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Thursday, October 30, 2025

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.
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13 comments:

  1. KidOctober 30, 2025 at 2:52 PM

    Some great covers, though I see #s 31 & 45 use the same layout. Funnily enough, I'm waiting for a House Of Mystery facsimile edition to arrive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. McSCOTTYOctober 30, 2025 at 3:09 PM

    Is that HoM facsimile edition in the large size or standard US size.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KidOctober 30, 2025 at 6:58 PM

      It's the large Treasury size edition, McS. What happened to my 2nd comment?

      Delete
  3. McSCOTTYOctober 30, 2025 at 9:42 PM

    I don't have a second comment from you in my mail Kid. Ah I think I've seen that large treasury edition in FP in Glasgow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KidOctober 31, 2025 at 1:57 AM

      It's happened again. Left another comment in reply to your second one and it's disappeared. Perhaps it's because I mentioned a Simon & Kirby mag from the '70s. You'll have to guess, because if I type the name, it might disappear again.

      Delete
    2. McSCOTTYOctober 31, 2025 at 1:26 PM

      Just saw your post on your blog Kid re the Black Magic DC comic.

      Delete
    3. KidNovember 2, 2025 at 11:09 PM

      Hope it was of interest, McS. At least your comment here didn't disappear because of those two words.

      Delete
  4. Rip JaggerOctober 31, 2025 at 4:39 AM

    Love those Nick Cardy covers from that era. As good as his spooky covers were, his superhero work was even better, and his Superman covers the best of all. Great collection of seasonal images.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. McSCOTTYOctober 31, 2025 at 1:19 PM

      His Superman covers were special. One of my favourites was with Superman getting a tooth pulled, I think it's on my previous Cardy blog . And of course his Spectre cover for Secret Origins is an all time classic.

      Delete
  5. McSCOTTYOctober 31, 2025 at 1:16 PM

    Kid, the only thing that I can think of that happened to your messages was that I was travelling by train from London to Glasgow on Avanti West Coast yesterday and they have the worst wi-fi ever . Now I'm off to try figure out that comic!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KidNovember 2, 2025 at 12:27 AM

      I'd imagine my comments wouldn't have got through at all in that case, McS, not been published then vanished. It's a mystery I'll just have to live with.

      Delete
  6. baggseyNovember 2, 2025 at 6:33 PM

    I'll have to fish that Sinister House #5 out of my collection and read it now. I picked it up a few years back as I tried to complete a collection of all the DC 25-cent issues from 1971-1972. Still need issues 1-4.
    Cardy was a great artist. My favourite covers of his are the one's he did for Brave & Bold, especially #92 (the Bat Squad team-up issue) and a number of covers he did for Bat Lash.

    ReplyDelete
  7. McSCOTTYNovember 2, 2025 at 9:51 PM

    I don't think I ever saw an issue of "Sinister House" back in the 1970s, I will need to check the Cover Browser site to jog my memory. Cardy's Brave and Bold covers were great I also liked issue 92 and issue 94 with the "Teen Titans" .

    ReplyDelete

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