All Star Adventure Comic #34

K.G. Murray's All Star Adventure Comic #34 was published c.August 1965:

The cover is from DC's Strange Adventures #175:

The story contents are as follows:

I, Invader, originally published in Strange Adventures #175, April 1965

The Secret of Earth's Unchained Terror!, originally published in House of Mystery #150, April 1965  

The Venus Sky-Trap!, originally published in Mystery in Space #22, October-November 1954 

The Man Who Tuned In The Unknown!, originally published in House of Mystery #119, February 1962 

Danger: This Town Is Shrinking!, originally published in Strange Adventures #175, April 1965

The Square Earth, originally published in Mystery in Space #22, October-November 1954 

The Revolt of the Morloo, originally published in House of Secrets #72, May-June 1965 

I Lived in Two Worlds, originally published in My Greatest Adventure #60, October 1961  

The Thought Pirate!, originally published in Mystery In Space #17, December-January 1954

I Hunted Toki the Terrible, originally published in Strange Adventures #168, September 1964

Most, if not all of these stories were published by K.G. Murray in other comics, either before this issue or afterwards. For example, I Lived in Two Worlds was previously published in All Favourites Comic #29, and The Square Earth was subsequently published in World's Finest Comic Monthly #58.

All Star Adventure Comic #33

K.G. Murray's All Star Adventure Comic #33 was published c.June 1965:

The cover is from DC's House of Secrets #71:

The story contents are as follows:

The Giant Who Once Ruled The Earth, originally published in House of Secrets #71, March-April 1965

The Town That Buried Me - Alive!, originally published in House of Mystery #149, March 1965

The Toy Stockade!, originally published in Dan'l Boone #8, September 1957

Interplanetary Insurance, Inc., originally published in Mystery In Space #16, October-November 1953

There's a Monster in my Mind!, originally published in Strange Adventures #174, March 1965

The Scourge of Guilt, originally published in Tim Holt Comics #24, June-July 1951

Planet in Reverse!, originally published in Mystery In Space #16, October-November 1953

I Was A Living Treasure!, originally published in Strange Adventures #174, March 1965

Guns of the Killer, originally published in Tim Holt #25, August-September 1951 

The Wonder Toys, originally published in Strange Adventures #37, October 1953

The Double Life of a Creature!, originally published in Strange Adventures #173, February 1965 

This issue is a mix of contemporaneous and 1950's DC stories, plus a couple of Magazine Enterprises features.

It is also the first issue in the series with a reduced page count from 100 pages to 84 pages. 

All Star Adventure Comic #32

K.G. Murray's All Star Adventure Comic #32 was published c.April 1965:

The cover is from DC's Tales of the Unexpected #87:

The contents are as follows:

The Truth Binoculars!, originally published in Tales of the Unexpected #87, February-March 1965

The 12 Faces of Crime!, originally published in Gang Busters #39, April-May 1954

The Man Who Saw The Future!, originally published in Strange Adventures #37, October 1953

Devil Bird!,originally published in House of Mystery #18, September 1953 

Canyon of Whirling Death!, originally published in World's Finest Comics #56, January-February 1952

The Secret of the Fantasy Films, originally published in Strange Adventures #173, February 1965

The Whirlpool of Doom!, originally published in House of Mystery #25, April 1954

Cut-Rate Crimes!, originally published in Gang Busters #37, December 1953-January 1954

Earth's Double Invasion!, originally published in Mystery In Space #14, June-July 1953

The Phantom's Return!,originally published in House of Mystery #22, January 1954 

The Strange Case of the Disappearing Earthmen!,originally published in Mystery in Space #15, August-September 1953  

The Winter War!, originally published in Tim Holt #5, March-April 1949

The Doom from Station X!,originally published in Mystery in Space #15, August-September 1953 

This material is mostly from 1950's DC comics. The Tim Holt story is from Magazine Enterprises.

All Star Adventure Comic #31

K.G. Murray's All Star Adventure Comic #31 was published c.February 1965:

The cover originally appeared on DC's Tales of the Unexpected #85:

The contents are as follows:

Our Strange Universe, originally published in Mystery in Space #90, March 1964 

The Day Red Turned to Green!, originally published in Tales of the Unexpected #85, October-November 1964

Twenty Floors of Felony!, originally published in Gang Busters #27, April-May 1952

The Ghosts in the Locked Room!, originally published in The Phantom Stranger #6, June-July 1953

Dead Man's Bluff!, originally published in The Phantom Stranger #6, June-July 1953

The Hairy Shadows, originally published in The Phantom Stranger #4, February-March 1953

Circus Cop, originally published in Gang Busters #24, October-November 1951

The Dream Killer!, originally published in The Phantom Stranger #4, February-March 1953

24 Hours from Death!, originally published in Gang Busters #25, December 1951-January 1952

Horror in Miniature!, originally published in The Phantom Stranger #6, June-July 1953

Heroes of the Highway, originally published in Gang Busters #26, February-March 1952

Trail of the Lucky Coin!, originally published in The Phantom Stranger #4, February-March 1953

The Riddle of the Ghostly Trumpet!, originally published in The Phantom Stranger #4, February-March 1953

Carnival of Crime!, originally published in Gang Busters #26, February-March 1952

Doorway in the Sky!, originally published in The Phantom Stranger #6, June-July 1953

Apart from the cover story and the single page feature Our Strange Universe, this issue is comprised of stories from the 1950's originally appearing in The Phantom Stranger or Gang Busters.

