iger shop Archives - Ghost Clinic

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.

December 19, 2023December 19, 2023

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.

December 15, 2023

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.