Midnight 27: HOUSE OF MYSTERY #294

It's been six months since the last episode of Midnight...The Podcasting Hour, and no one has seen or heard from PJ Frightful in all that time. When Ryan Daly and the Irredeemable Shag go looking for the host, they find a truth more horrifying than anything they could have imagined! Also, a copy of House of Mystery #294. Join Ryan as he covers the three stories in this issue with guests Shag, Darrin and Ruth Sutherland, and Jimmy McGlinchey.

Beginning an epic run that will lead all the way to the mind-blowing episode 31, trust us when we say YOU DARE NOT MISS THIS EPISODE!!!

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Music produced by Neil Daly.

Thanks for listening!

5 responses to “Midnight 27: HOUSE OF MYSTERY #294

  1. Thanks for another great show, Shagg, Ruth & Darrin, and Jimmy were great guests with terrific insights.

    I bought this at the time, and remember it as a pretty darn good issue. Mind, the first story in this House of Mystery is really dull, but an interesting footnote is that it featured Mother Juju, who Gerry Conway had recently introduced as a supporting character in Wonder Woman It’s odd that the weakest story in the book gets the cover – Mike Kaluta could have done a brilliant job with any of the stories in the issue.

    The Bruce Jones story cheekily opens with a steal from Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. I loved the sad romance of it all, you cannot go wrong with Jones and Tom Yeates! Well done to Ruth for spotting that clue about Judd and ghosts.

    I like the third story, and how interesting that Paul Kupperberg used the name ‘John Ostrander’ again, as he did in Daring New Adventures of Supergirl. There it’s an actor, here it’s the judge, although his first name is reduced to an initial, presumably so it doesn’t clash with the name of our protagonist (but why not give HIM a different name? Maybe there’s a real-life John Bates too!). This is a fun story, a nice fantasy twist on the kind of parental disagreements that occur. The witch doctor made me think of that guy from Bewitched, Dr Bombay… I could see Darrin taking out an injunction on ‘behalf’ of Tabitha and Adam. Maybe John Bates felt he’d been forced into the life, and felt trapped, and wanted his kid to at least have the choice of to witch or not to witch from a religious, if not genetic, point of view. I always liked George Tuska, and while the effect is great, it’s still a shame to see Tony DeZuniga wipe out his fingerprint.

    Interestingly, the lettercol of #300 had Todd MacFarlane commenting favourably on the issue.

    Get well soon, PJ Frightful!

  2. I’ll check the House of Franklin-Stein to see if PJ (Pope James? WOW.) has been squatting there again. He usually doesn’t try it until at least September, but since he’s “under the weather” he may have gotten desperate. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about, though.

    I’m with Shag (God help me), I couldn’t get Henry Allen out of my mind either, but he does look like William Daniels too! Turns out TwoMorrow’s Retro Fan magazine #9 (current issue) has an interview with Mr. Daniels and his wife, Bonnie Bartlett, so great timing!

    The second story’s twist reminds me a bit of the Sixth Sense, of course. Love the Yeates artwork. Man, talk about under appreciated artists! Always great to hear Darrin and Ruth, and thanks to the RaD team for the kind words on HOF!

    I totally got a Kramer vs. Kramer vibe just looking at the pages of the third story. And boy, DeZuniga’s inksreally transform Tuska’s pencils into Mystery-title readiness. Kind of wish someone had done the same on the Infantino story. Jimmy is always a pleasure to hear on the network as well!

    Glad to have Midnight back, even without the Pope (really, Pope James?)!

    Chris

  3. Thanks for another excellent episode and an even excellenter (WARNING: may not be a real word) set of guests.

    The Darkness: I think a better ending would have been for the lights to go out and Kingly to feel the hand on his shoulder. Leave it up to the reader to decide if he meets an untimely end, or if he inherits the curse for the rest of his life.

    Old Haunts: This story definitely invites multiple readings to look for clues to the ending. I’m a big fan of a well written plot twist like this.

    Congratulations, Mr. Bates — It’s a Warlock: Wait. A society of witches and warlocks that exists unseen beside our own, complete with their own healthcare system?! This sounds like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I can already imagine future installments of this story where John Jr. (J.J. to his friends) attends Hogwarts with his teddy-dad in tow. Call me crazy, but I’m guessing he’ll be sorted into Slytherin.

  4. Thanks Ryan for inviting me to be part of the podcast – I really enjoyed the story you assigned to me and it was fun to discuss the ins and outs with you.

    It was interesting to hear about the other two stories in the podcast discussed. The first story that you and Shagg discussed was an interesting tale. When I think of Infantino, it is purely about his run on the Flash and the work he did on Elongated Man and Supergirl, so to see him doing a horror tale was very interesting. His style is not the first that you think about when you talk about House of Mystery stories but I think his art does work for this story. Beatty’s use of blacks really helped to accentuate the tension in a story where darkness is the enemy.

    The second story that you discussed with the Sutherlands was, in my view, the best story of the issue. Yeates’s art is truly gorgeous and Jones’ story was well-crafted, and had a nice twist at the end.

    Hopefully, there won’t be as long a delay for the next Midnight podcast to come out, but given that you and Shagg had crossed paths with where PJ Frightful had been, I am fearing the worst! Given the number of podcasts that you and Shagg interact with, the contact tracing is going to take forever!!! 🙂

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