Don’t be squeamish with this edition of ‘Cryptology’. It’s only spiders, and they aren’t really there to eat you.
The second part of writer Mark Voger’s look at film stars who also appeared in horror films picks up on several you already know, like Claude Rains, Spencer Tracy, Charles Laughton, Ray Milland and Humphrey Bogart. Did I just write Bogart? Yep. The 1939 film ‘The Return Of Doctor X’. You heard of it? Me neither. The thing is, with the studio system, actors and actresses appeared in whatever films they were told to. Some, like Ray Milland, still did so later in life, simply for the work.
An article on Neal Adams is always an obvious selling point, and this Cryptology has one. This one focuses on his horror material. If you’ve missed out on his ‘House Of Mystery’ covers and his one story there, you have enough information here to track them down.
Moving on to the Batman’s more horror-flavoured output takes us from Adams to other artists as well, which does mean this issue has a bit more comic-book material than usual.
Writer John M Navroth has a look at the Super7 ReAction figure range based on classic horror covers. Some of them glow, although I would stop short of calling them toxic. You probably get more radiation from any building made of granite than from these glowing models.
Then it’s back into pre-Code horror comics with writer Michael Bonesteel and some interesting covers.
Writer Steve Kronenberg has a look at some of the B-movies featuring spiders from the 1950s. Not the common type, but the monstrous-sized ones that should set some of your hearts fluttering. He comes back later to some of the later movies.
I used to think ‘Spider Baby’ was just a joke on the TV comedy series ‘Father Ted’. Writer Don Vaughn puts me right on that subject. There have been two films with that name: the first in 1967, starring Lon Chaney Jr, and then another in 2007. There’s even been a musical. Watch your diet with this one.
Getting away from the spiders, writer Tim Leese looks at the Hammer version of ‘The Quatermass Xperiment’ (1955). It was given the title ‘The Creeping Unknown’ in the USA. It was also responsible for giving Hammer a decent push into horror films. It’s a shame the TV version wasn’t better preserved because, back in the day, it cleared the streets as Britain’s population watched it, and I would have loved to compare the two.
If you don’t like spiders, I’m not sure you’re going to buy this issue. Did I say there were a lot of photos? You might want to open it cautiously. Some of the depictions don’t really match real spiders in terms of eyes or mouths. They just get the idea of legs, big abdomens and webbing people up. Less so the way spiders digest their prey, which I would have thought more horrifying than anything depicted here. Spiders are good. They remove a lot of insects. Few are interested in humans as prey.
GF Willmetts
October 2026
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82-page illustrated magazine. Price: $10.95 (US). ISSN: 2997-4-416X. Direct from them, you can get it for $10.95 (US))
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