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Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery #6
Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery Archives, Vol. 6
This archive collects issues #33 through #41 of the twenty-year-long comic series.
Timeless tales of mystery and horror, hosted by the renowned Boris Karloff! Residents of a quiet mountainside face the hypnotic horror of the "opti-pus," a modern-day white knight battles a dragon from the distant past, a scientist stumbles onto proof of his wildest theories but soon wishes he hadn't, and the curse of an ancient tropical pool punishes a wicked non-believer! These fantastic stories and many more are collected in this deluxe volume!
Timeless tales of mystery and horror, hosted by the renowned Boris Karloff! Residents of a quiet mountainside face the hypnotic horror of the "opti-pus," a modern-day white knight battles a dragon from the distant past, a scientist stumbles onto proof of his wildest theories but soon wishes he hadn't, and the curse of an ancient tropical pool punishes a wicked non-believer! These fantastic stories and many more are collected in this deluxe volume!
- GenresComics
264 pages, Hardcover
First published September 6, 2011
About the author
Boris Karloff
89 books16 followersBoris Karloff was an English actor who emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the 1931 film Frankenstein, 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein, and 1939 film Son of Frankenstein. His popularity following Frankenstein in the early 1930s was such that for a brief time he was billed simply as "Karloff" or, on some movie posters, "Karloff the Uncanny".
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 1, 2015
Sadly, this is the final volume of the Boris Karloff Archives unless they decide to restart the series again later.
I enjoyed every volume in the series. If you are looking for sophisticated horror stories with intricate artwork, you probably won't find this series very interesting. However, if you don't mind some of your stories slightly campy and the art good but simple, then you'll really enjoy this series. I'm just a huge fan of horror anthology comics, and as such enjoy most of them even though some are better than others. This series always features text pieces on real life legends and people, such as Alester Crowley and other less famous (infamous?) figures from history. The text pieces are interesting because they are very accurate for something published in a comic book over 40 years ago.
If you enjoy any of the Karloff Archive volumes you'll probably enjoy them all, so here's one last volume for a few hours of pleasant reading.
I enjoyed every volume in the series. If you are looking for sophisticated horror stories with intricate artwork, you probably won't find this series very interesting. However, if you don't mind some of your stories slightly campy and the art good but simple, then you'll really enjoy this series. I'm just a huge fan of horror anthology comics, and as such enjoy most of them even though some are better than others. This series always features text pieces on real life legends and people, such as Alester Crowley and other less famous (infamous?) figures from history. The text pieces are interesting because they are very accurate for something published in a comic book over 40 years ago.
If you enjoy any of the Karloff Archive volumes you'll probably enjoy them all, so here's one last volume for a few hours of pleasant reading.
March 11, 2026
Nice collection of this Silver Age comic. Recommended
Want to Read
January 1, 20232023 - 365 Days of Horror
Contains issues #33-41
Contains issues #33-41
June 21, 2026
Very low quality (art and stories) from an early 70s poverty row publisher.
November 6, 2023
I have a soft spot for the Horror/mystery anthology series. Like Creepy and Eerie magazines of the day, this series boasts a cast of notable artists. Some, like Jack Sparling, Win Mortimer, and Luis Dominguez, are DC Silver Age fan favorites. Others are comic book journeymen of the '50s and '60s. All of them are good and this is some enjoyable watered down for the Comics Code stuff. While formulaic and predictable by modern standards, these are some fun reads nonetheless.
Issue 33's Only Skin Deep is really good. I enjoyed how the couple arranged their date by using a computer, which was perceived in 1971 as an act of desperation. These days it is probably more common than going to bars. To the folks who read these issues off of the stands we are living in Jetsons times...with a little 1984 thrown in for good measure. To Millennials it may seem bizarre to think of it as desperation, as there every waking moment is dictated by technology. The story itself is one that I have read what seems like a dozen times before in these various Horror mags, with the man being a werewolf and the woman being a vampire, or vice versa.
There is some early Len Wein writing throughout this book. Dragondoom (#34) features Len himself, portrayed as Leonard Wayne, as well as his girlfriend (and later wife) Glynis Oliver. This is a hoot of an inside gag, and what makes it funnier still is that he is uncredited in the original issue. He did all of this to amuse Glynis and himself.
In the everything old is new again department we have The Summoning from #35. It is basically the template for the 2012 movie Sinister, where a filmed supernatural being/creature comes to life from celluloid when watched on a screen. The similarities end there but the concept is the same. Issue 36's They Are Already Here is one of those stories that some college kid who took too much LSD at the time probably wrote. How there are dimensions around us that you just can't see, man. Oops, I mean LTD. The chemist uses a powerful hallucinogen known as LTD, not LSD. Totally different.
