Month: December 2023

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Pre-code HORROR and SCI-FI Comic Book Reprints from Eerie Pubs and Stanley Morse

Most pre-code horror and sci-fi comic books are in the public domain so it is no surprise that there are many reprints starting with Eerie publications in the 1960’s and continuing on today with stellar publishers like Yoe Books and PS Artbooks. There are a few things that constitute a decent pre-code horror comics reprint depending on what you’re looking for.

This article is taken from the original Video on Pre-code HORROR and SCI-FI Comic Book Reprints.

eerie pubs pre-code horror comic book reprintsSOURCE MATERIAL

The better the original source material and care taken to reproduce the most accurate image possible. The higher quality reprint you will have. Color reprints are much trickier thus you have fewer publishing in full color with the majority being simple black and white reprints.
I first discovered reprints of pre-code comics when i was a kid and I happened to find some magazines from Eerie publications in a store one day. At the time I didn’t realize magazines like Weird, Horror tales (pictured), and Tales of Voodoo were simply reprints or redos of all of those pre-code comics from the 1950s.

PUBLISHER MYRON FASS

Myron Fass ran eerie publications and he himself drew comics and did covers for 1950s publishing houses like Toby contributing to titles such as Tales of horror and covers of issues like Beware (pictured) drawn by Fass depicting himself being attacked by monsters. So the fact that Myron Fass figured out a way to milk those pre-code tales for many more years is not surprising. It was many years later that i realized that what Eerie publications had done so I ended up collecting more to get those reprints.
The redrawn pre-code stories in Eerie publications were often quite good as foss employed many talented south american artists to churn out the pages. Overall, one might think of Eerie publications as a kind of click bait operation. The incredibly gory covers of vampires attacking a scantily clad woman while being skewed through the heart by a crazy looking werewolf never showed up as stories in the magazines themselves but if you want to up your gore game I highly recommend getting at least a few magazines from Eerie publications for the decent black and white reprints and the insanely over-the-top violent monster covers. Ebay and a few other sellers have them running anywhere from 10 bucks to perhaps a few hundred dollars for the rarest issues in great shape.

JAMES WARREN VS. MYRON FASS

And now a tasty little anecdote in 1965.  Myron Fass (pictured) ended up calling his horror comics publishing company Eerie publications after James Warren publishing beat him to the name.
myron fass eerie pubsHis original idea was to call his first magazine “Eerie” but Warren struck at the midnight hour and released an ash-can version of Eerie magazine beating Fass to the punch and securing the name Eerie for his own title. The ash can version of Eerie number one which is simply a black and white staple-bound quick print can be found on ebay or other collector’s sites and seem to range between 800 and 1500 dollars. This is why the first full-fledged issue of Eerie to hit the stands was issue number two. The good news is that you can get a photocopy of erie number one on Ebay for around 10 to 15 dollars.
It is interesting to note that around this time, early to late 1960’s, a UK publisher called Super Comics also published pre-code reprints in comic book form. For example, they published Eerie tales number 12 which was a reprint of Avon periodicals Erie number one from 1951.

precode horror comics reprintsStanley Morse

One of the more famous or perhaps infamous pre-code players back in the day with titles like Mister Mystery and Weird Tales of the Future, was Stanley Morse.
Morse jumped into the pre-code reprint game in the late 60s with SHOCK and Chilling Tales of Horror magazine (pictured) in 1968. Stanley publications had other pre-code reprint titles like Ghoul Tales and Stark Terror. In the case of Stanley morris, he literally reprinted the original stories including some of the original covers.
For example, Shock number one has the cover of Weird Chills number one which was originally done by the great Bernard Bailey although many of their covers were done by modern artists. A lot of these are available online, particularly on ebay and are not very expensive, running between 10 to 50 dollars depending on condition.
In the next part of this series, we dive into latter day reprints from the 1990s and on.

Watch this Pre-code HORROR and SCI-FI Comic Book Reprints video on Horror Mike’s Channel.

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Mysteries Weird And Strange Six – March 1954 Superior Comics pre-code horror comics

precode horror comics mysteries weird and strange
horror comic books precode golden age

