[MarkWarner]

Last week's Wings scored a solid hit with the group, to varying degrees I think we all agreed it was an OK read.

As we are heading to Halloween, I thought we really ought to have a spooky read. This book has a cover I keep seeing and it certainly appears to fit the bill. So lets hope it sets the goosebumps off  https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=21001. The main story we are concentrating on is the first one "League of the Damned"
   

[crashryan]

Thrills of Tomorrow, eh? I don’t see much tomorrow here. Harvey is known for good art and gruesome stories, so let’s see what we get.

I guess no one would enter the World of Mr. Chatt, because the guy is nowhere to be seen in this issue. The notes say this cover was intended for an issue of Black Cat Mystery. Did being put onto the Internet turn Mr. C into Online Chatt?

“League of the Damned”; these guys get the Duh Award for Dense Protagonists. Tall slender man with a cape…long pointy beard and even longer, pointier ears…bright red skin…calls up spirits and kills people mysteriously…”Who are you?! You must tell us!!!” A bit slow on the uptake, I’d say.

I like Powell’s art a lot. But given how weak the story is, Powell torpedoes any possibility of suspense by drawing “Jones” to look like who he really is. It would have worked better if Jones were more ordinary looking. That said, there are some great panels here, especially in the graveyard sequence. I also like the faces Powell gives his league of suckers. Funny, though…inker Nostrand and letterer Epp give themselves credit, but penciller Powell doesn’t get a mention!

“Curse of the Statue”: Okayyyy…so why the heck did the guy, who was moments ago repelled by the vibe in the antique shop, immediately say “Pack it up, we’ll take it!” when he sees a statue that looks like his wife in horrible agony? He enjoys looking at his wife in horrible agony? John Giunta may have had a hand in the inks but the pencils here look like Manny Stallman.

“Invitation to Doom:” Typical horror story. with decent art. I don’t see any invitations handed out, only doom, The writer likes lurid adjectives lettered in boldface. My favorite line: “The tree has a vegetable instinct to kill members of the animal kingdom.” I’m going to be more careful around my cabbages.

“The Screaming City”: So this is how Doctor Strange looked before he lost weight and bought a toupee. This moves at a breathless pace but it’s rather lame, Good thing the Doctor was there to recognize a supernatural phantom. I rather like that skull-on-the-house panel.

I skipped the text stories. Overall grade: B minus because of the Powell, otherwise C. And a nod for reminding me of a line from The Music Man:

"It'll grab your son and your daughter
With the arms of a jungle vegetable instinct!"

[betaraybdw]

Wow, good pick Mark.

The cover really works. Though it seems benign at the same time there is something menacing and disturbing about it.

The ads worked on me too, I simply must have the set of 40 colored plastic airplanes, the SAVAGE Australian Boomerang and of course who doesn't need a book to brush up on their Ju-Jitsu?

I liked all the comic stories for the bonkers over the top craziness. A lot of really eye catching panels.
One in particular caught my eye though because it reminded me of some art that I have seen.

Check out the bottom left panel on page 11 

https://box01.comicbookplus.com/viewer/ed/ed8971f0ad55e4b0f46f402b19f86d1a/10.jpg

then go here and check this out. These are Murals painted on a wall in a building on Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio that German POWs painted during WWII

http://www.comicvine.com/profile/betaraybdw/blog/art-history-demonic-murals-painted-by-german-wwii-/104273/

[Morgus]

Bob Powell on art and a script that sounds like it was written by Criswell himself...what could be better? Not much gore this time around, but the expressions of everybody's faces made up for it...love that line "We will follow you Mr Jones"...(it's sort of amusing how close they came to a Bob Dylan lyric...) And everybody walks SLOLWY through the town with a DEAD BODY so as not to attract attention...nobody heard of cars, I guess, although I kept looking for some guy in the upper stories of the buildings who just got up for a snack or a trip to the can to get the surprise of his life...the final reveal of Satan in his Charles Atlas muscle glory reminded me of the TREE HOUSE OF HORROR episode where Homer taunts Satan by saying:"I'm smarter then the devil" and Ol Scratch/Flanders suddenly morphs into a Body Building Beelzebub...I guess if you run hell you have lots of time for bench presses...See, Harvey comics did us a SERVICE, no matter WHAT Dr. Fred Wertham thought. We learned NOT to listen to anybody who wanted us to throw bodies into any old graves...you come back looking like demented ballon animals...dang!!!

