The horrific beauty of Nick Cardy's covers - From Ghosts to the Witching Hour

As most readers of this blog will be aware I am am a massive fan of Nick Cardy's covers. Cardy (1920-2013) was one of the top comic book artists of the 20th century and was easily one of the greatest cover artists ever. His covers graced most genres but perhaps he was best known for his horror covers (although DC never used the word ‘horror’ in the 1960s and 1970s) . Along with Neal Adams and John Buscema, Nick Cardy was instrumental in cementing my love of US comic books with his unique and enthralling covers that begged you to pick up the comic book to find out more about the stories contained within - although these were rarely as good as his wonderful covers suggested. To celebrate , below are some of my favourite Nick Cardy “horror” covers.

Above: "The Witching Hour" comic was one of the best of DC's mystery comics line featuring not only some of Nick Cardy's best covers but it also featured some amazing strips by the likes of Alex Toth, Neal Adams and Bill Druat. Issues 31 & 45 are 2 of my all time favourite Nick Cardy mystery covers .

Above: The Unexpected #147 - This was the first DC mystery comic that I bought based on the cover alone back in 1973.

Above: Secrets of Sinister House # 5 - I wasnt aware of this title until I saw in in a bargin bin for £1 a few years ago - I only purchased this for the cover and the fact the tale was set in Scotland. Its a bit of a strange book for DC at this time as the entire comic only featured one story.

Above: The cover to the collected "Witching Hour" Showcse collection featuring my favourite Nick Cardy mystery cover from issue 4 of the comic. I was hoping to feature 13 covers but sadly these are my last Nick Cardy mystery/horror covers.