Nightmare #13
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeNightmare #13 carries the fifth chapter of Skywald's cross-title 'Frankenstein Book II' serial — a strand that roamed across all three of the publisher's horror magazines (Psycho, Nightmare, and Scream) and represented one of the more ambitious long-form storytelling experiments in the early-1970s black-and-white horror magazine field. The issue drops the Monster into a contemporary 1973 setting pitted against reanimated Nazi corpses, a pulpy but audacious narrative choice that shows editor Al Hewetson's willingness to cut the monster genre loose from its Gothic moorings. As one of only 23 issues of Nightmare ever published by the short-lived Skywald, it also stands as a document of Warren Publishing's most tenacious independent competitor during the Bronze Age horror-magazine boom.
# Nightmare #13 This anthology issue contains two stories. "Princess of the Sea" tells of a man rescued from the ocean by a mysterious sea creature named "Killer-Goro," who claims to be from the bottom of the sea and was going to marry a mermaid princess named Tania before the monster appeared. A gangster named Bull Manton discovers that killing his rival leaves behind a human body, leading to the equation "Death × 2 = 0!" when he must eliminate the remaining witness. A third tale features a man obsessed with tuning a mysterious television channel that shows him visions of the future, including horse racing results, which he uses to place bets with fatal consequences.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Skywald Publications was launched in 1970 by Sol Brodsky, a former Marvel Comics production manager, and entrepreneur Israel Waldman — the company name fusing the two founders' surnames. Al Hewetson, who had briefly assisted Stan Lee at Marvel before freelancing for Warren, took over as editor and developed the house's distinctive 'Horror-Mood' aesthetic: visceral, psychologically raw storytelling that set Skywald apart from its rivals. By June 1973, when this issue appeared, Hewetson was running the line at full creative throttle, choreographing serialized characters like Frankenstein across multiple titles simultaneously — an editorially ambitious feat for a small New York outfit operating on tight margins.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published June 1973 by Skywald Publishing Corporation as part of the 23-issue run of their black-and-white horror-magazine anthology Nightmare.
- Cover art by Vicente Segrelles; this same cover was later used on the cover of Richard Arndt's reference book Horror Comics in Black and White.
- Contains the chapter titled 'Frankenstein 1973,' the fifth installment of Skywald's 'Frankenstein Book II' cross-title serial, which had begun in Psycho #3 and continued through Psycho #4, #5, and #6 before appearing here.
- In this Frankenstein chapter, the Monster and his companion Lilith are transported to contemporary 1973, where they battle a band of reanimated Nazi corpses; Lilith is killed before the Monster is displaced in time yet again at the story's cliffhanger close.
- The Frankenstein Book II serial continued after this issue in Scream #6 and #7, crossing all three of Skywald's core horror titles — an unusual serialization strategy for the era.
- Also includes the story 'At Mind's Edge' (script by Ed Fedory, art by Jesus Duran) and the one-page frontispiece 'The Corpse Feast!' (Fedory/Juez Xirinius), alongside a feature on H.P. Lovecraft's horror fiction.
- The issue's cover vignette was later reprinted in the 1974 Nightmare Yearbook.
- Stories from this issue were reprinted in Gwandanaland Comics' print-on-demand collection Skywald's Nightmare: Volume 4 (July 2019).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Dossier Negro #51 (1973), The 1974 Nightmare Yearbook #1 (1974), Dossier Negro #64 (1974), Macabre strippocket #1 (1975), Dossier Negro #80 (1976), Gwandanaland Comics #2405 (2019), Frankenstein #[nn] (2023)
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