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NY State Legislature on Marvel Tales "Brutality, Violence", at Auction

During the Pre-Code era, the New York Legislature had issues with a Pre-Code Horror story drawn by Don Rico in Marvel Tales #97 in 1951.

Published Fri, 02 Jun 2023 07:40:10 -0500

by Mark Seifert

Last updated Sun, 02 Jun 2024 07:46:00 -0500

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Article Summary

Marvel Tales #97 explored in NY State Legislature for pre-code horror content.
Don Rico's story in Marvel Tales drew 1951 legislative scrutiny for violence.
Marvel published 389 Pre-Code Horror comics, surpassing EC Comics' 91 issues.
The issue features tales of witchcraft, lost cities, and animated puppets.

Marvel is not the first publisher to come to mind when we think of the Pre-Code Horror era of the late 1940s through the early 1950s, but perhaps it should be. Not only did the publisher enter the horror genre in earnest before EC Comics, but it was also the driving force of the market — publishing around 389 comics that can be considered PCH, vs EC Comics PCH output of about 91 comic book issues. One of the early entries of these, Marvel Tales #97, ended up in a 1951 Report of the New York State Joint Legislative Committee to Study the Publication of Comics. There's a Marvel Tales #97 (Atlas, 1950) Condition: VG- up for auction in the 2024 June 2-4 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122423 at Heritage Auctions.

The Joint Legislative Committee depicted panels and pages from a number of comics in this report, placing their examples into three groups:

Brutality, violence and crime.
Drawings which depict ways of bodily injury, plans for commission of crime and unlawful breakings.
Sexually suggestive cartoons and in some instances semi hidden pornography.

In the section giving examples for the "brutality, violence and crime" group, the report shows several panels from the Marvel Tales #97 story Beyond the Grave, a story drawn by Don Rico in which a witch doctor transfers his mind into the body of a huge gorilla with brutal results.

The rest of the issue is an interesting snapshot of the state of comics in 1950. The story The World that Vanished follows an explorer seeking out Atlantis, and finding out why it disappeared. The Wooden Horror is a puppet come to life. There's even a shockingly brief two-page Sun Girl story, an apt symbol of the superheroes being crowded out of comics in favor of horror. An interesting example of early Pre-Code Horror era history, there's a Marvel Tales #97 (Atlas, 1950) Condition: VG- up for auction in the 2024 June 2-4 Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Comic Books Select Auction #122423 at Heritage Auctions.