT
BLOCH

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I don’t know about you, but the fellow here on the floor looks quite relaxed. Being an expert in these matters, I have to say that with victims of a horrible fates, a monster simply does not find them stretched out on a floor with their feet crossed. Nope, our man here is obviously considering something. Maybe dinner? His lady friend, however, is getting ready to shoot lightning bolts from her fingers. The darling.

The Man with the Indigo Eyes
Yellow Vengeance
The Dragon’s Eye
The Dagger of Hearts

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One of the best things about visiting small towns is venturing into the horror section and finding unknown gems like this one. Ah yes, supernatural romance novels are nothing new. What a cover!!! What an inside blurb:

IF I DIE WHEN I’M YOUNG
I VOW I’LL COME BACK TO HAWKWOOD.
I’LL BE A SPIRIT,
AND MAKE PEOPLE DO TERRIBLE THINGS.
DO YOU BELIEVE ME, KATE,
DO YOU BELIEVE?

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It’s getting so that I’m acclimated to the damsels in distress, and here and there it certainly is interesting to mix things up a little bit, so that’s on the menu today: something different. What looks very much like a hospital orderly, or a man in a chef outfit. It’s looking to me like he has got himself into a situation with the wrong kind of lady. Sometimes that can be loads of fun, but in this case it’s looking like the opposite.

Red Roses
of Death

The Great
Conspiracy

The Face with the
Three Crosses

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I certainly am having fun making up captions for these pictures…

“Great news guys. Every single one of these icicles on this planet contains a beautiful girl! And with any luck, none of them will speak English!”

“Now Bernie, remember when we had that argument about what color you mean when you call someone ginger? THIS is ginger!”

“I don’t know… Maybe… Maybe somewhere on this planet lives a man so horrible that all these women’s hearts turned to ice and froze them like this, forever! Maybe that man is me. I’m not perfect. She does look a little familiar.”

ICE CITY of the GORGON
by RICHARD S. SHAVER and CHESTER S. GEIER

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Looks like one of the main goals of these red hooded secret society types in 1940 involved mummifying beautiful women. See here for a cover with almost the same subject. It took them four months to get her wrapped up, and it looks like Smith retired. His younger ex-pirate acolyte has taken the reins. Good luck to you, gentlemen.

GIRLS FOR
SATAN’S BIRDCAGE
FASCINATINGLY DIFFERENT
MYSTERY-TERROR NOVELETTE BY
HARRISON STORM

SPINE-TINGLING
MYSTERY NOVELETTE
BEWARE THE
BONELESS DEATH!
by WYATT BLASSINGAME

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So many potential captions for this picture. The mind boggles:

“But Mr. Withers, when you suggested tying me up, I thought we were going to have a little fun!”

***

“Margorie! Why must I keep finding you in these situations?”

***

Professor Smith became certain that there was only one, last, desperate way to get his daughter out of… The Museum of DEATH!

***

“I’ll only tell you one more time! Don’t bother until you’re ready give me an honest apology.”

***

“My stars! There’s a cookie recipe written on the inside of this lid, and it looks great!”

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THE
SILVER
SPECTRE
“Moon Man”
Novel
By
FREDERICK
C. DAVIS

***

And
Nine
Other
Complete
Detective Aces

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The guy on the right looks uncertain. He’s like, “Last time we did this, you told me that the idol just needed one last sacrifice, and it would grant us three wishes. How can you be sure it’s going to work this time?”

His friend replies, “The last one wasn’t a redhead.”

Of course, we know it will make no difference. The guy on the right is a psychopath.

Jinx
by
Lew Merrill

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Dear reader,

Today you find your poor servant accursed! Ever since I laid eyes on the subjects of this eBay auction, I have been unable to think of anything else. I close my eyes and see the redhead. No! No! The blonde! But wait: The redhead has such a tantalizingly askew hat and striped socks. And a golden belt with chained loops. But wait! The blonde, she is dancing in rain-slicker-yellow Go Go boots, and that thing she’s doing with her shoulder. Augh! But the redhead, she’s doing the ’60s dance that’s half dog paddle, half “flip the bun”. RRRR RRRRR RRRRR. WROW! Yes. Yes, dear reader. No damsels in distress today, of all days, the Friday before Halloween. Alas, I can’t help myself. It was as if through a fever dream that I watched my hands as they took the original photo from the auction and used GIMP to straighten out the perspective and paint in the missing frame pieces with the clone tool.

A Haiku
Oh sleep calls to me.
Her sweet sleep and Go Go boots.
My poor broken heart.

I hope to recover from this soon.

The originals:

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