Mysteries Weird and Strange Number Six – March 1954 Superior Comics pre-code horror comics.  Full video here.
We look at the classic precode horror comic book Mysteries weird and Strange number six published in September 1954 by the Canadian company Superior Publishers limited.
From 1947 to 1956, Superior publishing produced dozens of different comic book titles and a total of 443 issues during that 9-year period. Their pre-code horror titles included strange Mysteries, Mysteries weird and strange, and journey into fear. Most of the art in these titles were done by Jerry iger’s famous Iger shop which consisted of such artists as Jay disbrow, Matt Baker, Ken Batefield, Robert Webb, and writer editor Ruth Roach among others.
Iger shop worked as a factory producing perhaps a dozen comic books a month for various Publishers and other titles such as Haunted Thrills, Voodoo, Mysterious Adventures, Strange Fantasy, Fantastic Fears, and more. Typically, no specific artist is credited with a story because many artists worked on specific things related to a story in a factory like setting.
We begin with Mysteries Weird and Strange number six from March 1954.  The copy I have is coverless but complete so we can take a good look at all the stories.  All of these synopsis are taken from Comic Book Plus, a great website you need to check out for fantastic digital reproduction of these precode horror comics.
Howling Horror.  Synopsis: on a trip to the mountains writer Adam hunt makes the acquaintance of lonely Vicky barow something is uncanny about her because she keeps dogs with men’s names.
Next up, Swamp Vengeance. Synopsis: trouble in the bayous! Jake karna kills a man for some precious animal pelts but is blackmailed by eyewitness Bell. Karna murders her too by throwing her to the alligators. Belle however returns as a vengeful ghost.
Then we have a text story called The Kill which is two pages long. Synopsis: a sentenced man sneaks back into the courthouse to stab the judge who punished him. The judge’s chair comes to life and crushes the evildoer.
The next tale is Evil Disguise. Synopsis: Sam wants to give his friend Tom a scare. He asks him to come to the cemetery where he’s ordered some actors to appear in costume. The men are confronted with real fiends from the grave!
Death Rehearsal. Synopsis: Peter Edison wants to commit the perfect crime with the help of his attorney Tom Ferris. He plans a murder scenario for his philandering wife but does he know that Ferris is the man that his wife is seeing?
And that wraps up Mysteries weird and strange number six. In part two we will look at strange Mysteries number Seven from September 1954.  You can see the entire video here.

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Voodoo Number 15 May 1954 Pre-Code Horror Comic Book

Today we’re looking at a reprint of Voodoo number 15 from May June of 1954. Pre-code horror comics, all stories, no ads published by classic Comics library.
Watch the full video here.
It is just the comics only, there are no ads which is kind of unfortunate because I love the original ads in these comic books. It’s not a facsimile, it’s just reprinting the actual stories themselves and as you can see the quality is mixed to say the least. You find that the contrast has been kicked up so you lose detail and the images look darker. Sometimes they’re a bit fuzzy as you can see with the voodoo cover on the left so it’s just not that sharp unfortunately but this particular issue of voodoo 15 has some great stories in it and I got it on Amazon for three dollars. I had free shipping with a couple of other items so nothing to lose there folks. Keep in mind that the art in Voodoo was primarily by Iger shop, published by Ajax Farrell.
Iger shop was composed of a variety of artists including including Matt Baker, Jay disbrow, Robert web, Ken batefield, and Ruth roach was the editor for Iger shop.
First up we have “Doomed.” “On a sweltering slim covered rock not far from the infamous penal colony of Devil’s Island there is another more horrible Island. Here is washed up the human debris that is too horrible for even the devil. Nobody but murderers are sent to the Rock and it is here that an American reporter is trying to get a story about the Doom knife.” As you can see, the high contrast takes out detail the images are a bit darker in spots.
A very average reprint but then folks we have “Nightmare Island” with one of those great Splash Pages featuring the girl stuck in a mouse trap with a giant rat. If you want to see a better reprint of nightmare Island and this fabulous splash page I highly recommend Voodoo volume 3 from IDW and yoe books because you’re going to get a much better reproduction.
“In the end, three humans and a brute who belonged in a nightmare were all caught in the terrible spin snapping snare of the big rat trap nightmare Island.” The woman goes outside and sees a dog house in the backyard. “Why it’s a dog house, how nice. I love dogs and they love me and a nice friendly dog will make this place seem less Grim. Here doggy, nice doggy!” Suddenly from the dogghouse there rushes a slavering ravening horror with long needles sharp teeth and jaws flecked with foam the chain strains to Breaking Point as it tries to get it Lucy. “A big rat!” there you go folks that’s what I’m talking about right there is only Iger shop can give you. The ending- “The man steps back into the trap feels the trigger spring just as he sinks the axe deep into the furry gray skull the big rat which gives a death Screech. The Trap Springs with terrible force and the lamp shatters on the floor. The man screams for a long time before he dies, but fate is merciful he dies before the Flames can reach him the giant rat is dead too. There is only the crackling of the fire and the howling of the other animals as they sense death.”
Next up “Hammer of evil.” “This is a crazy story but let’s pretend that you are there an imaginary jury and it is up to you to decide put yourself in this doomed man’s place and meet Kolla the atavar.” They find this woman encased in a chunk of ice and of course she gets thawed out and it’s Kolla the atavar and she’s a little Savage.
The last story in Voodoo number 15 “Dead Man’s pajamas.” “When is a murder not a murder? a good question so said the police and one they could not answer until John Foster famous private investigator risked his life life to supply the solution. Your skin will creep as you read this mad story of a dead man’s pajamas!”
Voodoo was one of the most daring books featuring not only suspenseful stories and excellent Artistry but the graphic horror that made parents fear for their children’s sanity.
Unfortunately the final printed product is very average and nowhere near the quality for example of PS art books or IDW-Yoe Books. I hope you enjoyed this video and as always please like and subscribe.  Watch this video here.