House of Mystery

The House of Mystery
Cover of The House of Mystery #1 (December–January 1951). Art by Win Mortimer and Charles Paris.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Varied between monthly and bi-monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	horror fantasy
Publication date	List (vol. 1) December 1951–October 1983 Elvira's House of Mystery January 1986–January 1987 (vol. 2) July 2008– October 2011
Number of issues	List (vol. 1): 321 Elvira's...: 11 (vol. 2): 42 plus 2 annuals
Main character(s)	List Cain Gregory Andrew Bennett Elvira Martian Manhunter Dial H for Hero
Creative team
Writer(s)	List (vol. 1) John Albano T. Casey Brennan J. M. DeMatteis Scott Edelman Steve Skeates Elvira's... Joey Cavalieri Tom and Mary Bierbaum (vol. 2) Lilah Sturges
Penciller(s)	List (vol. 1) Curt Swan Bob Brown Neal Adams Bernie Wrightson Gil Kane Frank Springer Al Williamson Tony DeZuniga Wally Wood Jim Aparo Jerry Grandenetti Nestor Redondo Gray Morrow Dick Dillin Bob Oksner Rich Buckler E.R. Cruz Ernie Chan Rudy Nebres Alfredo Alcala Leopoldo Durañona Jess Jodloman John Calnan Howard Chaykin Rubeny Jim Sherman Marshall Rogers Marc Silvestri Ron Randall Frank Redondo Adrian Gonzales Elvira's... Ron Wagner Bob Oksner Stan Woch Tom Grindberg Dan Spiegle Gerry Talaoc (vol. 2) Luca Rossi
Inker(s)	List (vol. 1) Charles Paris George Klein Jack Abel Bruce Patterson Dan Adkins Josef Rubinstein Tony DeZuniga Elvira's... Bob Oksner Dick Giordano Jim Fern
Editor(s)	List Joe Orlando Len Wein Karen Berger

The House of Mystery is the name of several horror, fantasy, and mystery anthology comic book magazine series published by DC Comics. It had a companion series, House of Secrets.

House of Mystery started out as a horror anthology, featuring tales of the supernatural as well as supernatural-themed mystery stories. With the growing backlash against American horror comics in the mid-1950s, as well as the advent of the Comics Code Authority and its restrictions on horror-themed storylines (banning stories dealing with such supernatural fare as werewolves and vampires), the series quietly was revamped into dealing with science-fiction type monsters and other mystery-suspense type tales that were permitted by the comic code.

In the mid-1960s, the comic was revamped to include super-hero stories: from House of Mystery #143 (June 1964) through #155 (December 1966), "J'onn J'onzz, the Manhunter from Mars" headlined the book, as his back-up feature from Detective Comics was moved to House of Mystery. This was followed up with the introduction of "Dial H for Hero" in issue #156 (January 1966), which took over as headliner until #173 (March–April 1968). The Martian Manhunter was again relegated to back-up status during this time.

With issue #174, EC Comics veteran Joe Orlando was hired by DC to take over as editor of House of Mystery. As the Comics Code Authority was now being challenged by both DC and Marvel over content restrictions, the series returned to its overt horror themes. The first issue under Orlando would be a reprint issue of old horror/suspense stories, as the new direction would truly begin with #175 (July–August 1968). The issue would introduce a new figure to the series, Cain, the "able care taker" of the House of Mystery who would introduce nearly all stories that would run in the series before its cancellation. Cain would also host the spin-off humor series Plop! and later become a recurring character in Blue Devil and The Sandman.