Most if not all of these stories were recycled by K.G. Murray. In some cases this was due to the stories being reprinted by DC.  

The Phantom Stranger's Horror and Mystery in Miniature!

The Phantom Stranger story Horror in Miniature! was originally published in The Phantom Stranger #6, June-July 1953:

This story was reprinted twice by K.G. Murray. The first time was c. February 1965 in All Star Adventure Comic #31:

The second time it was published by K.G. Murray was c.December 1968 in Wonder Comic Monthly #44:

Note that it is in the second edition that the DC logo appears on the top of the pages as per the original publication.

In 1968 DC launched a new Phantom Stranger series. The first few issues carried reprints from the original 6-issue run but this was not one of them.

However, DC did reprint this story a few years later in House of Mystery #224, April-May 1974, and the story was retitled Mystery in Miniature!: 

The retitling is accompanied by new host Cain introducing the story under the perview of the House of Mystery.

This version was published shortly afterwards by K.G. Murray in Super Adventure Comic #64:

Cain was excised for this printing. Along the right hand side you can clearly see the 1953 copyright for this story, which was also present in the House of Mystery #224 version.

I didn't know any of this when I first read this story, which was probably my first introduction to The Phantom Stranger. However it was not the story itself which made an impression on my 10-year-old imagination, but rather the cover of the issue it appeared in:

I reckon this cover is much bolder and more dramatic than the original cover to Justice League of America #103:

Of course, this is the DC instalment of the notorious Rutland Halloween Crossover, which again, I was not aware of as a kid, but appreciated the dissonance of the Marvel hero cameos in the DC Universe.

Tracking The Planet That Came To A Standstill! from Earth-Prime to Earth-Menzies

The Planet That Came To A Standstill was originally published in Mystery in Space #75. Here's a scan of the splash page from that issue:

A year or so later this story was published by K.G. Murray in All Favourites Comic #37:

Note the first text box omits the reference to America. Presumably this is the Justice League of Earth-Menzies...

Also note the white space above the indicia. It's rather ironic that the erased text reads in part "This periodical may not be sold... or distributed with any part of its cover or markings removed, nor in a mutilated condition...".

This story was published again by K.G. Murray some years later in All Star Adventure Comic #80:

This version includes the job number and writer and artist credits, both of which are absent from the original page. These changes were instituted by DC in the reprint of the story in Strange Adventures #235:

What wasn't immediately obvious to the reader of All Star Adventure Comic #80 is that DC opted to recolour this edition. However, keen observers would have recognised the remnants of the production staff notes to the left of Alannah, directing the new colour scheme.

This story was reprinted by Simon and Schuster in Mysteries in Space: The Best of DC Science Fiction Comics:

Note the writer and artist credits and job number from the reprint are omitted, however the new colour scheme has been maintained. As this was published under licence from DC it would appear this version was deemed canon in 1980 - albeit with slightly altered placement of elements in the frame.

But what is canonical in 1980 may not be so in 1999:

This splash page appeared in Justice League of America Super Spectacular, No. 1, 1975 issue. The green background made a triumphant comeback in a niftily graded form, and the rebranding of the story under the Justice League of America banner is forgiven by everyone, excepting maybe the long-defunct K.G. Murray.

The Adam Strange logo is intact in Showcase Presents: Adam Strange Volume One, First Printing 2007:

I have it on good authority that the version published in Showcase Presents: Justice League of America Volume One is not rebranded.

Here's a photo of the splash page in The Adam Strange Archives Volume 2: 

It appears the white space which afflicted All Favourites Comic #37 has returned, otherwise it is a faithfully cleaned up version of the original page.

The most recent DC reprint of this story that I am aware of is in Adam Strange: The Silver Age Omnibus but I do not have access to a copy of this book.  I wonder whether there is another variation of this story in this edition.

For an oft-reprinted award-winning story it certainly has been resistant to, shall we say, standing still.

And I haven't even mentioned the cover...! 

Here's a scan of the cover of my copy of All Favourites Comic #37:

It's a great cover of course, with more swirls than the original cover, but compare the bottom portion of the image to the original cover on Mystery in Space #75:

This is not the only cover for this story. Here's the cover to the All Star Adventure Comic #80:

This cover originally appeared on Strange Adventures #235:

A new cover to this story was drafted for the aforementioned Justice League Super Spectacular:

Not to be outdone by this wannabe, the original cover raises the stakes and makes a cameo appearance in DC Retroactive: JLA - The 70's #1:

This is Julius Schwartz on Earth-Prime holding a copy of the original issue. 

