Strange Tales #33

From Atlas Comics' December 1954 run of pre-superhero horror anthologies comes this chilling installment, with a cover by Joe Maneely that perfectly captures the era's taste for eerie, everyday dread. A gaunt, hat-wearing ghoul looms through an upper-story window high above a city skyline, advancing menacingly toward a horrified woman and a wide-eyed man who can scarcely believe what they're seeing — the cover's tagline "Step Lively, Please!" adding a darkly ironic twist to the terror. It's a wonderfully unsettling slice of mid-fifties suspense storytelling, the kind that made Strange Tales such a reliable destination for readers who liked their shivers served with a smirk.