Strange Mysteries 09

From the Weird Strange Archive

The Monstrous Madmen!! (cover illustration)

The Monstrous Madmen!! is a mid-century comic book cover illustration created in 1954 by American illustrator, art director, and publisher L. B. Cole (Leonard Brand Cole, 1918–1995). Originally commissioned for the Pre-Code horror anthology Spook #28 (Star Publications, April 1954), the artwork is widely recognized for its later appearance on the cover of Israel Waldman's reprint edition, Strange Mysteries #9 (I.W. Publications / Super Comics, 1958).

Visual Composition and Style

The illustration exemplifies L. B. Cole’s signature style of graphic, poster-like cover art, defined by heavy black line work, dramatic scale, and bold, saturated primary and secondary colors:

  • The Colossus: The central focus of the composition is a colossal, green-skinned malevolent entity clad in a hooded brown cowl and robe. The creature looms over a churning, stormy sea, glaring menacingly forward with clenched teeth and an outstretched, clawed green hand.

  • Maritime and Gothic Elements: In the creature's clutches and caught beneath turbulent oceanic swells is a modern steamship, which the colossus appears to be tearing apart or driving toward destruction. In the right background, an ominous gothic castle with pointed spires perches atop a jagged cliff face against a blood-red and yellow-tinted sky.

  • Teaser Scroll: The lower-right foreground features an unfurled parchment scroll bearing dramatic pulp teaser copy: "NEVER HAS THERE BEEN SO DIABOLICAL A PLOT AGAINST MANKIND... BUT WHO COULD STOP 'the MONSTROUS MADMEN!!'"

Publication History and Repurposing

Original Release (Spook #28)

The illustration originally debuted as the front cover of Spook #28, cover-dated April 1954 and published by Star Publications, where Cole served as art director and co-publisher. During the height of the Pre-Code horror boom, Cole’s cover art provided intense newsstand appeal to compete with contemporary horror lines from EC Comics and Superior Publishers Limited.

Reissue (Strange Mysteries #9)

In 1958, entrepreneur Israel Waldman acquired defunct printing plates from various shuttered Golden Age publishers, including Star Publications. Waldman repackaged the material under his I.W. Publications imprint:

  • Cole’s original Spook #28 cover illustration was recycled as the cover for Strange Mysteries No. 9.

  • The trade dress was modified to feature the distinctive distressed, black-and-red Strange Mysteries title masthead.

  • In the upper corners, Waldman added the publisher's signature white "I.W. Pyramid" logo on the upper-left and the "A Top Quality Comic" publisher stamp in the upper-right (which Waldman used in place of the Comics Code Authority seal).

  • Due to Waldman's practice of packaging interior stories alongside unrelated repurposed covers, the issue's lead interior horror story—"Creeping Death"—was written and penciled by cult sci-fi/horror artist Jay Disbrow, causing Disbrow to occasionally be misattributed as the cover artist in early dealer indices.