January 2024 - Ghost Clinic

January 29, 2024January 29, 2024

Ghostly Weird Stories Pre-code Sci-Fi and HORROR Comics Volume One

L.B. Cole’s Ghostly Weird Stories Pre-code Sci-Fi and HORROR Comics Volume One

Today we look at all five issues of the classic L.B. Cole – Star Publications Pre-code HORROR and SCI-FI Comic book “Ghostly Weird Stories Volume One” from PS Artbooks which is available in VG condition.
Ghostly Weird Stories features pre-code horror comic book covers by artist extraordinaire L.B. Cole with interior art by Jay Disbrow, Jack Kamen, Lee Loeb, and others. These precode horror comic books were originally published from September, 1953 to Sept. 1954.
Watch the original video.
All five issues were published between September of 1953 and September of 1954. Issue number 123 with a great LB Cole cover and a beautiful two-page spread Jay Disbrow who did all of the Interior art of the cover stories the first issue of ghostly weird. Issue number 120 September of 1953 with another fabulous LB Cole cover. These are sought after and always red hot in the comic book market.

Night Monster by Jay Disbrow

Jay Disbrow’s Night Monster splash page that also serves as the two page spread on the front inside cover of the volume. Night Monster also appears in my new book SPLASH OF HORROR on sale now.

I love Disbrow’s style in the pre-code sci-fi and horror comics era. Comic book artists who got into the late 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s underground comic scene were heavily influenced by the pre-code comic book artists including Jay Disbrow.
Here is another classic pre-code story “The Mummy’s Hand.” Keep in mind that some of these artists are simply unknown. If you check out the Comics Database you will see that their identities are few and far between. We do know that Disbrow did interior art, LB Cole drew the covers and Jack Kamen drew stories in some issues.
Here is a one page story called The Vengeful Phantom by Jay Disbrow. The Garden of horror is drawn by Lee Loeb. I love this Splash page. His characters are suitably deranged. Here’s another fabulous LB Cole cover for Ghostly Weird Stories number 121. The Case of the Shrunken Heads has a very underground comics vibe to it.

Death Ship L.B. Cole Cover and Jay Disbrow Art

One of my favorite L.B. Cole covers of all time is called “Death Ship” and naturally Jay disbrow does interior art for it. I love the splash page. It’s about astronauts on the planet of death. “Face of death” is another nice splash page in this issue.

Death Pirate appears in the last issue of Ghostly Weird Stories from September of 1954. You can imagine you’re walking down the street you see this on a comic book rack or newsstand. I’d pick this up in a second and of course Jay Disbrow comes in with the cover story called “Homecoming” with an excellent splash page to begin the story.

Summary of Ghostly Weird Stories

Ghostly Weird Stories volume one reprints from PS Artbooks is highly recommended. The reproductions are generally very good and the presentation is first class.
You can buy this volume of Ghostly Weird Stories on sale.

January 15, 2024January 15, 2024

HAUNTED HORROR Pre-Code Comic Book Reprints From YOE Books

YOE Books Pre-code HORROR Comic Book Reprints – Part One
Yoe book’s Haunted Horror pre-code horror comic book reprint series began circa 2012 with editor Steve Banes, Clizia Gussoni and Craig Yoe.
Watch the original video here.

Haunted Horror Creators

Contributing editors included Tillman Courth, Mike Howlett, Toxic Tommy O’brien, and Jim Vadeboncoeur. The full color reprints are really quite good.
For instance, the story called “City of Fearful Night” drawn by none other than the great Bernard Baily, from Worlds of Fear number two, January 1952. For this series, they put together a variety of different stories from various publishers so you didn’t have one issue which was “Worlds of Fear” featuring stories from that title. You had a variety of issues which would have a story from Chamber of Chills, The Unseen, Beware! Terror Tales, etc. The reproduction as far as i’m concerned is really quite good so I don’t have any complaints with the way that they randomly put stories together in these horror comic books.

Artists and Stories in Haunted Horror

Haunted Horror number 15 featured an awesome bernard bailey cover from Weird Mysteries number four.
Another issue has “Nightmare come true” from Journey into Fear number nine, september, 1952. Art by Iger shop with a majority of the work done by Robert Webb. Webb loved to do these these like circular panels like this and his faces and and bodies had a certain look.
Mark of the Brute from Weird Terror number 11 with art by Don Heck who would go on to do a lot of stuff for Marvel superheroes and so forth. Here he is in the early 1950’s doing pre-code horror comics.
Haunted Horror number 16 features that fabulous George Roussos cover from Out of the Shadows from Standard Comics.

