This weekend’s escapist superhero post from Balladeer’s Blog looks at Timely Comics (later Marvel Comics) stories in February 1942. I reviewed their January 1942 stories HERE.
MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS Vol 1 #28 (Feb 1942)
Story 1: The Poison Pill Suicides
Villain: Izan
Synopsis: The Human Torch (Golden Age) and his mutant sidekick Toro expose and shut down a ring smuggling arms out of the U.S. and selling them to the Axis Nations. The ring operates out of Coney Island amusement park, beneath which the leader Izan has a secret hideout filled with high-tech weapons and booby-traps. The title referred to Izan’s thugs whom he would kill with poison pills if they failed him. Continue reading
COLMA, CALIFORNIA – It’s called the City of the Dead, the City that Always Sleeps, etc. There are roughly one point five million people buried in the many cemeteries which make up Colma. 
Colma is near San Francisco. Fresh graves in San Francisco cemeteries in the 1800s expanded those graveyards so much that around the turn of the century the city banned any additional cemetery space. The overflow began filling what is now Colma. 
Okay, so it wasn’t an actual crossover, but Balladeer’s Blog still finds it pretty hilarious. Back in 2012, the Icelandic television station Channel Two aired an episode of the children’s show Teletubbies but accidentally attached the subtitles track from an episode of the adult-oriented, swearing and violence driven gangster series The Sopranos. 
And ... 
As Halloween Month rolls along, I will take a movie-by-movie look at the opening season of Elvira’s show Movie Macabre (1981-1986). Her massive success kicked off an even greater proliferation of Movie Hosts and Hostesses in the 1980s. I covered 
GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE (1972) – Psychotronic icons Michael Pataki and William Smith starred in this twisted flick about a vampire (Pataki) who rapes a woman (Lyn Peters) who subsequently gives birth to an abnormal infant. The baby will drink only blood and grows up to be James Eastman (Smith). James goes on a quest to kill his father for the pain he brought into his mother’s life. Ultimately he does, but becomes a full vampire himself. (Just go with it.) Aired Sep 26th, 1981.
THE ROOM IN THE TOWER (1912) – This story was written by E.F. Benson. The British narrator has a recurring nightmare in which he visits his friend John Clinton at his family manor. The other family members, including his mother Mrs. Stone, are cold and grim toward him. 
HUCK FINN – A musical adaptation of part of the Mark Twain novel Huckleberry Finn. Earle Hyman, who played Cliff Huxtable’s father on Cosby, starred as Jim, Jimmy Boyd was Huck, BASIL RATHBONE played the Duke, Jack Carson the King, and FLORENCE HENDERSON was Mary Jane Wilk. Songs included Loafin’ on the Water, My Friend Huckleberry Finn, Funny but Likable and Too Wonderful for Me. 
STRANGE HARVEST (2025) – Halloween Month continues with this review of a movie which got previewed in 2024 before its official release in August 2025. Because Balladeer’s Blog covers everything from mild Silent-Era horror films to extreme horror from recent decades I will post my courtesy warning for Strange Harvest:
However, his murders seemed unrelated until detective work recently found the obscure link connecting them. I will go into details about the grotesque murders below. Oddly, despite the grisly nature of the slayings, Strange Harvest otherwise starts out with a slow burn approach reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and other films. 
