Mad House # 96

Writers: Marvin Channing, Bruce Jones, John Jacobson
Artists: Sal Amendola, Jesse Santos, Bruce Jones
Publisher: Red Circle Productions
Published: November 1974

Back to business eh? Hell Yeah! Speaking of Hell, I picked up this gem of an issue. Mad House # 96 (number of a beast, but not the beast) has a few tales of high interest. Never Bother A Dead Man concerns a local funeral parlor and it's keeper being attacked by a local gang. Little does the gang leader realize, but he's picked the wrong house of dead people to terrorize. Sounds cool right? Well it is cool, sort of. The gang leader is literally scared to death when he is grabbed by a dead guy still undergoing rigamortis.

Demon Kiss is the best of the bunch, which has a young wannabe actress selling her soul to the devil for a major studio part. The only catch is, if she doesn't kiss someone within a year's time she will lose her soul. What fascinates me with these types of tales is that the characters bargaining with the devil always want superfluous shit. Yeah yeah, I know that's the moral of these stories: your soul is always the most valuable thing you have, but I would like to see someday somebody selling their soul for something great, like world peace, or even a better soul. You know what I mean, one of those souls that is so great it makes other people feel worse just to be around them...fuck I hate those type people.

The third tale is about a young witch foiling her coven's plan to summon a demon when she orders them at gun point to resurrect her dead husband. Upon his resurrection, she instantly offers to make him a meal. I just hope she plans on making him a meal of evil and barley, as her husband is not who she thinks he is - he's a fucking demon - GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!

Finally the last tale has a dog cursed by a gypsy woman killing its owners by pushing them down stairs. Bit of a let down considering the the caliber of the other tales, but it did satisfy my appetite for dogs murdering people in a no-nonsense manner. This dog must be Cujo's older, more responsible brother, the one that calls home every week to check up on the family gossip and bills.