House of Mystery #207

Bernie Wrightson's cover for this 1972 DC anthology delivers an unsettling tableau: a grinning, hollow-chested figure — his ribcage grotesquely exposed — clutches a terrified elderly woman beneath the looming face of a grandfather clock, all rendered in Wrightson's distinctively atmospheric linework. The tagline "Do You Dare Enter the House of Mystery?" sets the mood perfectly for what awaits inside, including the ominously titled story "Last Ritual, Last Rites" by writer Bill Meredith and artist Bill Payne. At just twenty cents, this October 1972 issue is a fine example of DC's horror anthology line firing on all cylinders.