Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: fiction house, maurice whitman, pre-code horror

Ghost Comics #1: A Pre-Code Debut Haunted by the Specter of War

Ghost Comics #1 features a cover by the underappreciated Maurice Whitman, who defined the look of Fiction House in the 1950s era.

While its lurid and fantastic Maurice Whitman cover promises traditional gothic ghouls and phantoms, Ghost Comics #1's most historically potent story, "Phantoms from the Sea," delivers a Pre-Code Horror tale of unexpected complexity. Instead of a straightforward tale of a vengeful enemy spirit, this story, originally created in the waning days of the war, presents a supernatural intervention in which an American pilot is saved by the ghost of the Lieutenant he had hated in the aftermath of a devastating kamikaze attack.  It's a uniquely American ghost story rooted in overcoming personal conflicts and surviving the horrors of war.  But Whitman's cover is undeniably the star of this show, with its theme of a beautiful woman fleeing through a graveyard as ghoulish figures erupt from the ground around her.  The setting is pure gothic horror: a misty cemetery with tilted tombstones, a twisted, barren tree combined with wonderfully lurid color to set the tone for this entire series.  There's a copy of this series debut in Ghost Comics #1 (Fiction House, 1951) CGC FN 6.0 Cream to off-white pages condition up for auction in the 2025 October 16 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase Auction III at Heritage Auctions.

Some of the material in Ghost Comics originally appeared in the feature The Ghost Gallery which regularly appeared in Jumbo Comics #42-167 (1942-1953).  The series followed the cases of a sort of John Constantine-style investigator of the supernatural named Drew Murdoch. Lily Renée's spectacular Werewolf Hunter from Rangers Comics also makes some appearances here, as does Ghost Squadron from Wings Comics.  In June 1953, Ghost Comics came to the attention of an organization calling itself The Committee on Evaluation of Comic Books, which claimed to have 84 "trained reviewers," evaluated 418 comic book titles which were then available on the newsstands of America. This committee put Ghost Comics in their "Very Objectionable" category, which, according to their guidelines could include

• Grotesque, fantastic, unnatural creatures.
• Persons dressed indecently or unduly exposed.
• Any situation having a sexy implication.
• Stories and pictures that tend to anything having a sadistic implication or suggesting use of black magic
• Portrayal of mayhem, acts of assault, or murder.

Ghost Comics #1 definitely fits those guidelines, as does Whitman's spectacularly creepy cover.  Whitman's work graced a large number of comics of the mid-1940s through the early 1950s that are undeservedly overlooked. After serving in WWII, Whitman entered the comics industry in the mid-1940s working for the likes of Harry Chesler, Lloyd Jacquet, and Jerry Iger. But in 1947, he began working for the publisher with which he would make his mark: Fiction House.  Whitman worked on interior stories for titles such as Wings Comics, Planet Comics, Jungle Comics, and other Fiction House titles from 1947-1950 before starting to get cover work as well.

Maurice Whitman created dozens of covers for Fiction House 1950-1954, most of which are stand-outs, but his Ghost Comics #1 cover is one of his most historically significant works.  There's a copy of the series debut of this underappreciated Pre-Code Horror title in Ghost Comics #1 (Fiction House, 1951) CGC FN 6.0 Cream to off-white pages condition up for auction in the 2025 October 16 Golden Age Comics Century Showcase Auction III at Heritage Auctions.

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