Doctor Vampire-Stan Asch (?)-1944

A hat, a cape and a walking stick--hardly your typical attire as a 1940s do-gooder. And we can infer from that first panel that he's in the book! Either that or the Coroner and he are old friends. Add to all this the splash panel explanation that he is, in fact, a real doctor! 

He Hides in the Tower-Bernie Krigstein-1956

The story here is slight to the point of non-existant and even then is tarnished by the Code making it so innocuous. The attraction, of course, is Krigstein, whose comic book work is always at mimimum interesting, even if his rep for brilliance is based almost solely on one story--EC's MASTER RACE. Here, as there, he plays fast and loose with panels again, but for no obvious reason.

The Fly and the Black Hood-John Giunta (?)-1962

Between the MLJ era and the Mighty Comics era, there exist a number of little-known superhero stories from Archie that appeared as backups in PEP and, as here, LAUGH COMICS. This one reintroduces one of the company's signature heroes into the newer continuity. Later on he would develop Hawkeye's annoying 1960s personality. Here, he's pretty straight-laced as in the old days.

The Unholy Three-Bill Madden-1944

What a dorky cool splash panel! Although completely unrelated, this story would seem to take its title  and vaguely its premise from a book and Lon Chaney's films of the same name, a 1925 silent and a 1930 talkie (Chaney's only one!) based on it, in which talented sideshow performers utilize their skills for crime.

Spider Woman-Major Victory-1944

In spite of the cool superhero-looking costume she wears above in the splash and in one or two other panels, this lady's real backstory is pretty much the same as that of all of those ne'er-do-wells who don sheets and pretend to be ghosts in order to keep strangers from the old house on the hill. In this case, a really icky giant spider costume!

Hey Look-Harvey Kurtzman-1948

Internet connectivity problems this evening so just a single pager but, HEY LOOK! It's a Kurtzman!

The Forest of the Living Dead-Manny Stallman-1951

Manny Stallman to this day is reviled by many Silver Age fans for a pair of RAVEN stories he did for Tower in the sixties. At that same time, though, he cranked out some gorgeous work for Warren and here, a full 15 years earlier, he was turning out some polished art reminiscent of later work by Dick Ayers or even Wally Wood!