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L.B. Cole produced a number of stand-out Pre-Code Horror covers during his Star Publications era.
Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: l.b. cole, pre-code horror
Love from a Gorgon in Startling Terror Tales #13, Up for Auction
Startling Terror Tales #13 features a boldly lurid cover by L.B. Cole for Jay Disbrow's interior story "Love from a Gorgon".
Article Summary
- Startling Terror Tales #13 pairs a blazing L.B. Cole cover with Jay Disbrow’s eerie interior classic Love from a Gorgon.
- Love from a Gorgon delivers a disturbing sci-fi horror plot about a dying otherdimensional race seeking a mate on Earth.
- Star Publications emerged after Novelty Press folded, with Cole and Jerome Kramer building a striking postwar comics line.
- Startling Terror Tales remains prized by Pre-Code Horror collectors, with Cole covers and Disbrow stories especially sought-after.
A wonderfully lurid cover by L.B. Cole paired with a supernaturally weird interior story by Jay Disbrow is a match made in Pre-Code Horror heaven (or hell, as the case may be). Cole covers of this era are unfailingly a treat that pokes you right in the eyeballs, and since he made a point during this era to be particularly inspired by the interior story he was cover featuring, and Disbrow's strange horror tales brought out the best in him. Disbrow horror stories for Star Publications have become legend for his unique take on often Lovecraftian themes, while Pre-Code L.B. Cole covers are always in demand. The cover feature Love from a Gorgon in Startling Terror Tales #13 provides us with a look at the best of both artists. This is a package that only Cole and Disbrow could have created, and there's a Startling Terror Tales #13 (Star Publications, 1952) CGC VF- 7.5 Off-white to white pages copy up for auction in the July 9 – 11 Comic Books Signature Auction #7467 at Heritage Auctions.
With the heat turning up on the comic book industry in 1948, Curtis Publishing, who published comics via their Novelty Press imprint, had found themselves getting caught up in the controversy over the industry during that period. Best known as the publisher of the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies Home Journal, Curtis decided to throw in the towel on comic books by 1949, selling their titles and inventory to Star Publications, a company formed by Cole and lawyer Jerome A. Kramer. The company leveraged this inventory, along with other reprint material from Fox Feature Syndicate titles, to create a noteworthy line of comics, adding Cole's legendarily eye-catching covers and new material from the likes of Disbrow.
Jay Disbrow contributed to around 45 comic books for Star Publications 1950-1954, across the range of titles the company published, focused on horror and romance. Love from a Gorgon tells the tale of a creature from another dimension whose race was dying out. The creature has traversed time and space seeking out a mate with which to repopulate its species, and it has found one on Earth. This spectacularly disturbing tale is available in Startling Terror Tales #13 (Star Publications, 1952) CGC VF- 7.5 Off-white to white pages copy up for auction in the July 9 – 11 Comic Books Signature Auction #7467 at Heritage Auctions.
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