The third journey back to America of the 1950s to look at pre-code comics from my collection. Kicking off with Suspense No.19, June 1952. One of Marvel's horror comics.
Wild Western No.22, also from June 1952 and published by Marvel. Anthology comic featuring Kid Colt, Apache Kid, and Gunhawk. Cover by the late great Joe Maneely.
Crime Exposed No.14, again from June 1952. Marvel Comics. Another of Marvel's many crime comics of the era.
Weird Science No.14, July-August 1952. EC Comics. One of the great SF comics of the fifties. Cover by Wally Wood.
Jungle Comics No.152, August 1952. Publisher: Fiction House. Another popular genre of the golden age was the jungle adventure strip. Stories of women in fur bikinis aimed at adolescent Americans. We had Robot Archie, the Jungle Robot. America won that round I think.
Crime and Punishment No.56, November 1952. Lev Gleason Publications. Torture covers such as these would later be banned by the Comics Code.
Terror Tales No.5, January 1953. Fawcett Publications. A horror comic from the same company that brought us the wholesome Captain Marvel.
Adventures Into Weird Worlds No.18, May 1953. Marvel Comics. More Marvel horror. Cover by Bill Everett.
Tales of Horror No.6, August 1953. Minoan Publishing. 'The Treacherous Genie'? More like the Lecherous Genie going by this cover, eh readers? Eh?
Tomb of Terror No.11, September 1953. Harvey Publications. Classic horror comic, now back in print in the UK thanks to PS Publishing.
Don't miss the final selection of golden age covers tomorrow!
Previous parts in this series:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/golden-age-america-covers-part-1.html
http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/golden-age-america-covers-part-2.html
As most collectors know, the horror comics of the 1950s caused such moral outrage from soft vicars and parents who'd forgotten what it was like to be a child that they led to book burnings and the genre being neutered. So extreme was the witch hunt that it even became illegal to use the words "horror" or "terror" as part of a comic title in the UK. (The law still stands today, although I don't think it's ever been enforced.)
In recent months, British publisher PS Publishing has unleashed a line of beautifully produced limited edition hardback books reprinting the classic American horror comics originally published by Harvey Comics in the early 1950s. Each book collects 5 to 7 issues, including all stories, covers and advertisements to give the reader a perfect view of what those comics were like.
The latest book, Chamber of Chills Volume 3, will be out later this month. Here's the info direct from the publisher....
Harvey Horrors originally published 26 issues of the Chamber Of Chills in the 1950’s. Now for the first time they have been collected together in this exclusive 4 volume set. Each volume contains between 6 – 7 complete issues reprinted for the very first time as a complete collection.
About Chamber Of Chills - Volume Three...
Due to be published August 2012, Volume Three carries on our journey... Featuring a special introduction and a specially commissioned self portrait of British illustrator Les Edwards. Not forgetting the original comics painstakingly restored from original source material! Issues included in this Volume are Issues 14 - 19 from November - September 1953.
Now available for pre-order!
Limited to just 2000 copies and split across three editions, this book is available to order through either harveyhorrors.com or pspublishing.co.uk.
DELUXE TRAYCASE EDITION
26 lettered leatherbound gold foiled traycased deluxe copies exclusively signed by Les Edwards who painted an specially commissioned self portrait which is included as a limited edition print. As an added extra you will also receive a copy of the slipcase edition as part of the package at no extra cost!
SLIPCASE EDITION
300 slipcased copies in full colour slipcase signed by Les Edwards.
BOOKSHOP EDITION
1674 bookshop copies available.
