Black Cat Comics #53

Promising "Strangest Tales of Fear and Superstition," this December 1954 Harvey horror entry delivers a cover that wastes no time: a monstrous yellow-green giant spider looms over a terrified blonde woman in a red dress, her arms outstretched as she flees across a rural landscape, while a lone figure in the background seems equally helpless. The cover copy teases "It was once a man… in fact it was… The Last Man on Earth," hinting at a transformation story that pairs science-fiction dread with classic monster-comic panic. Al Avison's cover art wrings every ounce of creeping menace from that hulking arachnid form, making this a fine example of mid-1950s Harvey horror at its most viscerally unnerving.