Marvel Horror - Devil Hunter!

Earl Norem

The wild success of the movie The Exorcist changed horror for all time.

The devil and  his minions had been part of the cinema landscape for decades but suddenly the expressions of that evil on screen had become more toxic and viscerally terrifying. Lots of folks noticed, especially the success part.

That included Marvel Comics who lauched as part of their horror cascade in the early 70's a title called The Haunt of Horror.

Gray Morrow

Frank Kelly Freas

They'd launched another book with that title a few years before but it was a digest prose format with some great art and some outstanding covers.

The new Haunt of Horror starred Gabriel the Devil Hunter. He was a cross between Nick Fury (rough and tumble adventurer with an eye patch) and Father Damien Karras (a troubled and flawed demon fighter). He had a beautiful assistant named Desadia who is at once his helper and possessed a supernatural link to Gabriel's dead wife Andrea. To read the debut story follow this groovy link .

The pair battle demons who have taken possession of human beings. Gabriel works at great cost to himself to extract those demons, demons who know him and his tormented past.

Bob Larkin

The writer of all the is Doug Moench. The artists involved are Billy Graham who produces some masterfully atmospheric stories, Pablo Marcos who ads some oomph to the proceedings and later Sonny Trinidad who brings his own refined comic line to the character.

Gabriel shares space in the magazine right through the fifth and final issue. Then he moved over to the final issue of  Monsters Unleashed for a final outing. The cover by Frank Brunner for that issue is especially powerful.

Frank Brunner

Gabriel never became a big hit for Marvel, dying out after only a few entries. But the character was a memorable tie to a horror trend which dominated the pop culture and beyond in this country for a few years.

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