House of Mystery

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House of Mystery is the name of several horror-mystery-suspense anthology comic book series published by DC Comics from 1951 to 1983. It had a companion series, House of Secrets.

1 First series
2 Second series
3 Elvira's House of Mystery
4 House of Mystery
5 References
6 External links

[edit] First series

When it started, it featured three or four stories of horror and suspense in each issue. With issue #143 (June 1964), the Martian Manhunter series moved over from Detective Comics. He would continue here until #158 (April, 1966).

With issue #156 (January, 1966), Dial H for Hero begins and is the cover feature until issue #173 (March-April 1968). At this point, House of Mystery returns to being a true horror-mystery anthology title.

[edit] Second series

With #175 (May-June 1968), all the tales were introduced by a character name Cain, "able care taker" of the House of Mystery, who was also one of the hosts of Plop! and who later became a recurring character in The Sandman. The horror format began with the previous issue, including a character resembling the Phantom Stranger. Four issues from this era, #s 260, 267, 268 and 274, feature stories by T. Casey Brennan.

Its most famous recurring feature was I...Vampire, which dealt with a heroic vampire, Andrew Bennett, who sought to defeat his nemesis and former lover Mary, the Queen of Blood. This series began in #290 (March, 1981) and would last until #319 (August, 1983), two issues before the title ended with #321 (October, 1983).

The series won a good deal of recognition in the comics industry, including the Shazam Award for Best Individual Short Story (Dramatic) in 1972 for "The Demon Within" in #201 by John Albano and Jim Aparo, and the Shazam Award for Best Humor Story in 1972 for "The Poster Plague" by Steve Skeates and Sergio Aragones.

Issues #174-196 of this series have been reprinted in black and white in the Showcase presents House of Mystery collection. A one shot reprint (in color), Welcome Back to the House of Mystery, featured ten of the most highly-regarded stories in a Cain wraparound by Neil Gaiman and Sergio Aragonés, under the Vertigo imprint.

[edit] Elvira's House of Mystery

In 1986-87, DC comics would published a new series, Elvira's House of Mystery. It would last 11 issues plus a special.

[edit] House of Mystery

The House of Mystery also exists as a location in the DC Universe and the Dreaming. The origins of the House of Mystery are unknown. In fact, very little is known about the House of Mystery in general, lending credence to its name. The architecture is indeterminate and actually changes periodically. The same holds true for the inside of the house: the rooms constantly shift about, and one never enters the same room twice. The House of Mystery lies in the same graveyard as the House of Secrets, its companion. Whereas Abel resides in the House of Secrets, Cain makes the House of Mystery his abode.

Cain is not the only person to have resided within the House; in addition to boarders, including Mister Mxyzptlk, Elvira also took shelter within the House. Her brief stay in the House of Mystery is notable for two reasons: first, the House of Mystery is established as being the same House throughout its publication history. Three distinct personalities of the House are shown: the original horror House of Mystery, a dark humour "House of Weirdness"-style which harkened back to Cain's stint in Plop!, and the current version of the House of Mystery in Kentucky. The second reason is the timing of Elvira's stay. She took up residence during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which resulted in an identity crisis for the House itself. Elvira, tasked by the House of Mystery to find Cain, took over his role of host for a brief period, while Cain was relegated to being the butt of jokes during occasional cameos.

The House of Mystery possesses sentience, along with mystic powers. It has possessed someone before, and merged with the House of Secrets briefly. This also ties into the constantly shifting appearance of the House of Mystery.

The House of Mystery appears mainly in various Vertigo titles, especially those tied into Neil Gaiman's Sandman; it has also appeared briefly in Resurrection Man. Most recently something called the House of Mystery appeared in 52 # 18, where it seems to have been used for some time as a base for a team of detectives called the Croatoan Society, which counts both Detective Chimp and Ralph Dibny as members. It is unclear if the Croatoan's House of Mystery this is meant to be the same as the original House of Mystery, a post-Infinite Crisis version of the original House of Mystery, or simply a different location with the same name.

Superman (along with Mister Mxyzptlk) made an appearance in the house in issue #53 of DC Comics Presents. Batman entered the house in The Brave and the Bold #93.