Gone but not forgotten: Skywald: Naked ladies, Heaps and monsters

My first encounter with Skywalds’ “horror mood” line of magazines was in the playground of my secondary school in 1971 where I came across a group of older kids reading and waxing lyrical about one of their titles. It wouldn’t be until 1972 when I managed to purchase my first Skywald magazine, which were not that easy to pick up at 12 years old (and looking about 10) as they were considered to be “for mature audiences” . Luckily for myself, the staff in my local newsagents (Johnny’s) who knew me, were happy enough to let me have a copy of the 1972 Psycho annual. Although I never managed to pick up many Skywald magazines at the time the issue I did have contained some genuinely interesting horror tales, and more than a few illustrations of semi-naked ladies, what more would a 12 year old boy want!?.

Skywald made its comic magazine debut in December 1970 with the first issue of their black-and-white magazine-format comic book, “Nightmare” with their second title, Psycho, appearing just one month later followed by “Scream” in 1973 . All 3 titles included artwork by some of US comics most popular artists/writers including Gerry Conway, Mike Friedrich, Len Wein, Rich Buckler, Syd Shores, Pablo Marcos, Bill Everett, Tom Sutton and Ross Andru.

In amongst the standard standalone horror tales Skywald also produced strips featuring several return characters including their version of the 1950’s Hillman monster “The Heap” that first appeared in the second issue of Psycho (cover and splash page - by Ross Anru - above) . Although the origin of this version of the Heap was similar to the Hillman character, there were slight differences in that Jim Roberts (the Heap) was a crop duster pilot who crashed his plane into a secret government nerve gas storage facility. The resultant fire combined with the gas turned him into a shambling monster.

Other regualr strips included Frankenstein II. This strip first appeared in Nightmare #1 (splash page - by Tom Sutton - above) this strip was an interesting sequel to Mary Shelly’s original novel and took the monster on a quest find and resurrect his “father” Victor Frankenstein.

Lady Satan’s tales appeared in Scream magazine (October 1974 – cover below and splash page - by Pablo Marcos -above) and followed the tales of a witch called Black Anne who rejected the King of Hells offer of betrothal in order to father the antichrist.

In addition to their more mature black and white magazines Skywald also published a few colour comics including, Wild Western Action, Blazing Six-Guns, Jungle Adventures, and a single issue of the The Heap (see cover above and splash page below by Tom Sutton -images taken from eBay).

Allegedly it wasn’t poor sales that killed the company as they they sold very well with Nightmare lasting for 23 issues, with 3 annuals, Psycho clocking up a slightly more impressive 24 issues and 2 annuals and Scream lasting for 11 issues. Seemingly it was the introduction of Marvel’s black-and-white comic magazine line that signalled the end of the companies output. Marvel controlled the distributor Curtis Circulation, that Skywald had depended upon to distribute their magazines however, Curtis wasn’t about to handle their "owner’s" competition, so Skywald magazines were abruptly no longer available on newsstands, effectively killing the line.

Comic book Memories: John Byrne comic book(s) Nightmare and Psycho and the toothache from hell!

In 1970 a new series of comic magazines created by publishers Sol Brodsky and Herschel Waldam appeared in our spinner racks. These new comics from the company that took its name (Skywald) from BrodSKY and WALDam’s surnames produced the iconic horror magazine titles Nightmare, Scream, Psycho and Hell Rider until its demise in 1975. To be honest these magazine went pretty much unknown to myself until I started secondary school in mid-1971 where they seemed to be exceptionally popular with the “big kids” in 4th - 5th year (15 – 17 years old) who I would see reading them at break times. However it wasn’t until December 1972 when visiting my then favourite newsagents (“Johnny’s”) that I saw and purchased my fist Skywald magazine, the Psycho 1972 annual little knowing the pain and horror this comic mag would inflict on my memory.

The reason that the Psycho 1972 annual holds such “painful” memories to myself is that on 23 December 1972 (a few days after I purchased the book) I was eating the contents of a Cadburys selection box given to me as part of an early Christmas present by a friend when I bit into a chocolate bar and instantaneously experienced the worst toothache of my entire life. Now I have to admit I was scared (I mean really scared) of the dentist back then so I hid the fact I had toothache from my mum and dad and went to bed early. But the toothache didn’t subside so I was unable to sleep for the entire night as I was I such pain. All I had to hand was a couple of paracetamol and the Psycho 1972 annual which I tried to read in order to take my mind off the pain and that pain didn’t subside until around mid-afternoon on the 24 December. Fast forward to 2010 and on a visit to a Glasgow market stall that sold old comics I spied that Psycho annual. As soon as I saw that cover my hand subconsciously went to my mouth as if I was reliving that terrible toothache hell. I didn't purchase that Psycho annual as that magazine will forever be linked to that horrible time, yes for me it is a "cursed" comic book. Nostallgia has its place but some memories are best forgotten.

Skywald had a pretty impressive list of creators that worked on their various titles throughout its relatively short lifetime including Gerry Conway, Len Wein, Rich Buckler, Bill Everett, Pablo Marcos, Bruce Jones and Tom Sutton. It also featured the first professional work of future comic book superstar John Byrne who drew the 2 page tale below written by al Hewson from Nightmare issue 20.