Dez Skinn, who created and edited the magazine 40 years ago has now published the previously-unseen Halls of Horror No.24, nicely rounding off the second volume. It includes material that's been in limbo for four decades plus a few new bits and bobs. It's designed exactly the same as it would have been way back when, using the same fonts and layout, so it's a perfect fit for collectors. It even features a 35p cover price, just as it would have in 1978... although it'll cost you considerably more to acquire the issue, and I'll come to that in a moment.
The strip adaptation in this issue is The Brides of Dracula, beautifully illustrated by John Stokes, which would have appeared in the mag had it been published 40 years ago. An excellent artist, John Stokes was perhaps most well known back then for Fishboy in Buster, and The Black Knight strip in Hulk Comic. In recent times he's illustrated The Thirteenth Floor for the two Scream and Misty specials published by Rebellion.
HoH usually featured a Van Helsing's Terror Tales back up strip, and this issue is no exception, with The Night Holds Terror, drawn by the late, great Brian Lewis. It should be said though that this strip has previously appeared in the Terror Tales book that Dez published earlier this year.
There are also features on horror movies of course, including part six of the History of Hammer. Will we have to wait another 40 years for part seven?
All in all, a nice package and pleasure to see the magazine back, albeit for only this one issue. Now the bad news. If you want a copy, it'll cost you £14.95 plus postage! Yep, it's not cheap, but you have to bear in mind that it's a very limited print run, far from the tens of thousands that were printed back in the 1970s so the production cost per issue is far higher, and perhaps there were other costs to take into consideration too such as a licence fee to various film companies. I should also mention that it's printed digitally, not litho or newsprint, but the reproduction is sharp and clear as you can see from the photos here.
Interested in completing your HoH collection? Then order directly from Dez Skinn using the details in the advert below, or buy it from Hemlock Books at this link:
http://www.hemlockbooks.co.uk/Shop/category/109
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