Chamber of Chills #11 - Review

Vol. 1, #11 - July 1974

Growing up, when it came to comic books, I was more of an occasional dabbler than a regular reader. 

While I knew of Batman and Superman and Spider-Man, I was far more interested in stories about, well, ghoulies, ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties. Lucky for me the 'Bronze Age' of comics saw a significant resurgence in horror and monster-themed books, so there was plenty for me to choose from throughout the mid-to-late 1970s.

I do not remember any of the titles, much less the actual issues, of the various comic books that I would partake of every now and then. There are only flashes of images and a few weird stories that, for one reason or another, got seared into my memory.

Back from the Dead, the second story in this collection of horror comic reprints, is just one such tale. A man escapes from the police and hides out on Easter Island, only to then learn its devastating secrets. Simple and straightforward stuff.

Revisiting it some, maybe, fifty-plus years after reading it, I am amazed by just how vivid my recall of this story was. There were certain panels that looked just how I remember them to have looked. It was uncanny.

The cover illustration, however, did not jog loose any memories of my having seen it, back in the day. The only thought that popped into my head was, "Hey, I remember this story!" Which is why this eleventh issue of Chamber of Chills was one of my final impulse purchases at Monsterpalooza this year.

I feel I should also point out that, while there is a woman on the cover, no woman appears in the actual story. Make of that what you will. 

According to the Marvel Database, this July 1974 issue was placed on shelves, or in spinner racks, on April 16, 1974. At that time I would have been all of six years old and halfway through the first grade. Okay, then.

As vivid as my memory of Back from the Dead, which first appeared in Tales of Suspense issue #18, in June of 1961, no additional memories were jogged loose or stirred up when I read the other three stories reprinted in this issue.

First up is The Ghoul, which first appeared in Adventures Into Weird Worlds #10, in September 1952. An on the lamb murderer is quick to regret taking a short cut through a cemetery, when he is discovered and mistaken for a ghoul that has been defiling the graves.

Torture Room, a concentration camp set tale of retribution, follows Back from the Dead and first appeared in Adventures Into Terror #4, in June 1951. Although it pre-dates both The Twilight Zone episode Deaths-Head Revisited, by ten years, and the Night Gallery segment A Question of Fear, by twenty, it reads and plays like a mash-up of the two. Satisfying, but probably more potent for a reader in 1951 than this reader in 2025.

The issue's closing story is Werewolf, a reprint from Menace #3, from May 1953. Waldo, ruthlessly henpecked by his shrewish wife and mocked by his disbelieving neighbors, is desperate to prove that there is a werewolf prowling the area on the nights of a full moon.

But poor Waldo has forgotten an important rule of thumb. Always be careful of what you wish for, because you just might get it.

This was a fun and nostalgic read for me, if only because one of its stories somehow managed to become photocopied into my memory. Perhaps it was the fact that Jack Kirby illustrated that particular story. Maybe. I have no idea, really.

But I am glad I can now identify it.