by Steve Moore (script) and Brian Bolland (art)
from House of Hammer, No. 13 (October 1977)
During its short, two-year lifespan (1976 - 1978), the 23 issues of Dez Skinn's House of Hammer black-and-white magazine emerged as something more than just a British version of the American publication Famous Monsters of Filmland.
It is true that most of the content of House of Hammer consisted of articles about horror movies, copiously illustrated with stills, as did Famous Monsters. But House of Hammer also ran in each issue a black-and-white comics adaptation of a Hammer film. These comics (which were usually 15 or so pages in length) could only offer a truncated, condensed retelling of the film, often with too much panel space devoted to dialogue and exposition. But they featured outstanding artwork from a number of talented British artists who, in the 80s and 90s, would go on to become stars for their contributions to flagship titles for Marvel and DC.
I've posted below the comics adaption of the 1966 Hammer film Plague of the Zombies. The movie was rather tame by today's standards - there is more blood and gore in a single minute of each episode of The Walking Dead - but the artwork by Brian Bolland is top-notch, featuring some excellent stippling, cross-hatching, and shading effects, artistic work that is rarely seen in contemporary U. S. comics of any genre.
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