Secrets of Haunted House #5

Trivia · 7 facts

• Cover art by Bernie Wrightson — a Halloween jack-o'-lantern/pumpkin image widely recognized as one of his most distinctive Bronze Age DC covers.
• Interior stories: 'Gunslinger!' (written by Bill Reilly & Guy Lillian, art by John Albano & Vince Colletta); 'What Am I Bid?' (written by Arnold Drake, art by Tenny Henson); 'The Stars, Like Pallbearers' (written by David Michelinie, art by Ernie Chan [as Ernie Chua] & Bill Draut).
• Introductory host page written by Paul Levitz and drawn by Nestor Redondo — an early writing credit for Levitz, who would go on to become one of DC's most significant editors and writers.
• Death (Earth-One) appears in the issue alongside the full host roster of Destiny, Cain, Abel, and Eve — a roster that directly prefigures the Endless and the House of Mystery/Dreaming mythology later developed by Neil Gaiman.
• Issue #5 marks the last issue before the series' first major publishing hiatus; the next issue (#6) did not appear until June–July 1977, a gap of roughly 18 months confirmed by both the DC Database and the Grand Comics Database.
• The series overall was hosted by Cain, Abel, Eve, and Destiny, characters who had migrated from Weird Mystery Tales and Secrets of Sinister House — continuing a lineage of interconnected DC horror anthology hosts across multiple titles.
• A Mark Jewelers insert variant of this issue exists, as documented by marketplace listings — a distribution variant inserted into copies sold on military bases during the 1970s.

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