The Editors as Horror Hosts

One of the great things about Haunted Horror is that they had the three editors, Banes, Gussoni, and Yoe all had their own horror host characters who introduced the stories. For example, this is Craig Yoe As Forelock the Warlock drawn by Angelo Torres.

Giant Ants and Mummies

In one of the classic pre-code horror stories, “the Black Death,” giant army ants attack and devour humans. The story was originally from Fantastic Fears number four with art by Iger Shop and redrawn in a 1960s issue Weird magazine for Eerie Publications.
The Mummy was a horror host used in many of the Beware! Terror Tales issues published by Fawcett in the early 1950’s. This particular story called “Search into the Unknown” was drawn by Maurice Gutworth, a very popular pre-code horror comics artist who did a lot of work for Fawcett.

L.B. Cole and Mr. Karswell

For Haunted Horror number seventeen we have an excellent reproduction of a great L.B. Cole cover. Every one of his covers are fantastic but this one from Spook number twenty-five, July, 1953 is gorgeous.
Mr. Karswell aka Steve Banes is another Haunted Horror host with a rather Creepy magazine style look done by Art Fuentes. The first story “To Death” is from Dark Mysteries number fourteen, 1953, art by John D’Agostino.

Mister Mystery number one september of 1951, a story called “Revolt of the Fingers.”
This is from Beware! Terror Tales once again. Here is the Mummy introducing the story for the november 1954 issue of Beware! Art by Bob McCarty, a really great artist.
The colors are quite cool and I love his style. IDW-Yoe Books’ reproductions are sharp, I have no complaints whatsoever with these.

We will continue with part two on Yoe books next week.
Haunted Horror Books on SALE.

January 8, 2024January 8, 2024

ECLIPSE Pre-Code HORROR Comic Book Series SEDUCTION Of The INNOCENT

SEDUCTION Of The INNOCENT Pre-Code HORROR Comic Book Series from Eclipse Comics 1985.
Watch the original companion video here.

In the mid-1980’s, Eclipse Comics began publishing a series of pre-code horror comic book reprints called Seduction of the Innocent. The title was taken from the infamous book by Dr. Frederick Wertham, a sad old man who led the charge against comic books in the 1950s. The stories in the Eclipse series were taken from standard comics pre-code titles that included Adventures into Darkness, Out of the Shadows, The Unseen, and Fantastic Worlds.
I don’t believe that any of these Standard comics titles were used in the congressional hearings that helped usher in the dreaded 1955 Comics Code Authority but it is an absolute fact that Standard had some top-notch artists of the day.
Six issues of seduction of the innocent are gorgeous full-color reproductions of great stories from the classic pre-code comic books. Two issues are 3-D reproductions wherein original non-3d stories were given the 3d treatment with mixed results.

Jim Vadeboncouer Introductions

In each issue there is a segment called The Horror, the History by Jim Vadeboncouer, a well-known authority in the realm of pre-code comics who sadly left this mortal coil in 2023. His book on the life of Everett Raymond Kinsler who drew comics for avon in the pre-code era is highly recommended.
Seduction of the Innocent Comic Book Covers
The covers of the non-3d issues is a mixed bag. Issue number one with cover art by Reed Crandall taken from the interior story is great. Issue number two with the cover taken from fantastic worlds number five art by Murphy Anderson is very tame for a Seduction of the Innocent cover. Issue number three has a cool panel from the story Werewolf by Mort Meskin and George Roussos from Out of the Shadows number 14. Issue number four has an interesting Alex Toth cover and issue number five cover by Alex Toth is a fine classic crime cover. Issue number six rounds out the whole affair with you guessed it, another Alex Toth cover, perhaps my favorite of the bunch called “Look into the Eyes of Death.”

3-D Comic Book Covers

The 3D issues are kind of a toss-up. Eclipse had the excellent idea of getting two stellar artists to do the covers. The spicy Dave “Rocketeer” Stevens cover for number one is fantastic and I wish that was in 3d! Issue two features a great Bernie “Swamp Thing” Wrightson cover. I highly recommend these issues for the covers alone because in reality the covers are better than the 3-D attempts inside. The problem is they took ordinary pre-code horror stories and processed them for 3D using modern 3-d processing techniques. Some of it works, some of it doesn’t.

