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The House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus #1
The House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus Vol. 1
Welcome to the House of Mystery, where dark secrets are hidden in every shadow--and there may be no escape! Now these never-before-collected classic tales of the mysterious and the macabre, including THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY #174-200, are gathered for the first time in a handsome hardcover edition.
As one of the most celebrated anthology titles of the Bronze Age of comics, THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY cemented its iconic status in the 1970s under the transformative leadership of editor Joe Orlando, whose impeccable instincts yielded a cornucopia of devilish delights in every intriguing issue.
HOUSE OF MYSTERY THE BRONZE AGE OMNIBUS VOL. 1 collects issues #174-200 of the acclaimed series and features tantalizingly terrifying work from a host of comics' greatest talents, including Bernie Wrightson, Alex Toth, Gil Kane, Marv Wolfman, Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Sergio Aragon�s and many more!
As one of the most celebrated anthology titles of the Bronze Age of comics, THE HOUSE OF MYSTERY cemented its iconic status in the 1970s under the transformative leadership of editor Joe Orlando, whose impeccable instincts yielded a cornucopia of devilish delights in every intriguing issue.
HOUSE OF MYSTERY THE BRONZE AGE OMNIBUS VOL. 1 collects issues #174-200 of the acclaimed series and features tantalizingly terrifying work from a host of comics' greatest talents, including Bernie Wrightson, Alex Toth, Gil Kane, Marv Wolfman, Wally Wood, Neal Adams, Sergio Aragon�s and many more!
792 pages, Hardcover
First published January 8, 2019
About the author
Joe Orlando
411 books5 followersJoseph Orlando was an Italian American illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades.
(source: Wikipedia)
(source: Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 13, 2019
The House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus Volume 1 contains issues 174-200 of The House of Mystery. Do You Dare Enter... The House of Mystery?
After the demise of EC Comics, Joe Orlando drifted until he landed at the helm of DC's House of Mystery. Joe steered it away from the cancellation iceberg and turned into second coming of Tales From the Crypt. Well, that's not completely accurate, I guess. Since the comics code was still trying to suck all the fun out of comics at that point, the tales felt more like episodes of The Twilight Zone.
Even without gore, vampires, werewolves, and zombies, the House of Mystery contains some fun stories. Since ghosts, witches, and black magic were still on the table, quite a few people meet their ends by supernatural means. Most of the tales feature the Tales from the Crypt reversal of fortune ending, although they have to work harder to get there. For what they were, few of the stories strayed into dud territory but most of those were culled from issues of House of Mystery, House of Secrets, My Greatest Adventure, and Tales of the Unexpected from the '50s. It seems Joe Orlando needed to pad things with reprints when the deadlines got tight.
The star of the show is really the artists. Old pros and young up and comers alike illustrate the tales. Neal Adams, Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson, Jim Aparo, Sergio Aragones, Gil Kane, Gray Morrow, Michael Kaluta, Jack Kirby, the list goes on and on of noted artists who graced the pages of House of Mystery during this era.
I never realized how indebted the early issues of Sandman were to House of Mystery, not just the inclusion of Cain and the House of Mystery, but the artwork style was heavily borrowing from Alex Toth and Bernie Wrightson. It's also interesting to see some evolution in action. For instance, there was a little person in a Gil Kane tale that Kane later reused the look of for Myrwhydden in Green Lantern a few years after. A Bernie Wrightson tale featured a Moss Man that looked quite a bit like a certain muck-encrusted avenger he'd latter draw. And Jack Kirby served up an early version of Negative Man years before he showed up in Doom Patrol.
The House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus is an interesting look at horror under the Comics Code. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
After the demise of EC Comics, Joe Orlando drifted until he landed at the helm of DC's House of Mystery. Joe steered it away from the cancellation iceberg and turned into second coming of Tales From the Crypt. Well, that's not completely accurate, I guess. Since the comics code was still trying to suck all the fun out of comics at that point, the tales felt more like episodes of The Twilight Zone.
Even without gore, vampires, werewolves, and zombies, the House of Mystery contains some fun stories. Since ghosts, witches, and black magic were still on the table, quite a few people meet their ends by supernatural means. Most of the tales feature the Tales from the Crypt reversal of fortune ending, although they have to work harder to get there. For what they were, few of the stories strayed into dud territory but most of those were culled from issues of House of Mystery, House of Secrets, My Greatest Adventure, and Tales of the Unexpected from the '50s. It seems Joe Orlando needed to pad things with reprints when the deadlines got tight.
