Scream #11
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeScream #11 (March 1975) holds the distinction of being the final issue of Skywald's third and shortest-lived horror anthology title, closing out a run that represented editor Al Hewetson's most ambitious expression of his 'Horror-Mood' philosophy — a deliberately literary approach to the black-and-white horror magazine format that set Skywald apart from the Warren Publishing establishment. The issue contains one of the earliest known published columns on comics by Dave Sim, years before he launched Cerebus, making it an unexpected document of pre-professional work by one of the medium's most influential independent cartoonists. Its Lady Satan story — in which the character departs Scream for sister title Psycho — functions as an in-universe farewell that acknowledged, even from within the fiction, that the title was ending. As the swan song of Scream, the issue also embodies the abrupt, externally-imposed death of Skywald itself, shut down not by poor sales but by a distributor conflict triggered by Marvel's expansion into the black-and-white magazine field.
The 1975 Winter Special of Scream is an anthology featuring multiple horror stories. One story involves a man discovering a killer in apartment 14 and seeking vengeance for a victim named John. Another tale follows a man tormented by the ghost of his lost love Lenore, who appears in his chamber at night with cryptic messages from beyond. A third story depicts people attacked and surrounded by snakes in a desolate landscape, with a character named Anne lost and her leg injured.
Antie Mae Dippie, the infamous axe-murderess escaped from the Perth Asylum, recounts her twisted past—from witnessing her father’s murder of her mother to her own violent act in retaliation, her decades-long confinement, and her desperate bid for freedom. After finding brief companionship with a wild dog and a kind old man, she is betrayed when the man alerts the police, leading to a final, explosive confrontation in the outback. Now hunted and alone, she vows eternal loyalty to her only friend, the dog, as she prepares to face the world—and anyone who threatens their bond.
Paul, grieving the brutal murder of his friend John Jenkins, grows desperate after the police fail to investigate. Determined to find justice himself, he tracks down leads—only to confront a series of horrifying discoveries that challenge everything he thought he knew.
The husband, reeling from his wife’s sudden death, tracks down the source of her last purchased diet candies, leading him to an isolated Victorian mansion. There, he confronts the old man who makes the chocolates, only to uncover a horrifying truth about the mysterious "Breeders" and their unsettling connection to the woman’s fate.
In a bleak December night in 1844, a grieving man haunted by the memory of his lost love, Lenore, is disturbed by a mysterious tapping at his chamber door. A raven arrives, perching above his door, and speaks only the word "Nevermore," deepening his torment as he desperately seeks answers about her fate and the nature of her absence.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Skywald Publications was founded in 1970 by Sol Brodsky, a former Marvel production manager, and Israel Waldman, a veteran of discount-store reprint publishing; the company name was coined from their surnames. Brodsky recruited Al Hewetson — briefly Stan Lee's assistant and a Warren freelancer — who rose to editor and became the creative engine behind all three horror anthology titles: Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream. Scream launched in 1973 as the third pillar of that line, and Hewetson edited and wrote the majority of its content throughout its eleven-issue run, drawing heavily on Spanish and Filipino artists. The company folded in early 1975 when Curtis Circulation, which had distributed Skywald titles, declined to continue handling them after Marvel — Curtis's owner — launched its own competing black-and-white magazine line.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Scream #11 is cover-dated March 1975 and was published in February 1975 — the final issue of the title, which ran for exactly 11 issues since its 1973 launch.
- The cover was painted by Vicente Ballestar, a Spanish artist who contributed covers throughout the Scream run.
- The issue was edited and largely written by Al Hewetson, with contributing writer Ed Fedory; interior art was provided by Zesar Lopez, Ricardo Villamonte, Domingo Lopez, Ruben Sosa, and Maro Nava.
- The lead story continues Skywald's ongoing Nosferatu series: 'I Kill to Live,' written by Hewetson with art by Zesar Lopez.
- The issue contains what has been described as an early comics column by Dave Sim — years before he created Cerebus — one of his first known published pieces of comics commentary.
- The Lady Satan feature in this issue sends the character away from Scream to sister title Psycho, functioning as a narrative transition that acknowledged the title's cancellation from within the story itself.
- The anthology also includes a 'Poe in the Movies' editorial feature and an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Oblong Box' with art by Maro Nava, consistent with Hewetson's 'Horror-Mood' literary ambitions.
- Skywald's entire line — including Scream — was shut down not by failing readership but because Marvel's Curtis Circulation distributor cut off Skywald's newsstand access after Marvel entered the black-and-white horror magazine market, according to Hewetson himself.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Dossier Negro #72 (1975), Dossier Negro #73 (1975), Edgar Allan Poe: The Masque of Red Death and Other Stories #1 (1988), Profondo Rosso presenta Tenebre #4 (1991), Gwandanaland Comics #2396 (2019), Thirteen Cancelled Comics #[nn] (Premiere Edition) (2025)
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