SKYWALD'S SCREAM NO. 2 (PART 1)

"Weird Warped Tales of

Lunatic Screaming Horrors!"

Somewhere between Warren Publishing and Eerie Publications lies Skywald's black and white horror comic magazines. Better than most of Eerie's pre-Code comic reprints but a completely different tone than Warren, it stands alone as unique and totally crazy, especially after Al Hewetson took over editorship.

This is another "Special Collector's Edition" (a term to rival Forry's insatiable use of "Best Issue Ever!") and the fevered mind of Hewetson takes full control over his horror-mood by writing every story in this issue, including the adaptation of Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum". The art ranges from fairly subtle to psychotic, which I'm sure pleased Hewetson to no end. The artists must have pooled their money and bought a 55-gallon drum of the India ink that obscures the white from most pages.

This issue features the origin story of Lady Satan, and I still can't figure out if she grows a beard or that's just the artist's shading technique. Also, watch for the story tomorrow where a character that looks suspiciously like Archaic Al falls for a woman that looks suspiciously like Mike Royer's Vampirella in more than one panel. Lots of looney story titles too, but "The Fetid Belle Of The Mississippi" is classic Hewetson and takes the moldy cake.

SCREAM

Vol. 1 No. 2

October 1973

Skywald Publishing Corporation

Publishers: Israel Waldman; Herschel Waldman

Editor: Al Hewetson

Cover: Josep Maria Miralles  

Pages: 68

Cover price: 75 cents

SKULL-CRACKING CONTENTS

"The Macabre Beginning" (Lady Satan)

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Ricardo Villamonte

"I Was a Vampire For Hire"

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Felipe de la Rosa

""The Thing in the Black Dress" (Gothic Fairy Tales)

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Suso

"The Pit and the Pendulum"

Script: Al Hewetson (adaptation)

Art: Ricardo Villamonte

"The Phantom of the Opera" (unmasking scene interpretation)

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Mario Nava

"The Vampire Hunters"

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Domingo Álvarez

"The Vampire Letters"

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Emilio Bernadó 

"The Thing That Left No Fingerprints"

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Ferran Sostres 

"The Fetid Belle Of The Mississippi"

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Suso

"This is Suso" (artist profile)

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Suso

"The Name Is Sinner Cane... And The Name Means Evil!"

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Zesar

"A Gothic Fairy Tale: A Tale Of 2 Macabre Snakes"

Script: Al Hewetson

Art: Felipe de la Rosa 

HORROR OF DRACULA RESTORED

If memory serves me right, I remember a few years ago or more that a version of Hammer's HORROR DRACULA (DRACULA in the U.K.) was released on DVD that included the few seconds that were cut from the last scene that were deemed too shocking by censors. I also seem to remember it was only available on a Region 2 disc which means it wouldn't play on Region 1 (USA) players. I never followed up on it and never sure if it was ever released for Region 1 (I still haven't sprung for an all-region player).

If it never did make it, the wait is nearly over as Warner Bros. is preparing what appears to be a fully-restored version. Read the article below for more details.

Hammer Dracula Restoration Cut Can Establish Christopher Lee As the Scariest Vampire

A restored Horror of Dracula will bring Christopher Lee's full vampiric performance to the night.

By Joe George | May 26, 2026 | denofgeek.com

We here at Den of Geek respect every bloodsucker, whether it’s Orlok, Lestat, Count von Count, or Selene (X-Men or Underworld variety; we’re not picky). Yet, we have to admit that Count Dracula is the greatest vampire of them all. But who is the greatest Dracula? That’s a trickier question. The obvious answer is Bela Lugosi from the Universal Classics, and cinephiles may praise Gary Oldman from Francis Ford Coppola‘s now-reclaimed movie. Contrarians and hipsters might cite Frank Langella’s sensuous take in 1979 or Leslie Nielsen’s buffoon from Mel Brooks‘s Dracula: Dead and Loving It, but few can come to consensus.

That may be about to change, as one of the most beloved cinematic Draculas gets an upgrade. Warner Bros. is in the process of restoring the 1958 Hammer film Horror of Dracula, starring Christopher Lee as a particularly satanic version of the vampire. “We managed to get the uncut original Christopher Lee Dracula. So we’ve just been remastering that now,” Hammer head John Gore told Deadline. The new version will restore three minutes that were cut from the film to appease censors.

“Hammer’s business was based on the censor,” Gore explained. “Getting that X-rated certificate was crucial to marketing, but they could only go so far because the censors didn’t like what they saw — all that blood.”

Directed by Terence Fischer and just titled Dracula in its native U.K., Horror of Dracula retold the classic Bram Stoker story through a lurid, Technicolor lens. Pit against Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing, Lee played Dracula as at once regal and monsterous, believable as both a member of the aristocracy and as a creature of the night. Moreover, Hammer emphasized the sexuality of the original story, something only implied in the previous Universal version. The loose necklines on the costumes worn by Melissa Stribling and Carol Marsh weren’t there just to tempt Dracula with their jugular veins.

That sexuality was a key part of the problem, said Gore. One of the excised bits includes a scene “where Christopher Lee descends on the woman and is about to bite her. It’s so sexual and they had to trim that because it just looked like it was nothing to do with vampires,” he teased. “And now that’s back in. All the crucial points that were axed are now back in.”

Alluring as all the sex and violence may be, Gore’s most excited about restoring a key plot point, related to the death of the titular vampire. “They had to trim a bit of the sexual stuff and then how he’s destroyed at the end. They cut quite a lot out because they went, ‘It’s too gruesome,'” said Gore. But when a director’s cut of the film was found in a Warner Brothers storage facility, Gore was given the ability to show the world “the bits they weren’t seeing, which is mostly to do with how Dracula dies at the end.”

With his end fully revealed, and both his terror and allure completely realized, the debate may be at an end. Horror of Dracula may finally establish Christopher Lee as the scariest Dracula we’ve ever seen.

CHANEY'S BIG BAD WOLF

This mini-feature in CANADIAN FILM WEEKLY (January 28, 1942) has a little fun with Universal's THE WOLF MAN. Added to the snipped announcing the film is a cartoon identified as "Kroll", most likely referring to Julius Kroll, a Jewish caricaturist and graphic artist who worked in the United States after fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933.