The Unexpected

The Unexpected
Cover to The Unexpected #105 (March 1968). Art by Bob Brown.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Format	Ongoing series
Genre	Fantasy Horror
Publication date	February–March 1968 - May 1982
Number of issues	118
Main character(s)	List Johnny Peril The Mad Mod Witch The Three Witches Abel
Creative team
Writer(s)	List George Kashdan Jack Miller Jack Oleck Martin Pasko
Penciller(s)	List Bob Brown Lee Elias Ruben Moreira Howard Purcell Jack Sparling Bruno Premiani Ross Andru Berni Wrightson Dick Dillin John Calnan Jim Aparo Ernie Chan Rich Buckler Wally Wood E.R. Cruz Alfredo Alcala Fred Carrillo Rubeny Sonny Trinidad Frank Redondo Alex Nino Jess Jodloman Gerry Talaoc Don NewtonMarc Silvestri
Inker(s)	List George Roussos Joe Giella Murphy Anderson Mike Esposito Frank Giacoia Vince Colletta Tex Blaisdell John Celardo
Editor(s)	List Murray Boltinoff

The Unexpected was a fantasy-horror comic book series, a continuation of Tales of the Unexpected, published by American company DC Comics. It ran 118 issues, #105 (February–March 1968) to #222 (May 1982).

Unlike the predecessor, it was a fantasy anthology at first, then turned into a weird/horror anthology in the style of House of Secrets and House of Mystery. Its first "host" was The Mad Mod Witch. Nick Cardy was the cover artist for The Unexpected for issues #111, 116-117, 119-120, 123, 125-139, 141-162. The series was published in the 100 Page Super Spectacular format from #157 (May–June 1974) to #162 (March–April 1975).The Unexpected Special was published in 1977 as an issue of DC Special Series. With issue #189 (January–February 1979), The Unexpected converted to the Dollar Comics format and incorporated House of Secrets and The Witching Hour. Each "Unexpected" story would always include the word in its last panel. After the merge, this was only true of the Unexpected section; there would then be complete, ad-free issues of The Witching Hour, hosted by its witches, and The House of Secrets, hosted by Abel. The Witching Hour feature was alternated with Doorway to Nightmare (starring Madame Xanadu), which appeared in issues #190, 192, 194, and 195. With issue #196 (March 1980), the series was restored to standard size, and rather than three complete issues in one, there was one story each per issue. The House of Secrets continued through issue #208; The Witching Hour continued to appear until issue #209 (April 1981), which incorporated the science fiction series, Time Warp. The final issue of the series was #222 (May 1982) which included early artwork by Marc Silvestri.