Oh for sure, Byron - like most of the stuff we discuss on this board, the material was somewhat "time-conditional." For me Story trumps Art (though I always find McFadden's work, here and elsewhere, effective) - and trust me: all of the good elements that you do grant the stories in your post were generally weaker in the tepid Gold Key and ACG "ghost" books of the time.

(And you keep leaving out Charlton! Though for me they peaked a few years later than this era, they often contained real nuggets of Mystery Comics gold from folks like Steve Ditko, Wayne Howard, Pat Boyette, Tom Sutton, Nick Cuti, Mike Zeck, and Joe Staton.)

Monsterkid since the Kennedy Era