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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Bob Powell contributed a number of strong stories to the later issues. I doubt this story from #45 (cover-date 1961) is consistent with real history (he was already world famous), but Powell’s art really delivers for it:
The story was partly recycled from an earlier Powell story, “Smuggler”, from Harvey’s Man in Black #3.
This one is a good grim SF horror story from Black Magic #49 (1961):
Simon also edited Race for the Moon for Harvey in the period. The title reflected the launching of Sputnik and start of the space race. Bob Powell drew the main stories in #1 and Kirby the main stories in #2-#3. Stories intended for the next issue appeared later in the one-shot Blast-Off. Kirby’s stories resemble Sky Masters but are set further in the future and more fantastic. They have a theme of humanity encountering the unknown in space, but I thought this Powell story from #1 (cover-date 1958) the most Halloween-y:
Images from Comic Book Plus.
ACG was active as a horror publisher prior to the Code. In the Code-era it was an active fantastic stories publisher. Here's a story of musical horror from Adventures into Unknown #59 (1954), one of the later pre-Code issues:
Many issues of ME's The Ghost Rider carried an anthology tales supporting feature, "Tales of the Ghost Rider". Like the hero's stories these were pencilled by Dick Ayers. This one is from The Ghost Rider #12 (1953):
What's even worse is his saxaphone is out there somewhere.
Here's another wild tale from Fawcett, from Worlds of Fear #7 (1952):
And here's a grim one from Worlds of Fear #10 (1953):
To close out, here's a story from Fawcett's first horror issue, This Magazine is Haunted #1 (1951). The artist was Sheldon Moldoff, who devised the title:
And finally, here's a grim story from Ziff-Davis's Weird Thrillers #4 (1952), with a bit to say about human nature:
Happy Halloween.
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