Originally, Cain and Abel were the respective "hosts" of the EC-style horror comic anthologies House of Mystery and House of Secrets, which ran from the 1950s through the early 1980s. During the 1970s, they also co-hosted (along with Eve), the horror/humor anthology Plop! Both comics had been running reprints of Dial H for Hero and Eclipso, respectively, before the introduction of the new host characters.