Review by Frank Plowright
Over the years Marvel and DC have consistently narrowed their focus to the point where anything that isn’t straightforward superhero action still has some form of superhero connection. Looking back in that context to the late 1960s reveals a very different era, when horror and mystery ruled the roost, and their atmosphere very frequently manifested in the superhero titles. DC in particular couldn’t sell enough supernatural anthologies to a willing audience, and in 1969 issued another.
In terms of content only the editorial tastes of Dick Giordano separate The Witching Hour from Ghosts, House of Secrets, House of Mystery and Unexpected, as the basic formula of spookily-themed shockers with a twist ending applies to them all. To begin with Giordano had the three witches introducing the stories play out their own little dramas over three brief sequences drawn by Alex Toth and Mike Sekowsky who’s sometimes mistakenly credited as Toth. Murray Boltinoff edited the later half of this selection, in which Toth doesn’t feature at all.
As with Showcase Presents the House of Mystery, the wonder is generally in the art, which is very crisply reproduced in black and white, and while the writing is largely professional (allowing for some stinkers), few stories stand out. Picking just one, it’s almost inevitably by Toth, who brings an understated period atmosphere elevating Gerry Conway’s already accomplished and moody tale of unsuitable romance and come-uppance in ‘Hold Softly, Hand of Death’.
There’s a clear cut separation, with artistic experimentation and newcomers more frequent until two-thirds of the way through when Boltinoff’s stewardship begins, and a greater reliance on old lags like Jerry Grandenetti, Don Heck and George Tuska thereafter. They may only contribute a single strip apiece earlier, but there’s no contributions from Neal Adams, Jeffrey Jones, Michael Wm. Kaluta, or Bernie Wrightson to the Boltinoff-edited issues, and only one Gray Morrow strip. That Morrow strip, however, is the superbly moody ‘Bayou Witch’, beaten out for his sample art by the earlier and even more extraordinary ‘A Warp in Time Loses Everything’. The other sample art is from Toth, where you’re really spoilt for choice, with ‘Computerr’ selected for the frankly unsettling lead character.
Reprints of 1950s content becomes more frequent as the collection continues, but when they’re drawn by the likes of Nick Cardy, Carmine Infantino and Jack Kirby any complaints at old stories should be muted.
Of all the now out of print Showcase Presents compilations this commands the highest prices if you’re even able to find a copy, which is a great shame. Surely it’s not too much trouble for DC to put together some digital package of the same material.
