Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion #7

History

The series grew out of DC's early-1970s strategy of riding the Dark Shadows wave: after four issues under the romance-heavy banner The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love, editors pivoted to a pure gothic-horror anthology format starting with issue #5. By issue #7, co-editors Joe Orlando and E. Nelson Bridwell had fully embraced the anthology model, bringing in anthology veterans Robert Kanigher alongside the newly arrived Howard Chaykin — who had come to DC through a mentorship pipeline running from Gil Kane to Neal Adams to the DC bullpen — and commissioning cover and splash art from Michael William Kaluta, whose distinctive Art Nouveau-inflected line was already becoming a hallmark of the series.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Charity, the series' recurring host character, who would later be retroactively named and who directly inspired the visual design of Madame Xanadu.
• Cover date: October 1972; publication date approximately August–September 1972; published by DC Comics.
• Cover art and interior splash page by Michael William Kaluta, whose work defined the visual identity of the title throughout its run.
• Howard Chaykin penciled the lead eight-page story 'Eye of the Beholder' (inked by Tony DeZuniga, scripted by Robert Kanigher) — one of his earliest known DC Comics assignments.
• Issue contains three stories: 'Eye of the Beholder,' 'The Immortality Thieves,' and 'The Royal Right,' plus a 'Realm of the Mystic' feature page.
• Co-edited by Joe Orlando and E. Nelson Bridwell, both central figures in DC's Bronze Age mystery-anthology output.
• The series was conceived as a companion title to Secrets of Sinister House, with both books tracing their origins to the popularity of the ABC soap opera Dark Shadows (1966–1971).
• The Charity character established in this issue was later identified by name in Starman and served as the acknowledged visual basis for Kaluta's Madame Xanadu design created for Doorway to Nightmare #1 (1978).

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