Psycho #4
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freePsycho #4 (September 1971) occupies a noteworthy place in the Skywald horror-magazine run as the first squarebound issue of the series, marking a format upgrade from its stapled predecessors. It carries the second installment of Tom Sutton's 'Frankenstein, Book II' serial — a prose-faithful sequel to Mary Shelley's novel that pushed the monster into grittier, more literary territory than the sanitized superhero Frankenstein Marvel was running simultaneously. The issue also served as the professional debut of artist Dennis Fujitake, making it a minor discovery point for a career that would extend well into mainstream comics. Taken together, it represents Skywald's ambition to distinguish its 'Horror-Mood' aesthetic from both Warren Publishing and the Comics Code-bound mainstream.
In "The Innsmouth Apparition," the Frankenstein monster—having survived the fall of Castle Frankenstein—flees abroad, joining a traveling freak show before being exhibited near the famed Notre Dame cathedral in France. After escaping his cage, he crosses paths with the towering, hunched figure of Quasimodo, whose own isolation mirrors his own. Written and illustrated by Sean Todd, with inks by Jack Abel and letters by Jean Simek, this eerie 1971 tale unfolds under Ken Kelly’s haunting cover.
In "Night of Evil!" from Psycho #4 (1971), the Heap—haunted by his own condition—turns to his friend Monty Elliot for help, but his desperation leads him to a nearby bog where he intervenes in a deadly standoff between two escaped convicts and a hostage. As he flees the scene, the weight of his past and the treacherous terrain catch up to him, pulling him into the quicksand beneath the darkened marsh.
In "Comes the Stalking Monster!" from Psycho #4 (1971), a scientist's reckless experiment to summon a demon for forbidden knowledge backfires when his assistant—dismissed as intellectually inferior—reveals a power he never anticipated. Written by an unknown author and illustrated by an unknown artist, the story unfolds with chilling precision as the balance of control shifts in a tense, unsettling showdown.
In "Frankenstein, Book II: Freaks of Fear!", the Frankenstein monster—scarred and hunted—flees his ruined castle and finds refuge with a traveling freak show. After being displayed near the shadowed spires of Notre Dame, he breaks free, only to face a new terror: the monstrous bell ringer Quasimodo.
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Skywald Publications — co-founded by Sol Brodsky and Israel Waldman and operating from 1970 to 1975 — launched Psycho as one of its three flagship black-and-white horror-magazine anthologies, the others being Nightmare and Scream. The series deliberately competed with Warren Publishing's Creepy and Eerie, and like Warren it operated in magazine format specifically to sidestep the Comics Code Authority. Editor Al Hewetson (who had briefly assisted Stan Lee at Marvel) shaped a house style he called 'the Horror-Mood,' aiming at a more literary, Poe-and-Lovecraft-inflected tone than Warren's pulpier approach. Tom Sutton, already a Warren regular, moonlighted for Skywald under the pseudonym 'Sean Todd' to keep his primary employer from finding out — a cloak-and-dagger arrangement that generated at least one documented credit error within this very issue.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published September 1971 by Skywald Publications; 68 pages, black-and-white magazine format.
- First squarebound (square-bound spine) issue of the Psycho series, a format change from earlier stapled issues.
- Contains 'Frankenstein, Book II: Freaks of Fear!' — the second chapter of Tom Sutton's serial sequel to Mary Shelley's novel, scripted and penciled by Sutton under his pseudonym 'Sean Todd,' with inks by Jack Abel. The serial ran across Psycho #3–6 (May 1971–May 1972).
- Sutton used the 'Sean Todd' pseudonym throughout the Frankenstein serial to conceal his Skywald moonlighting from Warren publisher James Warren; a separate story in this same issue was accidentally credited to 'Larry Todd' (writer) and 'David Cook' (artist) — an error traced to someone inserting the name of real-life writer Larry Todd in place of the usual 'Sean Todd' pseudonym.
- Cover art painted by Ken Kelly, depicting Frankenstein and the Heap.
- Marks the professional comics debut of artist Dennis Fujitake ('Escape').
- Also includes 'Out of Chaos…A New Beginning,' written by Marv Wolfman with art by Rich Buckler; 'Museum Piece' by Len Wein and Serg Moren; 'Plague of Jewels' by Bruce Jones; and a Heap pinup by Bill Everett.
- Stories from this issue were later reprinted in Gwandanaland Comics #2371 — Skywald's Psycho Volume 1 (July 2019), and at least one story ('Comes the Stalking Monster!') was reprinted in the Semic Press Scandinavian anthology Macabre strippocket #1 (1975).
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Reprints
Reprinted in Psycho #2 (1972), Psycho #3 (1972), Dossier Negro #48 (1973), The 1974 Nightmare Yearbook #1 (1974), Nightmare #21 (1974), Macabre strippocket #1 (1975), The Twisted Tales of Bruce Jones #2 (1986), The Bill Everett Archives #2 (2013), Gwandanaland Comics #2371 (2019), Frankenstein #[nn] (2023)
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