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"No Strings Attached": This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #191.

DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #24 is an issue of the series DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest (Volume 1) with a cover date of August, 1982.

Synopsis for "No Strings Attached"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #191.

A kind old man dies of a broken heart when an opportunist buys his house in order to profit from a new highway which will run through the property. The neighborhood children's ill wishes towards the man animate the old man's puppets who murder him and dangle his body in the puppet show with strings attached.

Appearing in "No Strings Attached"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Gegory "Gramps" Miller (Single appearance; dies)

Supporting Characters:

  • Children of Pottersville
    • Dick (Single appearance)
    • Jill (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Lucas Stone (Single appearance; dies)

Locations:

Items:

  • Suzy the Doll
  • Puppets & Marionettes
  • Wood carving of Abel


Synopsis for "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made of"

This story is reprinted from House of Secrets #83.

Abel locks himself out of the House of Secrets, and to keep from giving in to fear he tells himself (and his imaginary friend Goldie) a story...

A young man dying of an incurable disease finds himself dreaming of another world where he falls in love with the beautiful king's daughter but gets pulled back into the hospital bed when he wakes from the dream. When he eventually dies, he finds he remains in the dream world permanently.

Appearing in "The Stuff That Dreams Are Made of"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Jim Ivey (Single appearance)

Supporting Characters:

  • Princess Lyla (Single appearance)
  • King Shalla (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • A vicious creature (Single appearance; dies)
  • Assassins (Single appearance; dies)

Other Characters:

  • Jim's doctors (Unnamed) (Single appearance)
  • Royal Physician (Unnamed) (Single appearance)

Locations:

Synopsis for "All in the Family"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #204.

A couple stuck in the swamp stop at a house for help. The woman recognizes the place from a dream she had where two disfigured old people opened the door and fed her to a blob-like creature. The person who opens the door is a beautiful woman who invites them to stay for dinner. The man relates the dream to the host and she admits the pair in the dream sound like her parents and she mentions that she has a brother. The woman screams when the blob-like brother enters the room and devours her. The man returns to the car and disposes of it in the bog and hurries back to the beautiful lady hoping to score with her. The ugly old parents open the door and invite him to relax on the couch as their daughter changes into "something more comfortable" as tentacles begin waving from up behind the couch.

Appearing in "All in the Family"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Fred (Single appearance)
  • Mary (Single appearance; dies)

Supporting Characters: Antagonists:

  • Gloria (Single appearance)
  • Ookey (Single appearance)
  • Gloria & Ookey's parents (Single appearance)

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Fred's car (Destroyed)

Synopsis for "The Demon Within!"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #201.

When a family concerned with their social standing within the community discover that their little boy has the ability to shape-change into a demon, they have the child lobotomized so that his behavior does not continue to embarrass them.

Appearing in "The Demon Within!"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Gary Winters, jr. (Single appearance)

Supporting Characters:

  • Gary Winters (Single appearance)
  • Mildred Winters (Single appearance)
  • Kathy Winters (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Martin (Single appearance)

Locations:

  • An undisclosed town

Synopsis for "Hide -- And Go Seek!"

This story is reprinted from House of Secrets #94.

A henpecked police officer is shocked to find out his best friend was searching for a cure for drug addiction and developed a serum that transformed him into a strangler that choose his victims among girls who reminded him of his wife who left him. After the police manage to shoot him at last the dying man tells his friend where the vial of serum is located and begs him to destroy it. After he returns to his shrew wife who is telling him about how she's already spent his bonus for solving the case, he withdraws the serum from his coat pocket and drinks it down.

Appearing in "Hide -- And Go Seek!"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Lt. Homer Plumm (Single appearance)

Supporting Characters:

  • Hazel Plumm (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Dr. Paul Jacobs (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Joanie Jacobs (Single appearance) (In a photograph only)

Locations:

Items:

  • Hyde formula

Synopsis for "Double Take"

This story is reprinted from The Witching Hour #12.

An actor shoots a blackmailer but the killing unhinges him and he imagines a director ordering him about the crime scene until the police show up to arrest him.

Appearing in "Double Take"

  • Appearances not yet listed

Synopsis for "The Whole Ball of Tin"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #199.

