With Halloween quickly approaching, I can't help but enjoy the sinister nature of this cover of Fantastic magazine from November 1952.

The mortified heroine is great. The creepy little monsters are great. The unsettling 'haunted house' motif is great.

Do you get the idea? This is one great cover!

I plucked this little gem from the ever-interesting Web site, booksfromthecrypt.com, which also provides a rundown of what's to be found inside:

FANTASTIC: Nov./ Dec. 1952 - Ziff-Davis, NY; digest; Vol. 1, No. 3. Wraparound cover by Barye W. Phillips. Includes "The Veiled Woman" by Mickey Spillane (Howard Browne rewrite); "To Fit the Crime" by Richard Matheson; "Final Exam" by Chad Oliver; "Candlesticks" by Dean Evans; "The Moon of Montezuma" by Cornell Woolrich; "The Missing Symbol" by Ivar Jorgenson (pseud., unattributed); "Rabbit Punch" by Ralph Robin; "The Opener of the Crypt" by John Jakes; "The Celestial Omnibus" (reprint) by E. M. Forster; "The Cask of Amontillado" (reprint) by Edgar Allan Poe. Illustrated by Emsh, David Stone, Bill Ashman, Dave ('Charles') B. Frankenberg, Mendoza, Tom Beecham, L. R. Summers and Virgil Finlay.

You'll note that Edgar Allan Poe is also included in the group of writers. Poe was used with some regularity in the pulp magazines, probably because no one had secured reprint rights for the author. This  would mean that his writing was free for anyone to publish.