Strange Tales #15

From Atlas Comics' early days of pre-Code horror comes this February 1953 chiller, with a cover by Bill Everett that sets the tone perfectly: a headless suited figure calmly reads a book in an armchair while two snarling, green-furred monsters loom behind him, welcoming unseen visitors — a severed glowing head resting nearby and a shovel planted ominously in freshly turned earth. Inside, Bernie Krigstein brings the stories to life, including "Mary and the Witch!" alongside a trio of other eerie tales teased in the sidebar panels. It's a wonderfully unsettling snapshot of 1953 horror comics at their most inventive.