Joe Kubert 3-D House of Terror

They may have drawn their inspiration from the fantastic 3d pre-code horror comic book titled “3D House of Terror” published by Saint John in 1953 featuring a surprisingly tame cover by Joe Kubert.
The 3d stories inside more than make up for the lack of cover “wow.” interior art by kubert and enrico bagnoli the first story drawn by Kubert called “Picture of Evil” has an intense splash page that is amazingly three-dimensional. According to comics.org this is the only story that was done for the issue or should i say not previously published elsewhere.

1950’s 3-D Comics Vs. Modern 3-D Comics

The other stories were originally published in Saint John’s Weird Horrors and Strange Terrors comic books, however, they are still better looking 3D than the Eclipse 3d series. It is possible that the kind of 3d printing technique used in the 1950s was superior after all 3d was very popular during that period in both comics and movies so it is likely that the folks doing it were on top of their game that being said i still recommend the 3d seduction of the innocent comics from Eclipse and I consider the one through six non-3d reprints essential for the pre-code horror fans. Trust me, you’ll be oggling that Dave Stevens cover for more than a few minutes.

This concludes part four of this series. Watch the original Eclipse Seduction of the Innocent video. Thanks for reading and watching!

January 2, 2024January 2, 2024

TALES Too TERRIBLE To TELL! Pre-code Horror Comic Book Stories and History from NEC

TALES Too TERRIBLE To TELL! Pre-code Horror Comic Book Reprints, stories and history from New England Comics.
You can watch the original Tales Too Terrible To Tell video here.

The 1980s and 90s saw a resurgence of pre-code horror comic book reprints from a variety of small publishers. Today we look at NEC: New England Comics and Tales too Terrible to Tell. These are some of my favorite reprints for a variety of reasons.

Pre-code Reprint Quality

Tales too terrible to tell published all interior reprints in black and white which can be a turn off for some pre-code comics fans, however, the reprints in the issues i have are clean and sharp making the reading very enjoyable. More importantly, the crew of tales too terrible to tell led by editor George Suarez, art director Bob Polio, assistant editor Larry Boyd and research assistant Billy Devine made this publication much more than just a collection of pre-code horror comic book stories reprinted and thrown into a magazine.

A History of Pre-code Horror Comics

Inside each issue is a wealth of information about the comics artists writers and publishers making Tales too terrible to tell a must have for any pre-code horror comics enthusiast. Beside the reprinted comic book stories each issue has a section called Terrorology that dives into the nuts and bolts of pre-code publishers titles and artists. Suarez also published a companion magazine called Terrorology specifically designed to be an informative guide to pre-code comics. You can get many of these on ebay.

Horror Comic Book Covers

Additionally. Tales to terrible to tell features a gallery of classic horror covers in each issue showing the cover and talking about the artist with cool details about the particular issue. There is also a letters to the tombs section in the back of each issue with correspondence from fans which can be very entertaining.

Pre-code Horror Meets SWAMP THING

I have issues one through eight and while most of the issues of Tales too terrible to tell have color reprints of great pre-code covers on their respective covers, issue number one and three have exclusive covers by the great Steve “swamp thing” Bissette. issue number one with the gloriously ghoulish zombie flesh rip-a-rama cover by Bissette was a specially numbered limited edition you can still get on ebay for around 20 bucks or so. Just make sure it’s the limited edition. A few years later they re-released issue number one without the Bissette cover and in its place the Jack Katz shrunken head cover originally published in issue number eight of Out of the Shadows in 1953.

Ben Edlund’s THE TICK

As a kind of strange extra, many of the issues feature early stories from ben edlund’s the Tick. NEC comics carried the Tick for a while so i imagine it was a kind of cross-promotional idea and apparently Mr. Edlund was a fan and supporter of the Tales too terrible to tell project. In summary if you are a true fan of pre-code horror comics you should get your claws on a set of tales too terrible to tell immediately. Highly recommended.
Watch this original video on the Horror Mike Channel.
This concludes part 3 of the series. As always, please like and subscribe. Thank you.