[SuperScrounge]

League of the Damned! - Uhhhh... yeah... too goofy to be taken seriously, too serious to work as a comedy, heck it could have even been a clever murder mystery masquerading as the supernatural, but the creators dropped the ball. Why did no one comment on Mr. Jones red skin, pointy ears and basic devil look? Did the devil really need people to bury the dead man's body? (I wouldn't expect Satan to care if he left a body behind.) Found Satan's wanting the men to believe amusing as you would expect belief to be more important to God. Also it's only a sin if you choose to do it, being forced to do it removes freedom of choice. Satan's true appearance looked less like what people expect then his Mr. Jones form. So much potential...

Ghost Doctor - Okay, but nothing special.

Curse of the Statue - Eh, a little too straight forward for me. I was expecting some twist that never came.

Six Chances to Die - Eh.

The Blood Plant - Slightly more interesting than the previous story.

Invitation to Doom! - Yeahhhh...

Screaming City - *sigh*

Such a disappointing collection of stories, some had potential if only the writers had been better.

[paw broon]

Apart from the Powell art, what a load of old cobblers.  There's very little else to say, except perhaps to add, what a waste of a tree!

[bowers]

Not a lot to rave about with this one. The cover was wonderful, and better than average art for the genre. Not much finesse in the writing department, although the target market probably would have enjoyed most of the stories. Pretty straightforward stuff with just enough gore and violence to entertain the young readers.
"Invitation to Doom" was probably my favorite- I guess I'm just a sucker for homicidal shrubbery! The speech in the lower right panel on page 26 was priceless.
  Loved the ads- I actually had the "Giant Collection" of plastic planes. Took almost three months to get them delivered. Most were about an inch long and many were poorly cast, missing parts of wings and tails. Did I learn my lesson? Sadly, not.
  Only half a thumbs up for this one. Not bad for what it was, just nothing really memorable. Cheers, Bowers

[SuperScrounge]

There's very little else to say, except perhaps to add, what a waste of a tree!

If only they'd used the tree from Invitation To Doom. 

[betaraybdw]

I love the tree in Invitation to doom.  He could totally hang out with Swamp Thing, The Heap, Man-Thing, Groot and the Ents. I guess Poison Ivy would feel compelled to take care of them all.


Just stumbled across this one while searching for something else https://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=20311
Wholesome entertainment if ever there was some. 

[MarkWarner]

I have seen the cover for this book quite a few times and think it is excellent. So, that's a good start. With a title like "Thrills of Tomorrow" I had assumed that this would be sci-fi, but it is old-school horror (just as our title genre was telling me, if I had bothered to read it!).

Our main story "League of the Damned" is standard "nice" pre-code horror fare. That is NOT a bad thing in my eyes, as I really enjoyed it.

The one page text story "Ghost Doctor" is also very readable. If things carry on like this, we have a hit on our hands! It's funny as "Curse of the Statue" is very samey which I normally complain about, yet it is a plus point here. If I had nothing to do, I could quite happily read stories like this all day!

Wow, look what I spotted in the ads:

"Raise Earthworms! Terrific! Get important information plus true story, "An Earthworm Turned His Life" Send dime Earthmaster System, 23D El Monte, Calif"

After a couple of text stories and an advertisement for a boomerang we bump across Last story is "Invitation To Doom", perhaps the silliest horror story EVER written. Walking man trees, indeed! 

Last story is "Screaming City" and:

"Flash! All citizens of Big City bar their doors and stay inside! A strange creature has been reported roaming the streets!"

Dr Strange: "This sounds exactly like a supernatural phantom"

Bizarrely this is followed by a full page ad for "A Whole Treasure Chest Of Toys - A giant assortment of 50 different playthings for only $1". And after a couple of more ads we are done

Verdict: It started well, but slowly went downhill (the story of my life I guess). Due to the strong start it still scores a hit! 

[narfstar]

Really liked the art in the first story the second not so much. Last story was the most fun to read with the craziness. Reminded me a lot of a sixties ACG Adv Into the Unk or Forbidden Worlds.