Lost Marvels No. 5: Chamber of Darkness

The never-collected horror anthology series featuring rare stories by Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Barry Windsor-Smith, Marie Severin, and other master Marvel creators.

Chamber of Darkness was one of a pair of 1969 Marvel anthology titles that reclaimed the horror genre from the prohibitions of the Comics Code. Like its companion title Tower of Shadows (compiled in a best-selling Fantagraphics edition) Chamber featured Marvel’s best artists and writers working at the top of their game: Jack Kirby, Neal Adams, Barry Windsor-Smith, John Buscema, Marie Severin, Bernie Wrightson, Stan Lee, Denny O’Neil, John Romita, Bill Everett, and many more.

The Tower of Shadows volume, which launched Fantagraphics’ collaborative Lost Marvels series, quickly sold out, and this compilation of the never-before collected Chamber of Darkness stories will likely also be snatched up. Included here are two of Kirby’s finest works, both intricately drawn and hauntingly written by the King. Thomas and Windsor-Smith contribute a story that pits a writer against his own barbarian hero. Edgar Allan Poe stories “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “Masque of the Red Death” are interpreted by Marvel’s best. These stories, featuring a darker, subtler side to the creators of the Marvel universe, have never looked better than in this handsomely mounted collection. If you missed them in 1969, don’t let it happen again.

---

Lost Marvels No. 5: Chamber of Darkness is part of the Lost Marvels series.