The star of the show is really the artists. Old pros and young up and comers alike illustrate the tales. Neal Adams, Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson, Jim Aparo, Sergio Aragones, Gil Kane, Gray Morrow, Michael Kaluta, Jack Kirby, the list goes on and on of noted artists who graced the pages of House of Mystery during this era.
I never realized how indebted the early issues of Sandman were to House of Mystery, not just the inclusion of Cain and the House of Mystery, but the artwork style was heavily borrowing from Alex Toth and Bernie Wrightson. It's also interesting to see some evolution in action. For instance, there was a little person in a Gil Kane tale that Kane later reused the look of for Myrwhydden in Green Lantern a few years after. A Bernie Wrightson tale featured a Moss Man that looked quite a bit like a certain muck-encrusted avenger he'd latter draw. And Jack Kirby served up an early version of Negative Man years before he showed up in Doom Patrol.
The House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus is an interesting look at horror under the Comics Code. 3.5 out of 5 stars.
June 14, 2022
Excellent collection of this great anthology comic from the silver age. Tons of big name artists and writers throughout. Very nice read. Recommended
June 27, 2019
This series is really good for its time. It is a long series written by several writers, so some stories aren't as good as others, but it is generally a very well-written series.
The House of Mystery is a horror comic series that debuted in 1951. The series featured a number of short stories in each issue, and it maintained this format until it concluded in 1983. Halfway through, the series included a narrater, Cain, adding more to its Twilight Zone vibes. Some reviews claim that this series is a direct rip off from the Twilight Zone, which is strange because The House of Mystery debuted 8 years earlier and perhaps even influenced the creation of The Twilight Zone.
The stories on the series include all kinds of strange things. Some stories even leave open endings with the possibility that nothing supernatural had occurred at all. The wide variety of supernaturals include werewolves, aliens, monsters, ghosts, demons, superpowers, time travel, vampires and anything else you can think of.
The narrator of the series, Cain, who first appears in issue #175, develops to have his own backstory later on. Cain stories also relate to The House of Mystery's companion series, The House of Secretes (also mostly edited by Joe Orlando) hosted by Cain's brother, Ebel. Both series acquired their hosts around the same time and developed together from that point.
Despite not reading that many stories, I went on and read the ending where a DC editor invades Cain's birthday party to inform him of his series cancellation and asks him to tell two more stories before it ends. I liked the ending, and I probably would have read most of the series if it was published in my time.
The House of Mystery is a horror comic series that debuted in 1951. The series featured a number of short stories in each issue, and it maintained this format until it concluded in 1983. Halfway through, the series included a narrater, Cain, adding more to its Twilight Zone vibes. Some reviews claim that this series is a direct rip off from the Twilight Zone, which is strange because The House of Mystery debuted 8 years earlier and perhaps even influenced the creation of The Twilight Zone.
The stories on the series include all kinds of strange things. Some stories even leave open endings with the possibility that nothing supernatural had occurred at all. The wide variety of supernaturals include werewolves, aliens, monsters, ghosts, demons, superpowers, time travel, vampires and anything else you can think of.
The narrator of the series, Cain, who first appears in issue #175, develops to have his own backstory later on. Cain stories also relate to The House of Mystery's companion series, The House of Secretes (also mostly edited by Joe Orlando) hosted by Cain's brother, Ebel. Both series acquired their hosts around the same time and developed together from that point.
Despite not reading that many stories, I went on and read the ending where a DC editor invades Cain's birthday party to inform him of his series cancellation and asks him to tell two more stories before it ends. I liked the ending, and I probably would have read most of the series if it was published in my time.
January 5, 2019
i like the little comic strips in side of it
October 6, 2019
I ended up flipping through a lot of stories- definitely more of a male adventure book than I thought it would be! Bernie Wrightson, Neal Adam, and Gray Marrow are the stand out artists in this volume. The covers are fantastic and most of the time the interior art or story is just so-so. A decent volume with some stand outs, but not a keeper.
November 24, 2023
Some fun, well drawn stories here by Jack Sparling, Alex Toth, Bernie Wrightson and more. Really I am much more into Marvel than DC, but the 70s horror output on display really here was the best at this time. There are some clunky, unreadable stories here. But they are more the exception than the rule.
June 16, 2022
Fun stories and great art throughout! I love horror comic anthologies, and have bought most that I could find from the 80s on, but this series was a little before my time. I'm happy that they are finally collecting them in these volumes.
March 30, 2026
DC's Horror comics, along with the Warren Magazines, are the heir to EC''s throne. Great artwork and writing.
September 19, 2020
Among my very favorite color compilations of horror themed short stories with an all star cast of creators.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews