Cain and Abel (comics)

Cain and Abel
Cain, Gregory, and Abel approach the House of Mystery (the House of Secrets looming in the background) in Berni Wrightson's cover artwork to Welcome Back to the House of Mystery #1.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics/Vertigo
First appearance	Cain House of Mystery #175 (July–August 1968) Abel DC Special #4 (July–September 1969)
Created by	Cain Bob Haney Jack Sparling Joe Orlando Abel Mark Hanerfield Bill Draut Joe Orlando
In-story information
Team affiliations	The Dreaming
Abilities	Cain apparently indestructible and possibly immortal; diabolical cunning; bears the "Mark of Cain" which protects him from all harm Abel possibly immortal and apparently indestructible; Resurrects from any fatal wound inflicted by Cain

Cain and Abel are a pair of fictional characters in the DC Comics universe based on the biblical Cain and Abel. They are key figures in DC's "Mystery" line of the late 1960s and 1970s, which became the mature-readers imprint, Vertigo, in 1993.

Originally, Cain and Abel were the respective "hosts" of the EC-style horror comic anthologies House of Mystery and House of Secrets, which ran from the 1950s through the early 1980s. During the 1970s, they also co-hosted (along with Eve) the horror/humor anthology Plop!. Both comics had been running reprints of Dial H for Hero and Eclipso, respectively, before the introduction of the new host characters.

Cain, "the Able Care-Taker," created by Bob Haney, Jack Sparling and Joe Orlando, first appeared in The House of Mystery #175 (July–August 1968), modeled on writer Len Wein, who was new to the field. A photograph of Wein as Cain can be found in Elvira's House of Mystery #4.

Abel, created by Mark Hanerfeld, Bill Draut and Joe Orlando, first appeared in DC Special #4 (July–September 1969), and began hosting The House of Secrets with #81 (August–September 1969). Hanerfeld was the model for Abel, and he also appeared in a photograph in Elvira's House of Mystery #4.

On the letters page of Weird Mystery Tales #3 (November 1972), Destiny stated that Cain, Abel, and Eve were not the same characters as their biblical counterparts, whom Destiny said he found much more pleasant. Cain, Eve, and to a lesser extent, Abel, subsequently taunt Destiny for being dull.