House of Mystery #255
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeHouse of Mystery #255 holds a secure place in Bronze Age history as the very first published work of Alex Saviuk, a one-page story called 'The Victim!' that launched the career of an artist who would later become one of Marvel's most enduring Spider-Man pencillers. The issue also stands as a strong representative of DC's ambitious Dollar Comics experiment, which expanded House of Mystery to 84 pages and kept Joe Orlando's horror-anthology vision alive during a period of intense industry competition. Its Berni Wrightson cover — drawn independently some years before the issue's publication and later matched with interior stories — exemplifies the unusual production methods that gave DC's horror line its distinctive visual identity in the 1970s.
"Small Wonder" in House of Mystery #255 (1977) delivers a chilling tale of deception and consequence, as stage magician Frank Mason’s fatal mistake sends him fleeing to the jungle, where his greed sets him on a collision course with a fate far darker than he imagined. Written by Jack Oleck and brought to life with moody precision by artist Bill Draut—both inks and pencils—this story unfolds with a creeping dread, all framed by Bernie Wrightson’s haunting cover, a masterclass in eerie atmosphere.
In "The Killing," a haunted stage magician named Frank Mason flees to the jungle after an accidental death, only to find himself ensnared in a deadly game of deception when he tries to steal from the local natives—unaware that the jungle itself has a far more sinister plan.
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House of Mystery #255 (cover-dated December 1977, on sale November 1977) was produced during the era when Joe Orlando was still editor, a role he had held since issue #174 and would retain through issue #257. The issue appeared within the 'Dollar Comics' window that DC ran from issue #251 through #259, a format experiment that raised the cover price to one dollar in exchange for roughly 84 pages of all-new material. The cover by Berni Wrightson was created separately, years before this issue, and the interior stories were subsequently written to accompany it — an unusual reverse-engineering of editorial workflow noted in the Grand Comics Database. Paul Kupperberg wrote the framing sequences featuring Cain, with art by Ric Estrada and Wayne Howard.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Published November/December 1977 (cover date December 1977) by DC Comics; on-sale date confirmed by Comic Reader #146 as August 1977.
- The cover was illustrated by Berni Wrightson, and according to the Grand Comics Database, it was created some years before the issue's publication, with interior stories written afterward to match the image.
- Contains the very first professionally published comic book work of Alex Saviuk — a one-page horror short titled 'The Victim!' — as confirmed by Saviuk himself on his official website and independently by Wikipedia and multiple comics reference sites.
- Joe Orlando served as editor; his tenure on House of Mystery would end just two issues later with #257.
- The issue includes a 5-page framing sequence (written by Paul Kupperberg, art by Ric Estrada and Wayne Howard), a Cain-hosted story 'Small Wonder' (Jack Oleck, Ernie Chan), a Gray Morrow-written and -drawn story, an Abel-starring story, and several additional horror shorts — all original material, not reprints.
- One story in the issue, featuring a vampire plot, was later reprinted in the Australian anthology Terror Tales Album #6 (K.G. Murray, May 1978) and in the French Sueurs Froides #4 (Arédit-Artima, September 1982), as well as in the Italian Classici DC: House of Mystery #1 (Planeta DeAgostini, 2009).
- The issue is indexed in our catalog against characters including Helena Wayne/Huntress, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, and Cosmic Boy; however, multiple independent content listings (Grand Comics Database, MyComicShop) describe this issue as a pure horror anthology with no superhero backup features — see Flagged section.
Cast · 9 characters
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Reprints
↩ Reprints Reality #2 (1971)
Reprinted in Comic Reader #146 (1977), Terror Tales Album #6 (1978), Weird Mystery Tales Album #6 (1978), Doomsday Album #9 (1978), Haunted Tales #40 (1980), Sueurs Froides #4 (1982), Iskalde Grøss #4/1985 (1985), Classici DC: House of Mystery #1 (2009), Horror #102, Horror #104, Horror #89, Horror #90, Sueurs Froides #5
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