If you want to see a picture of me on Earth-Menzies holding a copy of All Favourites #37, all you have to do is buy me a beer. But it might lead me into bragging about how the arrival of this issue completed my run of 111 issues of All Favourites Comic. 

Oh - if you don't believe Earth-Menzies is a thing...:

The logo above is courtesy of Mark Cannon, who also contributed many of the scans and photos above. Thanks also to Mark Muller for scans, photos and advice on the printing and colouring of the issues discussed.

This Magazine Is Haunted #18 in Gredown's This Comic Is Haunted #4:

Many years ago I indexed Gredown's This Comic Is Haunted #4 but was not able to identify all of the source material in that issue. I can now confirm this issue does indeed contain the four comics stories from Charlton's This Magazine Is Haunted #18.

The first story in This Magazine Is Haunted #18 is The Last Earl!:

This story is reprinted complete and intact, apart from the omission of the Charlton indicia at the top of the title page:

This is the likely source of the reprint in Dillon Naylor's Choke! #1 which also crops the series masthead:

This story is credited to Shuster and Belfi but it appears Molno was Shuster's ghost in this and other instances.

The second story is Bridegroom, Come Back!:

This is reprinted by Gredown complete and intact:

Caretaker of the Dead! is the third comics story in this issue:

This is reprinted on the inner front cover of This Comic Is Haunted #4, hence the gloss white finish and the intrusion of the  Gredown indicia:

This story was originally titled Custodian of the Dead! and the Australian reprints are covered in detail in a recent dedicated post.

The fourth story is Valley of Shadow!:

This is reprinted complete and intact in the Gredown edition:

This story ends on the back cover.

The issue title is not recorded in the indicia, but each interior page retains the title across the top of the pages as per the original issue. The original pagination per story of the Charlton issue is also maintained.

I like to think the cover was selected in reference to Bridegroom, Come Back!:

AusReprints notes a number of instances in which the cover image was used on international comics and pulps over a number of years. This is the earliest recorded:

The Weird Legend of Ghost Hounds of Trelawney in K.G. Murray comics

Beware! Terror Tales #1 is a classic pre-Code horror comic by Fawcett which includes the Bob Powell story Ghost Hounds of Trelawney:

Just as Charlton retitled Custodian of the Dead! to Caretaker of the Dead! when they took over Fawcett's inventory, they retitled Ghost Hounds of Trelawney, which became Weird Legends of Trelawney in The Thing! #17:

This story has been reprinted at least three times by K. G. Murray. It is reprinted as Weird Legend of Trelawney in Doomsday Annual #2:

As Ghost Hounds of Trelawney in Super Giant #13:

And as Weird Legend Ghost Hounds of Trelawney in Monster Hunters Planet Series 3 No. 7:

This amalgam of both titles was published before the other two. And it is this version which has an altered final panel:

This version omits the witch host:

I'm curious whether the Monster Hunters version was published elsewhere.

Tracking the Custodian and Caretaker of the Dead in the Ghouls Graveyard

Custodian of the Dead is a justifiably famous pre-Code horror story, originally published in Quality Comics' Web of Evil #1, cover-dated November 1952. The art is by Jack Cole, and it has been reprinted a number of times. I have three copies of this story in: Chilling Archives of Horror Comics! #4: Jack Cole's Deadly Horror; Four Color Fear: Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950's; and a black and white printing in Terrology: Tales Too Terrible To Tell #7.

However, there is another pre-Code comic also titled Custodian of the Dead, widely attributed to Sheldon Moldoff, which originally appeared some months earlier in Fawcett's Beware: Terror Tales #1:

This one is not widely anthologised as per the Cole story, however it has been reprinted in Australia in K.G. Murray's Doomsday #19:

As I understand it, when Charlton took over Fawcett's line of horror comics, they changed the titles to some of the stories. Two of the stories from Beware: Terror Tales #1 were retitled, and one of them was Custodian of the Dead which was altered to Caretaker of the Dead in This Magazine Is Haunted #18, July 1954:

This version of the story was published in Australia by Gredown in This Comic Is Haunted #4:

It was also published in Choke! Classic & Obscure Horror Comics #1:

Choke! is a little-known two issue series published by local comics alumni and friend Dillon Naylor. From memory, when Dillon gave me copies of these two issues he said they were cobbled together from various Australian horror comics, and he specifically mentioned This Comic Is Haunted #4 as one of his favourites. Indeed three of the stories in Choke #1 are in that issue. Note however that the page from Choke! does not have the Gredown indicia.

Dillon also notes in his introduction that there was an almost word for word remake of the story titled Ghouls Graveyard, and reproduces the splash page, which I expect he sourced from Gredown's Grave Ghost's Tales #4:

Ghouls Graveyard was originally published in Eerie Publications' Tales From The Tomb V2 #2 and reprinted in Eerie V5 #4.

There are probably more reprints of these stories in Australian editions, but I have not seen a local printing of the Cole comic.