Halloween is approaching, and I thought the board might appreciate a selection of classic horror stories from the presumed public domain.
"Dead Man's Tale" is from Avon's Eerie Comics #1 (1947). The issue, a one-shot, was the first US comic wholly devoted to horror stories. It wasn't the beginning of horror in US comics, though, as horror stories had appeared in other titles in supporting slots. Golden Age superhero stories often had a horror element too. Avon reprinted the story in Strange Worlds #1 and Out of This World Adventures #2.
The story reminds me of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Bottle Imp". This memorable short story was based on a 19th century play by Richard Brinsley Peake, which owed its plot to German literature. There's an article here by the author Helen Grant on the history of the theme.
The GCD credits the art, on the assessment of Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr., to Jon Small, pencils, and George Roussos, inks. Its page on Eerie Comics #1 doesn't currently have a writer credit, but its pages on the reprints note that it was credited in Out of This World Adventures #2 to E. J. Bellin, a pseudonym of Henry Kuttner.
The images are from Comic Book Plus. Click to enlarge.
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Fawcett began publishing horror titles in 1951, with This Magazine is Haunted. Its horror stories have strong hooks and solid and often striking art, and are edgier than DC's early horror without being as transgressive as EC's.
This story from Strange Suspense Stories #4 (1952) has a solid story, much like something that DC might have published in the pre-Code 50s or later Silver Age, elevated by really superior art which the GCD attributes to George Evans.
Images from Comic Book Plus. Click to enlarge.
Luke, I've read and enjoyed the first two stories you've featured. The art on the second story was certainly better.
Your efforts to post the pages are appreciated and likely do entice more of us to read them. I chose to find them on comicbookplus.com.
Thanks, Richard. I find gore off-putting, but in other respects in the era of the horror boom the genre brought out the best in many creators. Many stories have strong plot concepts and imagery. Horror stories are often crime stories or fables at heart.
My apologies for the erratic way the images are stacking at some screen sizes. I'm looking for a solution.
Planet Comics carried features for most of its run, but for its final issues shifted to a non-series format. "Cerebex" led the final issue, #73 (1953). Compare the Computo story from Adventure Comics #340-#341. The really remarkable art is by Bill Benulis.
Images from Comic Book Plus (which has two scans of this issue). Click to enlarge.
So, after they've "devastated the country" the woodworker who can read blueprints comes up with an idea that should have been tried much earlier? How do you power a wooden robot with no steel or iron? Gold connectors? How do you and your new girlfriend build two huge robots? Except for the references to a thinly disguised Hitler and a few close-up murders, this was very simplistic.
They're just very enthusiastic woodwork hobbiests. Their specialty is table sets. The woodbot was powered by a pneumatic system using pressure generated by field mice running on spinwheels.
Harvey was quite active as a horror publisher in the first half of the 1950s. Its stories were shocking and transgressive like EC's, but more cartoonily drawn. Evil often gets away with it.
Black Cat Comics was originally the Black Cat's starring title but was made over into a horror title with #30 in 1951. The heroine appeared on the cover but was only present in the issue as the host of a column on the contents page, "The Black Cat Speaks". This envisions the heroine appearing in some horror stories, but it didn't happen. For a time the title became Black Cat Mystery.
The horror backlash led Harvey to drop its horror line in the latter half of 1954. After two horror reprint issues Black Cat switched to reprinting Black Cat stories, but it was to have a period as a Code-era horror title, as we'll see.
Bob Powell was a staple of Harvey's pre-Code horror. His horror work for other publishers includes some very effective stories for Fawcett (including "Twice Alive!", Worlds Beyond #1 and "The Wall of Flesh!", This Magazine is Haunted #12). This story is from Harvey's Black Cat Mystery #34 (1952). Powell's card people are nicely menacing.
Images from Comic Book Plus (which has two scans of this issue too). Click to enlarge.
A more imaginative story.
Of the two scans, I chose the one listed as having more megabytes.
This is definitely an interesting play on a typical kind of horror comix tale.
The first run of Prize’s Black Magic was produced by Simon and Kirby and their studio. It emphasised stories of the paranormal and aimed for a uncannily disturbing impact. The stories have shock moments but avoid gore.
The run lasted 33 issues and ended at the start of the Code. Comic Book Plus doesn’t have #29-#33. I assume they’re under copyright. The cover story from #29 was cited in the 1954 Senate hearings.
Black Magic briefly had a companion title The Strange World of Your Dreams. The cover story from Black Magic #2 was the template for its dream interpretation tales.
Black Magic was revived in 1957 for a run of 17 issues edited by Simon. Comic Book Plus does have these. Kirby contributed to comparable titles Simon produced for Harvey in the period but not this one.
The stories from the first run are very wordy. It was apparently a stylistic choice. It can blunt their impact.
On his return to DC at the start of the 70s Kirby recycled elements of the series in Spirit World, including the lead story from #1. Mid-decade Simon edited a Black Magic reprint title published by DC. This mostly used new covers which the GCD tentatively attributes to Jerry Grandenetti and Creig Flessel. The art of #4's was an unused cover pencilled by Kirby for #1.
This cover story from #4 involves doll magic and guest stars Bela Lugosi as Alvarez. Pencils by Kirby.
Images from Comic Book Plus. Click to enlarge.
This variation on the legend of the Lost Dutchman's Mine is another story with Kirby pencils, from #10. It could easily be a DC story, but Kirby's delivery gives it extra force.
Images from Comic Book Plus. Click to enlarge.
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