WORLD OF MONSTERS: SCREAM! SCREAM! SCREAM! (PART 1)

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

SCREAM! SCREAM! SCREAM! (PART 1)

"Weird Warped Tales of Lunatic Screaming Horrors!"

Skywald's SCREAM was the next title, after NIGHTMARE and PSYCHO, in the evolution of editor Al Hewetson's "Horror-Mood" cycle. Declared as Phase 3 of his mad dream, the main difference here is that the content for SCREAM was based on the suggestions of readers who had filled out the "Bunch of Questions" and "Bigger Bunch of Questions" surveys.

By this time, reliance on artists was mostly from overseas talent such as Pablo Marcos, Maelo Cintron and Zesar Lopez. This did not diminish the striking work produced for the magazine. As a matter of fact, the artist's singular styles provided a wholly unique look that was not often seen in other horror comic magazines. Hewetson was at the writer's helm and penned all the scripts.

This, the first issue of SCREAM is notable for the story, "The Comics Macabre" in which a character that is unmistakably Al Hewetson is killed by the characters who are unmistakably Clean Comic Crusaders, Dr. Fredric Wertham (referred to as "Doctor" in the story) and Len Darvin (as "Jarvin") in order to keep him from publishing his gory horror comics.

The next tale is another "inside" spoof starring underground comix creators Robert Crumb and Jay Lynch, in "The Strange Painting of Jay Crumb". Also, you will see a number of Bela Lugosi's DRACULA photo swipes and a reference to H.P. Lovecraft and his Necronomicon for good measure. And one more extra-special bonus -- only two pages of ads!