Appearing in "The Whole Ball of Tin"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • J. Frederic Brown (Flashback and main story) (Single appearance)

Supporting Characters:

  • Ellen Brown (Dies in flashback)
  • Wilson Brown (Apparent Death)

Antagonists:

  • Strangways (Flashback only)

Locations:

  • An undisclosed city

Items:

  • Tin foil ball collection

Synopsis for "Tomorrow, I Hang!"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #209.

A man sentenced to die acts unusually amused at the idea. It's because he was bitten by a female vampire, and once he dies, he'll be an immortal creature of the night as well, where his only weakness is a stake through the heat, fire, or having his head cut off. However, once his day comes, he finds out that the king learned of his noble ancestry, and so instead of the indignity of being hanged, his sentence was changed to a quick merciful death, by beheading.

Appearing in "Tomorrow, I Hang!"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Mario (Single appearance; dies)

Supporting Characters:

  • Viola (Single appearance)
  • Jacopo (Mentioned only)

Antagonists:

  • An executioner (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • A sexton (Single appearance; dies)

Locations:

Items:

  • Axe

Synopsis for "The House of Endless Years"

This story is reprinted from House of Secrets #83.

A girl looking for her brother takes her friend along for the search and they have the misfortune to enter a house which drains the youth from all who step inside.

Abel finishes telling his stories and is surprised by his brother Cain, who has come to borrow a cup of hemlock. Cain opens Abel's door with no trouble at all, leading Abel to think the old, haunted house is laughing at him.

Appearing in "The House of Endless Years"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Peggy (Single appearance)
  • Judy (Single appearance)

Supporting Characters:

  • Neal (Single appearance)
  • Cain (Appears in afterword)

Antagonists:

  • An old woman (Single appearance; dies)

Animals:

  • Tippy, a dog (Single appearance)

Locations:

Synopsis for "Countdown"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #195.

A rival for the pilot of the first ship to Mars switches the man's oxygen tank with poison gas so the man dies and he will be chosen to fly the ship instead. The dead man's ghost gets revenge by hitting the auto-destruct button.

Appearing in "Countdown"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Peter (Single appearance; dies)

Supporting Characters:

  • Jason (Dies in flashback) (As a spirit)

Other Characters:

  • Valerie (Flashback only)

Vehicles:

  • Rocket (Destroyed)

Synopsis for "A Girl and Her Dog"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #196.

In an orphanage run by Satanists a young boy befriends a newly arrived girl and presents her with a pet dog. The mistress seizes the dog for an animal sacrifice but when the children follow the cultists downstairs, the dog takes the opportunity to bite the mistress and jump off the platform. The girl calls to the dog but it whines in fear and cringes away from her. It turns out the girl is the vessel of an evil spirit.

Appearing in "A Girl and Her Dog"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Lissa (Single appearance)
  • Michael (Single appearance)

Animals:

  • Peter the dog (Single appearance)

Antagonists:

  • Black Priests (Single appearance)
    • Miss Cruthers (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Lissa's Aunt & Uncle (Single appearance)

Locations:

Synopsis for "Born Loser"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #194.

A man uses magic spells to make him appear dead in his cell after he murders his wife and is scheduled to hang. He has made previous arrangements with his lover to collect the body, but when she goes to get it she is told the man has been cremated.

Appearing in "Born Loser"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Homer Weaver (Single appearance; dies)

Supporting Characters:

  • Priscilla (Single appearance)
  • Judith (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Judith's father (Unnamed) (Single appearance)
  • Prison Warden (Unnamed) (Single appearance)
  • Demons

Locations:

Items:

  • Books of Black Magic

Synopsis for "Sno' Fun!"

This story is reprinted from House of Mystery #199.

Dr. Wallace B. Peterson wants the fame of the discovery of a lost civilization in Antarctica for himself and so kills his colleague Professor Strauss. On the exploratory mission he is then captured and kept prisoner by that lost race of monstrous men who want to know everything about the outside world. A long time later he manages to escape but returning to civilization he doesn't feel well and goes to relax at the House of Mystery. There he finally melts to water having physically become like one of those lost men.

Appearing in "Sno' Fun!"

Narrator:

Featured Characters:

  • Dr. Wallace B. Peterson (Flashback and main story) (Single appearance; dies)

Supporting Characters:

  • Professor Strauss (Dies in flashback)

Antagonists:

  • Polar Skeleton men (Single appearance)

Other Characters:

  • Howard (Flashback only) (Single appearance)
  • Morgan (Flashback only) (Single appearance)

Locations:

Vehicles:

  • Icebreaker ship



See Also


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