Mystery Comics Digest Number 5: Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery

First off I have to say that I have some doubles of these comics. A few are in very good shape. And some aren't.
This one is in deplorable condition.
I feel embarassed to post pictures of it.
I got it sight unseen on Abebooks  (http://www.abebooks.com).
It's chewed, and had suspicious stains on the first few pages that look like the comic was involved in a murder mystery of its own.
So it's either skip this entry or give it a go, in the hope that I track down a decent copy in future.
With that in mind, here we go:

Not bad you might say?
Check out the table of contents:

If you're still with me, I'll give it a go.
This is a so so Digest, there are three good stories. The Doctor Spektor artist is featured three times, and  these are; "Midnight Mysteries - The Boy and the Beast", a werewolf tale with a happy ending; "A Macabre Mystery - The Eternal Prince", another Egyptology story; and the first Doctor Spektor appearance in these Digests, "The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor - Of Inhuman Bondage", about vampire siamese twins. The best of the lot is "Boy and the Beast".
The other good stories are "Thriller - The Island" - in which a mousy bank employee makes off with the cash to an island paradise, and "Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery - The Man who Stole Immortality", a good story about a man who uses the magic of Merlin to become immortal, for a dark price.
There are two text stories, "Diary of a Demon", which runs for 21 pages, and a short story "The Phantom Rescue" all of three pages.
The cover art refers to a story about a typecast actor who gives a final performance in "Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery - Phantom of the Films".
There is also a cross over with Ripley's Believe it or Not! in a single page story called "The Dream". Later in a Ripley's Digest it expands on the story of a girl who dreams her lover is still alive after the First World War. Her determination drives her to find him trapped in the cellar of a ruined castle.
So there it is, an average Digest compared to later titles.

Mystery Comics Digest Number 3: The Twilight Zone

A very attractive cover on the third book introduces the Twilight Zone to the Mystery Comics Digest series. Also it has a pretty common theme in the entire series, Egyptology.
Here are the table of contents;

One thing that is noticeable is that within a Digest, often the same artist is featured throughout. We see that with the following stories; "The Last Sixty Seconds";"Experiment in Purple";"The Last Battle", and "The Ordeal of Bluebird Three". In all four you will see the same faces. I think the artist either was a narcissist or kept drawing his favorite uncle or something like that. Strange. See what you think:

There are a couple of text only stories, "Palace of Knossos", "Strange Sleep"; and The Bewitched Baroness". These are just two pages long.
Also there are some short segments similar to the Ripley's short segments, a collection of single pictures with some text; "Calling The Twilight Zone"; "Lost in the Twilight Zone"; "Voices From The Twilight Zone" (about Abe Lincoln); and "Time Travel into the Twilight Zone".
There are also two stories that look like the "Doctor Spector" artist did them; "Tales of the Macabre : Secret of the Jungle Lord"; and "Midnight Mysteries : Cry of the Dire Wolf". I have to say I've never been a fan of the art or the stories. However the artist does have an appreciation of female beauty, and pretty girls are featured throughout these style of comics.
Generally the stories in this Digest are quite good. A mix of artistic styles, the best stories are "The Bridegroom", about a couple of scammers and heartbreakers who get pulled into the Twilight Zone. There is a similar story called "Voyage to Nowhere", as pathos and a desire to help a beautiful woman has the same result. "The Secret of the Key" is quite good, with an historical switcheroo.
The final story is tied to the cover art, "The Queen is Dead-Long Live the Queen", where a long dead Queen is revived and demands a sacrifice. Long before Katy Perry, there's a throne room scene that is reminisent of her video.

Mystery Comics Digest Number 1: Ripley's Believe It Or Not!

A nice and creepy cover to start the series. (Incidentally, a while back someone on ebay was selling these cover paintings as originals. Were they authentic or just art school reproductions? Who knows, but they were asking around $200 each.)
Here's a photo of the contents pages:

I won't go through every story (unless someone requests it), rather I will mention some of the standout stories or art and give a general impression of the stories in the digest. Also, I will endeavour to post a list of "Labels" to each blog post, so that people looking for a specific type of story might more easily find them.
This first book has several fictional stories as well as Ripley stories. Also there are three written stories, like the ones in the first Boris Karloff book.
My impression is that this is a good introduction to the series, although I would have wanted more Ripley's. Also there are several pages of those Ripley factoids with a sentence or two to accompany a drawing scattered throughout.
Of the Ripley stories, there are a few stand outs. One is "The Dark Rider", about the real Napoleonic cavalry general Steingel. He had a premonition of his death that he confessed to Napoleon on the eve of the Battle of Marengo in 1800. The artwork is quite good for a comic book, Steingel is dressed as an elite Chasseur a Cheval and the Austrian Cuirassier looks near enough the part. The depiction of Death on horseback is quite effective.
"The Werewolves of Poligny" is a good story, but the artwork isn't quite there.
"Double Image" is a story about two men who had remarkably similar lives in parallel.
"The Beast of The Humboldt" is an odd name for a bigfoot story. Basically it's the origin story of the term bigfoot, where a road crew find big tracks and damaged road building equipment. The art work is sub par, as Bigfoot looks like a silly haystack, with buck teeth. Too bad the artwork let the story down. The Digest was published about 3 or four years after Roger Patterson's film at Bluff Creek, so it could be the original story was written and drawn before that seminal event.
"The Vampire" is a good story. A soldier in Hungary is attacked when out on campaign, and he returns home a sick man. Some of the vampire lore is mixed in the story. The vampire must eat dirt from the vampire's grave as a curative, and sunlight can kill the vampire. Oddly, the soldier dies in a road accident, so I suppose the dirt was working?
"The Haunted Villa" is based on a story by Pliny The Younger, about ghosts in ancient Greece.
"The Devil's Steed" is a well drawn story about a demon horse, the first of the Ripley's demon stories. Good story with great art.
A couple of interesting stories, one about the curse of the Hohenzollern family and the near death of Sir Walter Scott before he was even born.
The worst story is an odd one.
"Midnight Mysteries Trojan Horror", about a wierd looking horse that attacks humanity from outer space.
Not the best issue, but pretty good for a beginning.
This is a page from "Dark Rider". Great looking Grim Reaper! Incidentally, I looked up the story, and the General died after being wounded and having an arm amputated in 1796 IIRC.

 This is the haystack Bigfoot with buck teeth I mentioned in "The Beast of the Humboldt". I think bigfoot has more to fear of dentists that we do of him.

This last image is from "The Devil's Steed". Throughout the Mystery Comics Digest series, this particular artist does yeoman work, bringing these stories alive with his artwork. He did many stories of beasts and demons, and he also drew some very pretty female characters.