Daddy's Little Churl

A sinister, doom-laden dame
To begin life as human, her aim 
Trading shadows for joys
Her dad she destroys
As kindling consumed by a flame.


Black-clad Gloria Holden cuts a striking figure as Countess Zaleska, Dracula's Daughter (Lambert Hillyer; 1936).

The Pyre This Time

As an awful, neck-snacking King Lear,
To his offspring old Drac wasn't dear
When his smart-dressing daughter
Wants no part of such slaughter
From his coffin he's stacked on a bier.

Gloria Holden stars as Countess Marya Zaleska, aka Dracula's Daughter (Lambert Hillyer; 1936).

There Will be Suds

The scene's an explosion of shirt!
Machines overflow, soap suds spurt!
That eerie apparel
So queer and so feral!
Try cleaning off ghost-ground-in dirt!

Surly Hack with David Cairns


Cover art by Bill Everett, 1958.

The Unkindest Cut

For Sondheim, a hit operatic.
For Burton, success cinematic.
For artist whose wage
Was dollars per page,
A trash bin, or maybe the attic.

Donald B. Benson


A printers proof for The Unseen #15 (1954). Art by Mort Meskin and George Roussos.

Final Cut

Your barber is giving you fits!
You're thinking of calling it quits!
The swift, slashing motion...
Then aftershave lotion--
A shave and a throat cut...two bits!

Another great cover by Lee Elias (1953).

Bone Meals

These "silicates" - crawling unknowns
In a chiller that draws mostly groans
Defiling and smushing
On an island with Cushing
These killers will jaw on your bones.

David Cairns


Peter Cushing stars in Island of Terror (Terence Fisher; 1967).

Belle Ringer

Of her blood some transfuser did sap her
It was ruddy amusement to tap her
The clamor resulting
Has Hammer exulting
As THUD! she gets used as a clapper.

David Cairns


Carrie Baker swings in Dracula Has Risen From the Grave (Freddie Francis; 1968).

Scene of the Chime

You're dead and beginning to smell,

Your head hung within a big bell
By a hank of hair swinging
One yank! and you're ringing
A dreadful, dire, din: your death knell.


Cover art by Lee Elias, 1954. Welcome to the month long Countdown to Halloween! Each day in October we'll be bringing you limericks on horror films and comics and...all things creepy and scary. You can find out who else is participating over at Countdown Headquarters, here.

                                               

Kiss Me, You Ghoul

Your story was just getting started
Exploring a lust yet uncharted
Though she's bones now, deceased
Your jonesing's increased
Amor with the musty departed.


Art by Bernard Bailey; Weird Mysteries #12 (September 1954)

Love and Breath

You're spunky, well-coiffed, far too young
He's funky, like coffin-grade dung
That taste in your mouth
Like waste that's gone south...
From chunks that fall off of his tongue.


Art by Lee Elias; Chamber of Chills #23 (1954).

GRAVE-FILLING TALES OF SUSPENSE!

A figure, all ghostly and dried
Is digging a hole...but who died?
It's terrible news:
They're wearing your shoes
The jig's up, now go--lie inside!


Suspense #19 (1952); art by Russ Heath. Okay, what's with the bucket of water?

Drop Dead, Gorgeous

She's killing that dress in the tomb

You're willing? Say "yes!" You're Death's groom

This lady in red 

Has made you a bed  

Her chilling caress is your doom.

Cover by Russ Heath for Adventures into Terror #16, February, 1953.

Met Fans

Some finks meet their partners in bars
Some think that it's all in the stars 
That when planets allign
Romance goes online
Let's drink to those well met on Mars.

Art by Steve Ditko; Strange Tales #84 (May 1961).