Chamber of Darkness
Entry updated 22 June 2026. Tagged: Comics, Publication.
US Comic (1969-1970). Marvel Comics. 8 issues. Artists include John Buscema, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, Jack Kirby and Marie Severin. Script writers include Bill Everett, Stan Lee, Denny O'Neil and Roy Thomas. Neal Adams and Bernie Wrightson were also involved with 1-2 issues. 36 pages. #1-#6 have three stories, #7-#8 four; those in #1-#5 are all original stories, #6 has one reprint, #7 two and #8 three. The reprints are from 1950s Marvel comics Strange Tales (1951-1968, 168 issues) and Tales to Astonish (1959-1968, 101 issues): only the new stories are discussed here. The numbering was taken up by the Monsters on the Prowl (#9-#30, 1971-1974), which usually had 2-3 strips; early issues would have one original tale, later they would all be reprints. Stan Lee is prominently featured in early issues, usually in such terms as "adapted under the supervision of Stan Lee ..." or "Stan Lee presents ..."; but he has a few writing credits.
#1's opening tale "It's only Magic" is typical of Chamber of Darkness's focus on supernatural Horror; it also reflects a tendency to have an interesting set-up followed by a disappointing resolution. Teenager Tommy steals a book from an occult store and invokes a djinn (see Supernatural Creatures), insisting it must obey him. This is acknowledged, though the creature points out contemptuously that there is no wish it cannot twist: for instance, Immortality can be granted, but will be spent "in the deepest pit of Tartarus". Terrified, Tommy wishes to go back in time and not steal the book. The djinn is well done and the artwork – as with many of the tales – is very good.
There are also stories with sf elements. The weak "Always Leave Them laughing" (#1) has a Scientist, laughed at by his peers, building a Time Machine to Time Travel back to the medieval era where he feels he'll be appreciated; unfortunately the items he take along to impress the king are ill-chosen (for example, he forgets a transistor radio is unimpressive without broadcasts to pick up), but he is found entertaining and made a jester. "Forewarned Is Four-Armed!" (#2) has an escaped prisoner watch a UFO land and meet a four-armed Alien who shares their thoughts via a helmet placed on his head – they are from a doomed world whose inhabitants plan to take over the Earth (see Invasion). The prisoner escapes and is captured by the police, apparently speaking nonsense: the warden suspects it might simply be speeded up talk so calls a psychiatrist with a tape recorder to check – but they are one of the Shapeshifting aliens. #2 also has "Day of the Red Death", being Edgar Allan Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" (May 1842 Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine as "The Mask of the Red Death") in a modern setting: the Poison gas experiments of Scientists working for an arms manufacturer go awry, so they flee to a bunker built for just such an occasion. They think they are the only people left on Earth, but after they die Stan Lee assures us the gas worked only within a 20 mile radius. #3 has an adaption of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart".
"The Man Who Owned the World" (#4) starts in the "very Near Future" where a by-product of a scientist's work to prevent the destruction of Earth's atmosphere is "cryogen gas" which induces Suspended Animation. The wealthy Gregory Irkadin employs him to refine this, paying vast sums, and liquidating all of his assets – throwing the world into financial crisis – then enters Cryogenic sleep for a century, expecting the interest on his savings will then be measured in billions. He awakes on a deserted, Ruined Earth to discover humanity has gone to the stars as a result of the scientist's research using Irkadin's payments. In the same issue, an author's stories for his Conan-like hero Starr the Slayer (see Sword and Sorcery), come to him in dreams; but when he decides to kill them off, the hero appears and kills him – then Starr awakes in his fantasy world and tells a friend of his strange dream.
An aged couple passing through a southern swampland rescue "Chalo from the planet Nalrah – down to Earth for my bimillennial rejuvenation voyage"; their species rejuvenate by absorbing energy from the suns they encounter whilst visiting planets – Chalo had accidentally sunk into the swamp a thousand years ago. In gratitude it transfers some of its energy to the couple who are now young again (see Rejuvenation) (#5). "The Music From Beyond!" is an adaption of H P Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann" (May 1925 Weird Tales). In "Change of Mind" (#6), dying scientist Nathaniel Blackstoke plans to transfer his consciousness to a giant Robot; owing to his constant abuse of his assistant – regularly called a worm – they instead use a worm for this identity transfer. "Put Another Nickel In" has a penny arcade housing – for reasons unexplained – a scientist's Tempiscope, which shows the past and future (see Time Viewer). A two-page strip in #7 opens by quoting Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus (1818; rev 1831) and features a Mad Scientist who creates the intelligent and indestructible Manaak – "superior to any man" – to humble those who mocked him: but Manaak responds with a question: since he possesses all the aforementioned qualities, "Who needs you, 'Master'?" [SP]
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