Steve Skeates was one of my favorite writers after coming over to DC from Charlton with Dick Giordano, and editor Giordano let Steve own this issue of the Witching Hour. From top to bottom, stem to stern, this is Skeates' issue dealing entirely with the duality of man.
It begins with a one-page framing sequence by Skeates and Alex Toth and it is just wonderful. Toth's smooth exaggeration of the three witches' faces is just priceless as Cynthia tries on a new hat. Just lovely work.
The framing sequence blends right into our first tale, "Double Edge" by Steve Skeates and Alex Toth. which delves into the double-nature of man. The good, the evil and the ability of talismans of power to amplify each of these. When a teenage boy finds a talisman in an old junk shop, he is sure it has real powers, but one day his step-mother sends him out to do his chores and throws away all of his "junk." A few days later he decides to run away from home and he never returns. He goes to the dump, but is unable to locate his talisman, figuring that some tramp must have found it.
He spends the next years in search of the talisman or one just like it, which eventually brings him to Los Angeles and the old Pryor Mansion and the old bag who lives there that many say is a witch. He figures that she must have a talisman and he intends to take it and use it for good. One night, as he approaches the old house he is attacked by a bolt of pure energy and the old witch is upon him. Realizing that the man only has the powers of a neophyte, she tows with him as his strength slowly dissipates.
The witch decides she is tired of the game and throws one last high energy bold at the man, only he holds up a charm that reflects the bolt back at the witch, killing her. As he approaches her body he sees that it is his step-mother and her talisman is the one she said she threw away all those years ago. The three witches watch as he sits in shock and wonder if he will use the talisman for good or follow in his step-mother's footsteps.
Next is "Double Take" by Steve Skeates and George Tuska with an assist on the witches by Alex Toth. An actor is being blackmailed so he decides to end his problems by killing the blackmailer. After shooting him in his apartment, he is confronted by a director and film crew in the room who tell him he has to do it over as he did not follow the script. When the director says they need to do it again, the blackmailer gets up and the actor shoots him again then makes a break for the door. The director tells him to wait, that he needs to go over to the mantel and wipe off his fingerprints. Protesting that he never touched the candlestick, the actor does as he is told, and then starts to leave the apartment. When he opens the door he is confronted by the police and as they arrest him he yells at the director that it is all his fault, but of course, the police don't see anyone else in the room. This story was reprinted in DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #24 (1982).
We end with "Double Cross!" by Steve Skeates, Gil Kane and Dan Adkins. A young woman joins a yoga class where, unknown to her, the instructor is a Satanist. He teaches her to see the normally unseen forces of good and evil struggling her possession of her soul and this frightens her to the point of wishing to discontinue her studies. He gives her a charm in order to dissuade her from quitting, telling her that it will ward away evil spirits. What she doesn't know is that the charm is supposed to ward away good spirits. When the evil creatures that only she can see accost her, she accidentally drops the charm down a grate.
She goes to the yoga instructor in order to procure a stronger charm, but the Satanist assumes that she has been possessed and invites her to join their black mass. When he sees that she is upset and confused, he realizes that her soul has not yet been claimed for evil and has his demons pursue her. She breaks the glass of a department store window in order to seize a cross to ward them off. She explains all this to police who tell her she will have to wait in a cell to see if the department store owner wishes to press charges. They remove the cross from the hysterical woman as evidence and leave her terrified waiting in the cell for the demons to find her, unsure if she will be strong enough to fight them off without the cross.
The entire issue was reprinted in Showcase Presents: The Witching Hour Vol. 1 TPB (2011) and was edited by Dick Giordano.
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