#37's The Mystic Clay is one of those quaint old world type tales, where clay from a “mysterious Asian region” possesses mystic qualities. The Internet has made the world a lot less mysterious and it makes stories like this a tougher sell to those who grew up in this brave new world. For those of us old enough to remember watching shows like Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, this stuff is fun. The Luis Dominguez artwork does not hurt, either. Speaking of Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, that is another Gold Key series that I would love to see get the high end hardback treatment, ditto The Twilight Zone.
The winner for issue 38 is The Happy Weekend, where two star crossed lovers can't get things right. If only one would look and see what is right in front of them... #40's The Sadiki's Master is another Luis Dominguez masterwork, one of those monkey on your back, genie in a bottle, be careful what you wish for type of tales. Dominguez and John Cerlardo are my favorite artists in this book, as both consistently turn in quality work.
This is, barring some sort of miracle, the final volume of this series of Dark Horse Archives. They were cranking out these fast and furious, but I don't think that the sales were there judging by the ICv2 numbers. This book placed dead last in the Top 300 Graphic Novels the month that it was released, moving only 389 copies. It has been two and half years since this book was released, so I think that it is safe to say that this line is dead. That's too bad, because there is enough material for five more Archives. I did some five minute mapping on the invaluable Grand Comics Database to come to this conclusion. Between the gradual original content per issue decline from 26 pages (including cover and text stories) to 24 pages and omission of reprint stories and the all reprint issues, #78, 83, 84, 86, 90, 95, and 97 there is enough material for five 240 page books. Issue 88 features a new cover on what is otherwise an all reprint issue.
All of that stuff aside, this is a highly enjoyable book in it's own right. I'm glad that I picked it up when I did. I can't believe that it has taken me almost three years to get to it in my backlog.
Issue 33's Only Skin Deep is really good. I enjoyed how the couple arranged their date by using a computer, which was perceived in 1971 as an act of desperation. These days it is probably more common than going to bars. To the folks who read these issues off of the stands we are living in Jetsons times...with a little 1984 thrown in for good measure. To Millennials it may seem bizarre to think of it as desperation, as there every waking moment is dictated by technology. The story itself is one that I have read what seems like a dozen times before in these various Horror mags, with the man being a werewolf and the woman being a vampire, or vice versa.
There is some early Len Wein writing throughout this book. Dragondoom (#34) features Len himself, portrayed as Leonard Wayne, as well as his girlfriend (and later wife) Glynis Oliver. This is a hoot of an inside gag, and what makes it funnier still is that he is uncredited in the original issue. He did all of this to amuse Glynis and himself.
In the everything old is new again department we have The Summoning from #35. It is basically the template for the 2012 movie Sinister, where a filmed supernatural being/creature comes to life from celluloid when watched on a screen. The similarities end there but the concept is the same. Issue 36's They Are Already Here is one of those stories that some college kid who took too much LSD at the time probably wrote. How there are dimensions around us that you just can't see, man. Oops, I mean LTD. The chemist uses a powerful hallucinogen known as LTD, not LSD. Totally different.
#37's The Mystic Clay is one of those quaint old world type tales, where clay from a “mysterious Asian region” possesses mystic qualities. The Internet has made the world a lot less mysterious and it makes stories like this a tougher sell to those who grew up in this brave new world. For those of us old enough to remember watching shows like Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, this stuff is fun. The Luis Dominguez artwork does not hurt, either. Speaking of Ripley's Believe It Or Not!, that is another Gold Key series that I would love to see get the high end hardback treatment, ditto The Twilight Zone.
The winner for issue 38 is The Happy Weekend, where two star crossed lovers can't get things right. If only one would look and see what is right in front of them... #40's The Sadiki's Master is another Luis Dominguez masterwork, one of those monkey on your back, genie in a bottle, be careful what you wish for type of tales. Dominguez and John Cerlardo are my favorite artists in this book, as both consistently turn in quality work.
This is, barring some sort of miracle, the final volume of this series of Dark Horse Archives. They were cranking out these fast and furious, but I don't think that the sales were there judging by the ICv2 numbers. This book placed dead last in the Top 300 Graphic Novels the month that it was released, moving only 389 copies. It has been two and half years since this book was released, so I think that it is safe to say that this line is dead. That's too bad, because there is enough material for five more Archives. I did some five minute mapping on the invaluable Grand Comics Database to come to this conclusion. Between the gradual original content per issue decline from 26 pages (including cover and text stories) to 24 pages and omission of reprint stories and the all reprint issues, #78, 83, 84, 86, 90, 95, and 97 there is enough material for five 240 page books. Issue 88 features a new cover on what is otherwise an all reprint issue.
All of that stuff aside, this is a highly enjoyable book in it's own right. I'm glad that I picked it up when I did. I can't believe that it has taken me almost three years to get to it in my backlog.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews