House of Mystery #320

Two wide-eyed children peer down through the slats of a wooden structure — perhaps a ladder or cage — while beneath them a monstrous green creature reaches upward with grasping claws, its grotesque face half-lit in the eerie glow below. MW Kaluta's cover art for this September 1983 installment of DC's long-running anthology perfectly captures that queasy mix of childhood dread and lurking menace the series built its reputation on. With an interior tale titled "Death, Come Rescue Me," written by George Kashdan and illustrated by Vicatan, this issue delivers exactly the unsettling fare that kept readers daring to enter the House of Mystery.