pre-code horror Archives

Farrell Publication's Voodoo Annual #1 is a comic book that Pre-Code Horror collectors rarely want to part with, and it's easy to see why.  It's a scarce 100-page giant squarebound edition comic book that includes Matt Baker art from the height of the notoriously-difficult Pre-Code era.  Although the title is part of publisher Farrell Publications[...]

Marvel is not the first publisher to come to mind when we think of the Pre-Code Horror era of the late 1940s through the early 1950s, but perhaps it should be.  Not only did the publisher enter the horror genre in earnest before EC Comics, but it was also the driving force of the market[...]

D.S. Publishing's Exposed True Crime Cases contained some cold-blooded material even by the standards of the pre-Code era.

The Challenger was a four issue series from 1945-1946 designed to fight prejudice and discrimination featuring work by Joe Kubert and others.

The incredibly obscure Star Studded Comics from Cambridge House Publishers features Ghost Woman plus work by Carmine Infantino.

Alex Schomburg transformed this 1944 Wonder Comics #3 cover from Standard/Better/Nedor into a war-era classic.

Kaanga Comics #8 appears to be one of the toughest Fiction House comics in high grade, and features a spectacular cover by Maurice Whitman.

Bulletdog was arguably the first "superdog companion" of the Golden Age, setting the stage for Krypto and other superpets to follow.

Master Comics was a long-running Golden Age series from Fawcett Pubications that came to feature the character Captain Marvel Jr.

Dick Ayers' Magazine Enterprises Ghost Rideris a stand out example of the artist's work, combining western, supernatural and herioic themes.

Cow Puncher Comics does not contain any actual cow punching, but features art and covers by Jack Kamen, Joe Kubert, Walter Johnson and more

The creation of artist Frank Bolle, the masked hero Black Phantom had a classic villain-to-hero story arc in the pages of the Tim Holt comic.

Wild Bill Hickok became Avon Publications' longest-lived series, but the title character took a back seat to Calamity Jane on his series debut

Cole paired with a supernaturally weird interior story by Jay Disbrow is a match made in Pre-Code Horror heaven (or hell, as the case may be).  Cole covers of this era are unfailingly a treat that pokes you right in the eyeballs And since he made a point during this era to be particularly inspired[...]

The newspaper strip saga of the adventures of an entertainer named Claire Voyant was published as a comic book by the founder of The Hill.

The incredibly obscure Mysteries Pre-Code Horror series is very tough to get, even by PCH standards.  Its publisher Superior Publications was a Canadian company that reprinted a wide range of material from U.S publishers but also created original material for distribution in both the U.S and Canada.  Mysteries was one of these original material titles,[...]

While this title is best known for containing work by Steve Ditko, The Thing #11 (which does not include any Ditko material) maintains the high standards for Pre-Code Horror that fans remember the series for today.  The November-December 1953 cover-dated release features the story "Beyond the Past," a Lovecraftian tale about using the Necronomicon to summon[...]

Although he is best remembered for his DC Comics work, legendary comic book creator Sheldon Moldoff made important contributions to the Pre-Code Horror genre with a number of publishers of the early 1950s For example, Moldoff contributed heavily to Fawcett Publications' brief foray into horror, and his April 1953 cover-dated cover and story for This[...]

Like a few other Golden Age publishers, Fox Feature Syndicate titles sometimes verged into horror well before the late-1940s era which is generally considered to mark the beginning of the Pre-Code Horror era.  Such issues, particularly ones with good horror covers, can have crossover appeal among both Pre-Code Horror and superhero collectors.  Mystery Men Comics[...]

According to a lawsuit over the creation of Ace Periodicals comic books during this era, Magno the Magnetic Man and the rest of the material in Super-Mystery Comics #1 was the creation of a comic production studio run by Patrick Lamar.  At least two stories in this issue were based on plots from past Ace[...]

An iconic Golden Age cover by an underappreciated artist, there's a Dynamic Comics #11 (Chesler, 1944) CGC FN- 5.5 Off-white to white pages and another great Ricca cover with Dynamic Comics #8 (Chesler, 1944) and the legendarily insane Dynamic Comics #18 Propeller Monster cover up for auction in the 2022 October 27 – 28 Halloween[...]

Frank Frazetta is perhaps the most famous and acclaimed fantasy artist of the past century, and the number of iconic and very well-known covers he produced during his lifetime is seemingly endless.  Even casual fans are familiar with pieces like Egyptian Queen and the Vampirella #1 cover.  If there's such a thing as an obscure[...]

Cole's skill at creating covers that stood out on crowded newsstands, and Ghostly Weird Stories #122 is yet another memorable example of that ability.  68 years after that issue was published, that cover still made me want to read the comic to find out what the hell happened on that tragic death ship.  During the[...]

The title's 19 issue run from 1948 to 1952 and spans a time of major change in the American Comic book industry.  Superheroes were on the decline, and other genres such as romance, horror, and science fiction were on the rise on America's newsstands.  Venus started as a sort of light-hearted superhero/romance hybrid, with the[...]

A foundational creator of the Golden Age, Bill Everett is best known for his creation of Namor the Sub-Mariner in that era and his co-creation of Daredevil in the Silver Age.  But Everett excelled at an astonishing range of material, and his work between those two ages for Marvel/Atlas during the Pre-Code era on science[...]

A short but memorable crime comic series that was part of a publishing line known for such titles, the series gets off to a cold-blooded start in the first two issues, particularly with issue #2's The Case of the Giggling Killer.  There's a solid copy of Exposed #1 and the high-grade River City copy of[...]

Silver Streak Comics is a rarity among Golden Age titles in that it was launched with a villain as the cover feature.  That villain, The Claw, was both an obvious example of war-era propaganda and based on a blatant racial stereotype.  Publisher Lev Gleason was so intent on focusing on this wartime enemies theme that[...]

Fawcett Publications was reportedly a reluctant entrant into the Pre-Code Horror era, and never branded issues from its horror titles as "A Fawcett Publication" as it did for the rest of its comic book output.  But when they did jump in, the line came to include a number of horror titles such as Beware! Terror[...]

Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency about the title in a fiery exchange about the title.  The series ran 24 issues 1951-1955 and several of them are noteworthy from the perspective of Pre-Code Horror collectors, and Dark Mysteries #10 is one of the best.  There's a Dark Mysteries #10 and 15 of the 24 issues of[...]

Cole gave a lot of thought to cover design that would stand out on the crowded newsstands, and this one certainly does that.  One of the most highly sought-after Pre-Code Horror comics among collectors, there's a Startling Terror Tales #11 (Star Publications, 1952) CGC FN+ 6.5 Off-white to white pages up for auction in the 2022 October[...]