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Weird Menace: The 1930s rise of the Shudder Pulps followed by the rise of the forces that ended them and transformed horror on the newsstand.
Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: l.b. cole, pre-code horror
The Pre-Code Horror of L.B. Cole's Star Publications Era, at Auction
L.B. Cole produced a number of stand-out Pre-Code Horror covers during his Star Publications era.
Article Summary
- L.B. Cole and Jerome A. Kramer launched Star Publications in 1949, focusing on repackaging existing content with some new material.
- Star Publications embraced the horror trend beginning in 1952, featuring captivating Pre-Code Horror covers by L.B. Cole.
- Jerome A. Kramer transitioned from tax booklets to comics, leveraging resources like paper access post-WWII.
- Cole's eye-catching covers remain highly sought after by collectors.
L.B. Cole and Jerome A. Kramer launched Star Publications in 1949 before the Pre-Code Horror era had become a boom. It's clear from looking at the first three years of Star Publications title launches that horror wasn't really on their radar. And of course, the inventory they acquired from Curtis/Novelty Publications contained very little real horror, and the business plan was to largely repackage that material with new Cole covers. Of course, Cole was right at home with horror themes. In the years preceding what we now consider the Pre-Code era, his covers at publisher Continental on titles like Suspense Comics, Power Comics, and Mask Comics included iconic examples of comic book horror.
Star Publications caught up with the horror trend in a major way beginning in 1952, launching or rebooting several titles to get into the field. When the publisher joined the 1950s horror boom, titles such as Shocking Mystery, Spook, Terrifying Tales, Terrors of the Jungle, and others would feature what has become some of the most sought-after covers of the Pre-Code era. A number of L.B. Cole Pre-Code covers are up for auction in the 2024 October 24 – 25 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40272 at Heritage Auctions.
Jerome A. Kramer was an accountant who found success in the publishing business with simplified 25-cent instructional income tax booklets beginning in 1942. He entered comics publishing with his Croydon Publishing Company in 1944 with Variety Comics., which lasted three issues. Beyond that title, Kramer's Croydon published several one-shot titles in 1945-1946, including Miss Cairo Jones and Captain Wizard Comics. The timing of Kramer's entry into comics strongly suggests he was induced to enter the field just as it was booming due to his access to paper at a time when newsprint usage was being controlled in the United States by the War Production Board. Croydon also began publishing paperbacks around 1945, with L.B. Cole providing some covers for Croydon paperbacks beginning in that year. Kramer and Cole acquired the Curtis Publishing Company's Premium Comics Group / Novelty Publications comic book page inventory when it became available in 1949.
But that inventory was of minimal value when it came to horror comics. Cole increasingly relied on artist Jay Disbrow to provide stories on these titles, and also picked up some Fox Feature and other inventory material to repurpose. Jungle stories with supernatural themes could be repackaged as horror, for example. Of course, the element that made it all work was Cole's eye for covers that jumped off of the newsstands, and that's why comics featuring L.B. Cole Pre-Code covers remain so sought after by collectors today.
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