Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: don heck, pre-code horror

The Danse Macabre of Comic Media's Horrific #1, Up for Auction

Horrific #1's cover image is based on the interior story "The Dancer of Death" a creepy twist on the Danse Macabre or Dance of Death concept.

"Allen Hardy Associates, Inc… needs the unusual, says the August 1953 edition of Writer's Digest. "Artists and writers who don't have a hackneyed approach to comics. "Art Director Jerry Feldman says, "If you got it — you get it." Better known today as Comic Media, Allen Hardy Associates did indeed have an unusual and deceptively sophisticated approach to comic books during its brief lifespan.  The publisher is remembered for its stand-out and notorious horror and romance output, as well as the character Johnny Dynamite. One of its most infamous covers among vintage horror comic book collectors was published on Horrific #1 in 1952, and Jerry Feldman got exactly what he was looking for with both that image and the story behind it. The Davis Crippen CGC FN+ 6.5 copy of Horrific #1 (Comic Media, 1952) is up for auction in the 2024 October 24 – 25 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40272 at Heritage Auctions.

Comic Media was founded by former Harvey Comics circulation manager Allen Hardy, whose primary artists Don Heck and Pete Morosi had also come from the Harvey Comics production department.  Hardy had eased into comics publishing in early 1950 with a string of romance titles beginning with the short-lived Confessions of Love and Honeymoon Romance, digest-sized paperbacks with comic book-style covers.  Actual comic book romances followed the next year with All True Romance and Dear Lonely Heart. Hardy had used a number of publishing corporations throughout his comic book endeavors, including Artful Publications, Harwell Publications, and Allen Hardy Associates.  But the arrival of Heck and Morisi in 1952 coincided with better cover/logo design, an expansion into other genres and the launch of the Comics Media brand with War Fury and Weird Terror.  Other titles including Danger and Horrific soon followed.

While a number of Comic Media's most noteworthy horror covers were done by Heck, the artist of the cover of Horrific #1 is unknown.  It is presumed to have originated from the Iger Shop, and the two interior stories upon which it is based are also presumed to have come from that same comic production studio.  The story "Iron Doom" contains ghoulish figures who are very similar to the conductor and musicians on this cover.

But Horrific #1's cover image is primarily based on the interior story "The Dancer of Death."  This story is a creepy twist on the Danse Macabre or Dance of Death concept, in which people are escorted dancing to their graves by a personification of death (typically depicted as a skeletal figure).  In the case of this comic book story, the dancer of death is a ballerina who kills her dance partner and lover during a dance.  Art director Feldman may have been intrigued by this concept, as when the Horrific's title was changed to Terrific for what was to be its final release in issue #14, the concept was revisited again with a ballet theme in "Dance of Death" by Rudy Palais.  Horrific #1's "The Dancer of Death" story has some very general similarities to the Gore Vidal crime thriller Death in the Fifth Position, which would have hit bookstores in 1952 around the time that the comic book story was being created.

According to Heck, publisher Allen Hardy came to a tragic end. "Allen was an alcoholic. He was a member of AA but he went off the wagon. While he was in this way, I could not leave him," Heck was quoted in later years. "I stayed until I cleaned up the stuff for Allen Hardy who, by that time, couldn't do anything. He had to go back for treatment. Not too long after that he died. I heard the story he was smoking a cigarette and it dropped and he burned himself to death. I liked him! He was a good guy as far as I was concerned."

This is a difficult comic to get in anything above low grade.  But the Davis Crippen CGC FN+ 6.5 copy of Horrific #1 (Comic Media, 1952) is up for auction in the 2024 October 24 – 25 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40272 at Heritage Auctions.

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