The Witching Hour was a DC

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

 comic book

Comic book

A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 horror

Horror comics

Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. Horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the imposition of the self-censorship Comics Code Authority contributed to...

 anthology

Anthology

An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...

 that ran from 1969

1969 in comics

This is a list of comics-related events in 1969.- Year overall :* Paragon Publications established in Longwood, Florida, by Bill Black.* George Klein, long-time Superman inker, dies in his fifties from cirrhosis of the liver, six months after getting married.-February:* The Golden Age character...

 to 1978

1978 in comics

This is a list of comics-related events in 1978.- Year overall :* DC suffers the DC Implosion, the abrupt cancellation of more than two dozen ongoing and planned titles, with the vast majority of the books leaving uncompleted storylines .* Archie Goodwin resigns as Marvel Comics editor-in-chief,...

. Its tagline was "It's 12 o'clock... The Witching Hour!" (changed to "It's midnight..." from issue #13 onwards). The series was originally edited by Dick Giordano

Dick Giordano

Richard Joseph "Dick" Giordano was an American comic book artist and editor best known for introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes, and serving as executive editor of then–industry leader DC Comics...

, but it was taken over by Murray Boltinoff with issue #14.

Stories in the comic were "hosted" and introduced by three witches, based on Macbeth

Macbeth

The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

's Weird Sisters: Morded, Mildred, and Cynthia. (The witches defined the archetypal Maiden/Mother/Crone — in reverse order — triumverate of womanhood.)

After The Witching Hours cancellation (a result of the "DC Implosion

DC Implosion

The DC Implosion is the popular label for the sudden cancellation of more than two dozen ongoing and planned series by the American comics publisher DC Comics in 1978.-History:...

"), the title was merged with The Unexpected

The Unexpected

The Unexpected was a DC Comics horror comic book, a continuation of Tales of the Unexpected. It ran 117 issues, #105-222, from 1968 to 1982.-Publication history:...

, until issue #209. The witches were later revived — along with the hosts of the companion series House of Secrets and House of Mystery

House of Mystery

The House of Mystery is the name of several horror-mystery-suspense anthology comic book series. It had a companion series, House of Secrets.-Genesis:...

 — as important characters in Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman

Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...

's The Sandman.