Marvel's Man Comics #26 from 1953 features a Spider-Man prototype radiation-transformed human spider at Los Alamos Laboratory.
Vintage Paper Archives
Weird Tales artist Vince Napoli's story in Beware #12 is about a comic horror artist who finds new inspiration during a creative dry spell.
Who Is Next #5 is both brutal crime comic and a surprising look at how the 1950s criminal justice system handled mental health issues.
Chilling Tales #16 is a Pre-Code Horror comic book classic with stories by Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Allan Poe.
Chesler's Punch Comics #19 is underrated for its horror-focused cover that preceded the era when Pre-Code Horror boomed in the comics.
Zombie by Bill Everett debuted in Menace #5 from Marvel/Atlas in 1953, and would return to enter the Marvel Universe 20 years later.
Witches Tales #25 (Harvey, 1954) is a classic among two different groups of people for two different reasons that involve the same story.
Crime Does Not Pay #33 is one of the most-collected issues of the most notorious series in comic book history.
An unlikely hero with unassuming beginnings, Herbie Popnecker has achieved cult classic status over the course of his 60+ year existence.
Avon's Eerie #2 is a fascinating Pre-Code comic book from a historic publisher that features cover and artwork by the legendary Wally Wood.
Created by Jack Sparling for the newspaper PM, the comic book reprint of the strip caused some controversy with this Jack Kamen cover.
Before Ant-Man in Tales to Astonish' #27's "The Man in the Ant-Hill", there was "Trapped in the Ant-Hill" with artwork by Syd Shores.
John Buscema did significant work for publisher Orbit from 1950 to 1953, including the cover for this notorious issue of Wanted Comics.
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.
This Highest Graded CGC 9.6 Canadian version of Marvel's Astonishing with Marvel Boy features a Marvel Boy cover that didn't appear in the U.S. version.
Claiming to be inspired by the play The Bat, which spawned movies influential on Batman, masked robber James Walters terrorized 1925 Boston.
Spicy History Stories #3: Later the publisher of the iconic pulp title Adventure, Erman J. Ridgway was a player on a historically dominant 1891 Yale Football team that steamrolled opponents by a total of 488-0
Black Cat Mystery #37 from Harvey in 1952 features stand-out work by Richie Rich creator Warner Kremer and Moon Knight co-creator Don Perlin.
Early 1950s Fiction House series Ghost Comics rivals even EC Comics for horror, suspense, and adult situations in the pre-Code comics era.
American Comics Group's Adventures into the Unknown is considered the first ongoing horror series in American comic book history.
Haunted Thrills was one of the most succesful of Farrell Publications' Pre-Code Horror series, featuring artwork from Iger Studio.
Best known as a science fiction artist of covers for pulps & paperbacks, Kelly Freas did a fantastic Pre-Code Horror cover for Witchcraft #5
Spicy History Stories #2: How a reportedly vicious competition between William M. Clayton and Warner Publications blew up the spicy magazine market.
There's something undefinably unique about Quality Comics from the post-WWII era, and early 1950s Doll Man is a good example.
The creation of artist Bill Ward, pre-Code glamour icon Torchy ended her brief but memorable series run at Quality Comics with Torchy #6.
Romantic Adventures #49 features "one of the grimmest little epics to appear in a romance comic" according to historian Michelle Nolan.
Editor William K. Friedman was determined to test the limits in the wake of the 1954 Senate Hearings on comics, and Romantic Hearts #9 is an example.
Popular Teen-Agers was a 1950s romance comic book title from Star Publications, a company formed by L.B. Cole and Jerome A. Kramer.
With Matt Baker and others, Jack Kamen redefined the look of The Fox Feature lineup beginning in 1947, creating some of the most memorable covers of the era.
On the brink of the introduciton of the Comics Code in 1954, Marvel/Atlas expanded into a market segment that Fiction House left behind.