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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: Atomic Age, Avon Periodicals, Kelly Freas, pre-code horror
Witchcraft #5 and its Pre-Code Horror Kelly Freas Cover, at Auction
Best known as a science fiction artist of covers for pulps & paperbacks, Kelly Freas did a fantastic Pre-Code Horror cover for Witchcraft #5
Kelly Freas (1922 – 2005) is best known as a science fiction and fantasy artist on pulp covers for titles like Astounding Science Fiction, Planet Stories, and Weird Tales, and paperback covers for publishers including Signet, Ballantine Books, Ace Books, and Avon Publications. Famously, he reworked his October 1953 cover painting for Astounding Science Fiction at the behest of the band Queen for the cover of their 1977 album News of the World. He was also a longtime contributor to Mad Magazine among others. But it's his work for Avon Publications that interests us here, because in addition to being a paperback and pulp publisher, that company also got into the comics book business. According to GCD data, they published Kelly Freas' very first work in comics, and it's a doozy. There's a nice copy of the Pre-Code Horror gem which features that classic Kelly Freas painted good girl cover on Witchcraft #5 (Avon, 1953) CGC FN- 5.5 Off-white pages up for auction in the 2023 July 13 – 14 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40227 at Heritage Auctions.
Freas painted this Witchcraft #5 cover in 1952 and followed up with a cover for Fiction House's The First Christmas a few months later. His subsequent work for Mad Magazine was the only art he did for comics for nearly 15 years (again, per GCD data) until his covers for Marvel Comics magazines, Warren Publishing magazines, and National Lampoon beginning in the 1970s. The Witchcraft #5 cover may be loosely based on the feature story for this issue, which is about a witch kidnapping a young girl and giving her over to the devil. Years later, she returns to the world as an adult and finds love — but can't quite escape her haunted past.
For all of those covers over an accomplished and prolific career, the Witchcraft #5 cover stands out as unique among his comics work, and there's a copy of Witchcraft #5 (Avon, 1953) CGC FN- 5.5 Off-white pages up for auction in the 2023 July 13 – 14 Pre-Code Horror & Crime Comics Showcase Auction #40227 at Heritage Auctions.
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