House of Mystery #174
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeHouse of Mystery #174 marks one of the most consequential editorial pivots in DC's Silver Age history: with this issue, the long-running series permanently abandoned superhero storytelling — which had dominated its pages since 1964, first with J'onn J'onzz and then with Dial H for Hero — and returned to its original horror-anthology roots. The shift was driven by a loosening grip of the Comics Code Authority, which both DC and Marvel were actively challenging, and it placed House of Mystery at the vanguard of the Bronze Age horror revival at DC. Although the issue itself was an all-reprint bridging installment, it formally inaugurated the editorial tenure of EC Comics veteran Joe Orlando, whose decade-long stewardship of the title would eventually seed the DNA that Karen Berger identified as the creative foundation of DC's Vertigo imprint.
In "The Wondrous Witch's Cauldron," inventor Amos Todd stumbles upon a mysterious storm that transforms his museum’s useless gadgets into working miracles—turning water into gasoline, powering a hospital generator, even granting him mechanical wings. Written by Otto Binder and illustrated by Bernard Baily, this 1968 tale from House of Mystery blends whimsy and wonder as Todd’s inventions defy logic, only to collapse into uselessness when the storm passes. The cover, a vibrant collaboration by Carmine Infantino, Joe Orlando, and George Roussos, captures the eerie magic of the moment.
In the storm-lit streets of a forgotten town, Amos Todd runs his peculiar Museum of Worthless Inventions—until a sudden flash of lightning turns his absurd gadgets into reality. From a gold-making machine to a power pill that fuels a car, the impossible begins to work, but only as long as the storm rages. When a hospital generator fails, Todd uses a perpetual motion machine to restore power, only to find his creations soon stolen—and his mechanical wings falter mid-flight. The storm passes, and with it, the miracle.
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Carmine Infantino, then DC's publisher, handed the revamped House of Mystery assignment to Joe Orlando, who recalled in an interview in Comic Book Artist #1 that Infantino provided the layout for that very first new cover, which Orlando then penciled and George Roussos inked — though the cover's attribution was the subject of debate for years, with Nick Cardy erroneously credited in the 2006 Showcase Presents reprint volume and in The Art of Nick Cardy. Orlando had spent sixteen years as a freelancer, most notably at EC Comics, before being brought on staff at DC in 1968; his EC pedigree made him a natural choice to drag House of Mystery back toward the supernatural. The distinctive new logo that debuted on this cover was designed by letterer Gaspar Saladino, a fact documented through Mark Waid via the 13th Dimension website. Because Orlando had no new horror material ready in time, issue #174 was assembled entirely from reprints pulled from the sister title House of Secrets, buying him one issue to prepare the genuinely new direction that would launch with #175.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First issue edited by Joe Orlando — an EC Comics veteran hired by DC in 1968 — marking the formal editorial handoff that redirected the series toward horror.
- Represents the genre changeover from superhero anthology (home to Dial H for Hero through #173 and J'onn J'onzz before that) to horror/mystery anthology format, a pivot that defined the title for its remaining 147 issues through 1983.
- The issue is an all-reprint package; all four interior stories were drawn from House of Secrets issues #13, #17, #43, and #58, spanning original publication dates from 1958 to 1962.
- Interior contributors to the reprinted stories include artists Lee Elias, Doug Wildey, Bernard Baily, and Carmine Infantino (with inks by Mort Meskin), plus a humor page scripted by Orlando with art by Sergio Aragonés.
- The cover was laid out by Carmine Infantino, with pencils by Joe Orlando and inks by George Roussos; the new logo was designed by Gaspar Saladino — though the Showcase Presents (2006) reprint volume and The Art of Nick Cardy book incorrectly attributed the cover to Nick Cardy.
- Cover date is May–June 1968 (on-sale date records vary: GCD and League of Comic Geeks cite March 14, 1968; GoCollect lists April 30, 1968); original cover price was 12 cents.
- Issue #174 was the direct predecessor to #175, which introduced host character Cain — the sardonic biblical caretaker of the House who would frame nearly every story in the series until its cancellation in 1983 and later appear in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman.
- DC's Showcase Presents: The House of Mystery Vol. 1 (2006) begins its reprints with this issue, collecting #174–194 in black-and-white.
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Reprints
↩ Reprints House of Secrets #13 (1958), House of Secrets #17 (1959), House of Secrets #43 (1961), House of Secrets #58 (1963)
Reprinted in Cuentos de Misterio #143 (1968), The Comic Reader #99 (1973), La Maison du Mystère #8 (1978), Showcase Presents: The House of Mystery #1 (2006), House of Mystery: The Bronze Age Omnibus #1 (2019)
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