Somewhere in
Kentucky, there is a graveyard in which stand
two houses. The first is called the
House of Mystery and the
other the
House of Secrets. The caretakers of these two houses
are two brothers,
Cain and
Abel.
So is the story of these two brothers within the realm of
DC Comics. Cain was the first to appear, created by Joe
Orlando, Bob Haney, and Jack Sparling. He first
appeared in House of Mystery #175 in August of 1968.
Nearly a year later, Abel, created by Gerry Conway and
Jerry Grandenetti, appeared in House of Secrets #81 in
August for 1969. These two brothers acted as the storytellers
within their respective comics, rather as the more famous
Cryptkeeper did in the Tales of the Crypt comics.
The history of these two brothers has been told and retold and
all evidence points to them being the biblical men, spoken of
in the book of Genesis. In the Genesis account, Cain killed his
brother Abel in jealousy, bringing a curse upon himself. These
two characters now carry on that age old battle, with Cain
constantly losing his temper and killing the slower, simpler
Abel in anger.
The houses the two reside in are also part of the Dreaming, a
realm ruled by Dream or Morpheus, the personification of dreaming. The
have served as Dream's agents for many years, spinning tales of
mystery and evil.