Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: l.b. cole, pre-code horror

The Early L.B. Cole Horror of Suspense Comics #4, Up for Auction

Suspense Comics #3 may get all the attention, but Suspense Comics with L.B. Cole covers are worth Pre-Code Horror collectors' time.

Published Fri, 14 Jul 2023 13:15:14 -0500

by Mark Seifert

Last updated Sun, 13 Jul 2025 08:55:57 -0500

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Article Summary

Suspense Comics #4 features L.B. Cole’s iconic early Pre-Code horror cover art and classic pulp themes.
The issue stands as only Cole’s second published cover, launching his legendary run on Suspense Comics #4–12.
Mr. Nobody, a mysterious host character, debuts on the cover, adding intrigue to the perilous ritual scene.
The Suspense Comics series blends crime, horror, and thriller influences, gaining collector acclaim over time.

In 1989, comic book dealer, collector, and inventor of the Mylar Snug Ernie Gerber published his original two-volume The Photo-Journal Guide To Comic Books, which showed photographs of 21,000 comic books from the Golden Age. In an era during which one can see any published Golden Age comic book cover with a few seconds of Googling, it's difficult to wrap your head around the impact this had on Golden Age comic book collecting three decades ago. Of course, Suspense Comics #3 with its now-legendary Alex Schomburg cover is infamous for having been featured prominently in the Photo-Journal Guide, resulting in it coming to the wider attention of collectors, a frenzy to unearth copies, and prices rising into the stratosphere based on Schomburg's cover art. But the entire Suspense Comics series, as well as L.B. Cole covers in general, got a boost from the Photo-Journal Guide, and that popularity has only increased over the subsequent decades as more and more collectors have become aware of these covers. While issue #3 gets much of the spotlight, and deservedly so, Suspense Comics #4 is a great early L.B. Cole cover, and a tougher get as well, but there's a CGC GD/VG 3.0 copy of Suspense Comics #4 (Continental Magazines, 1944) up for auction in the 2025 July 18 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase at Heritage Auctions.

A vintage comic cover features a scene of suspense, showing characters in yellow hooded robes, one aiming a gun, while others appear startled or in distress. The dramatic backdrop includes stone walls, emphasizing the tension in the scene. — Suspense Comics #4 (Continental Magazines, 1944)

Suspense Comics #4 is only the second-published cover credited to Cole, after Terrific Comics #3 from the prior month, also from Et-Es-Go/Continental. Cole would provide the covers for the entire rest of the Suspense Comics series issues #4-12. It's pretty clear that he had paid close attention to the previous covers of the series, as issues #1, #3, and Cole's issue #4 cover all have very similar themes. Cole's cover for Suspense Comics #4 is a maelstrom of action and danger, composed by the artist to guide the viewer's eye and evoke a sense of immediate danger. It's a classic pulp scene: a woman clad in a revealing top and skirt, is bound with iron manacles to a rough-hewn stone altar. She is the focal point of a sinister ritual, surrounded by six hooded cultists in yellow robes, one brandishing a dagger, preparing to strike. A heroic figure leaps to the rescue from a wall in the background. Observing this drama is a mysterious figure in a white fedora and trench coat, identified by collectors as the character Mr. Nobody, a narrator/host type of character who was being introduced to the series and who would appear on most of Cole's Suspense Comics covers as well. He stands as a silent witness here, adding a layer of mystery over the entire scene.

Despite the attention this series gets for its covers, Suspense Comics is underappreciated for its early attempt at a sort of crime/horror/thriller hybrid title. A tough issue deserving of every Pre-Code Horror collector's attention, there's a CGC GD/VG 3.0 copy of Suspense Comics #4 (Continental Magazines, 1944) up for auction in the 2025 July 18 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase at Heritage Auctions.