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The Rarity of EC Comics' Tales of Terror Annual #1, Up for Auction

Tales of Terror Annual #1 has been considered one of the toughest to get EC Comics New Trend issues for as long as there's been an EC fandom.

Published Mon, 17 Mar 2025 06:48:07 -0500

by Mark Seifert

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Tales of Terror Annual #1 has been considered one of the most difficult to get EC Comics New Trend issues for as long as there has been an EC Comics fandom. Jerry Weist commented on this in the first issue of the legendary fanzine Squa Tront in 1967, noting, "The 1951, 1952, and 1953 Tales of Terror Annuals are without a doubt the hardest EC items to come by, short of the Picto Fiction, Shock Illustrated #3. And no wonder! It has been discovered that the Annuals were only distributed in a small part of the United States when they were released."

An illustration from 'Tales of Terror Annual #1' featuring a terrified man reading a comic book. Surrounding him are several eerie, grotesque figures, including a skeleton and various ghouls, enhancing the horror theme. — Tales of Terror Annual #1 (EC Comics, 1951).

Weist went on to note that the Annuals had a smaller print run than the rest of the EC Comics titles and also were not advertised in the EC Comics line itself. His opinion on the relative rarity of the Tales of Terror Annuals, particularly issue #1, is still widely held by EC Comics collectors to this day. Census data tends to back this up, as among the highly-collected science fiction and horror New Trend title issues, Tales of Terror Annual #1 still has the lowest census numbers, and by a lot. Notably, none of the EC Comics annuals were present among the Gaines file copies that hit the market in 1990, and this also means that high-grade copies are nearly impossible to find on the marketplace now.

Al Feldstein's infinity cover on this issue is considered a unique classic. As Weist noted in 1967, the EC Comics Annuals were not seen or mentioned outside of the letter columns, which means that fans had to actually find a copy to know what it looked like in the early fandom era. As it contains rebound copies of recently released comic books, the contents of Tales of Terror Annual #1 can vary considerably, a matter that continues to be discussed by collectors today. The copy up for auction at Comic Connect contains Weird Science #14, Crypt of Terror #18, Weird Fantasy #13, and Haunt of Fear #17, an assortment of early New Trend EC Comics issues that would make any fan happy, both then and now. A tough-to-get EC Comics release that still holds the mystique that it did in 1951, there's a CGC 3.0 copy of Tales of Terror Annual #1 up for auction this week at Comic Connect.