Strange Suspense Stories #69

Few things capture mid-1960s Charlton horror-suspense quite like a man trapped in a bowling alley with a massive ball hurtling toward him — and that's exactly the unsettling scene Dick Giordano renders on this February 1964 cover, where a desperate figure cries out "No! No! Don't bowl! I'm here…on the alley!" as a bowler releases his shot. The teaser "Nightmare or Reality?" perfectly frames the featured story, "Thunder Alley," written by Joe Gill with interior art by Bill Molno. It's a wonderfully creepy premise dressed up in the most ordinary of settings — proof that Charlton could wring genuine dread from everyday life at just 12 cents a copy.