More Golden Age goodness from Madmen George Woodbridge and Angelo Torres

As mentioned before, Woodbridge was a noted authority on period clothing and uniforms. He must have had a field day with this story from Premier Comics. 

Wait a minute, that's not an EC logo!

If you're going to rip off EC you might as well hire an EC artist. Don't feel bad if you initially thought it was Wally Wood, I did too.

Little is known about artist Sid Check, aside from the fact that he was a contemporary of fellow artists Wallace Wood, Joe Orlando and Harry Harrison, among others, in the 50s. When Wood and Orlando began their early art collaborations, Sid Check as well as Harrison were also fellow members of the same art studio. It isn't surprising that all four of them would soon be working for the same publisher, EC Comics, doing work with remarkably similar styles. To the untrained eye, Check's work can often be mistaken for Wood's. Check's art is generally engaging and attractive, if not entirely as well constructed as Wood's art was. Less prolific than Wood certainly, Check's work in comic books was short-lived, from December 1951 through 1958 mostly, with a smattering of work done sporadically in the early 70s... He remains a veritable mystery to even the most hardcore comic fans to this very day, as precious little has ever been documented concerning him.

A MAD in-joke?

This came out shortly after the debut of Mad. That and the font and the style leave me pretty sure that this cover (which does not match the tone of the rest of the story that follows) is an in-joke directed at some friends at EC.

A pre-EC Bernie Krigstein story

Bernie Krigstein probably has a higher reputation-to-recognized-output ratio of any comics creator. He is remembered almost solely for a handful of stories he did for EC, most notably "Master Race," widely considered the high point of the company's many masterpieces.

But Krigstein's work encompassed more than a handful of publications and while you probably won't find many masterpieces in the pages of magazines like Space Patrol #1 you will find a very good artist who was well on his way to being a great one.

Early Kurtzman

Early and minor work from Harvey Kurtzman. Perhaps I'm missing something but other than the lettering of the title, I don't see much of the distinct style that Kurtzman would show a few years later at EC.

But one of the great things about the Golden Age was the fact that it was possible to make a living doing mediocre work. If you don't have room the mediocre, you won't give artists the chance to grow into something better.

The Stan Lee Files -- worst casting ever for the role of Crypt Keeper

Other than than the strange superhero tie-in, this is a good example of the many EC knock-offs Stan Lee put out in the Fifties.

Himan Brown -- master of the Inner Sanctum dies at 99

As mentioned before, Brown's radio show, Inner Sanctum was one of the main inspirations for EC's horror line, which is more than enough to put the man in the comics hall of fame.

From the LA Times:

Himan Brown, the pioneer radio producer and director of "Grand Central Station," "Inner Sanctum Mysteries" and other popular shows of the 1930s and '40s who returned to the airwaves three decades later with " CBS Radio Mystery Theater," has died. He was 99.

Brown died Friday of age-related causes at his longtime apartment on Central Park West in Manhattan, said his granddaughter Melina Brown.

In a career in radio that began in the medium's infancy in the late 1920s, the prolific Brown's credits include "The Adventures of the Thin Man," "Bulldog Drummond," "Dick Tracy," "Flash Gordon," "The Adventures of Nero Wolfe," "Terry and the Pirates" and many others.

Along the way, he directed stars such as Orson Welles, Helen Hayes, Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre.

"He was one of the great storytellers of the heyday of the golden age of radio," said Ron Simon, curator of television and radio at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. "He symbolized an entire era of dramatic radio entertainment."

Brown may be best remembered for creating "Inner Sanctum Mysteries," which debuted in 1941 and ran until 1952. The show's opening featured one of the most famous sound effects in radio history: an eerie creaking door.

"That great sound effect just gave you a sense of mystery and suspense, symbolizing Hi Brown's flair for the dramatic," Simon said.

Long after the rise of television, Brown returned to radio to produce and direct the Peabody Award-winning "CBS Radio Mystery Theater," which ran from 1974 to 1982.