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

ghostly weird stories pre-code horror comics vol oneToday 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 ship lb cole ghostly weird stories
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. 

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.

Ghostly Weird Stories from Star Publications

ghostly weird stories 123

GHOSTLY WEIRD STORIES (5 issues from September 1953 – September 1954)German-born L.B. Cole’s Star Publications is mostly remembered for the amazing covers rendered by Cole himself and the stories drawn by British artist Jay Disbrow which were typically based upon Cole’s cover art. Unfortunately, most of the other stuff inside the comics were reprints from earlier titles, but L.B. Cole’s eye-catching covers still demand huge sums of money in the collectors’ market today.