pre-code horror Archives

Cole once said, one of the premiere cover artists of the Golden Age and beyond. "If it's a horror cover and you have a big black background, just put in some squibbly line and the reader will see it as a fang, or a claw, or a staring eye, and will read the most horrible aberrations[...]

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 square-bound edition comic book that includes Matt Baker art from the height of the notoriously-difficult Pre-Code era.  The annual is part of publisher Farrell Publications 1952-1955[...]

The most famous comic book horror line of all time, EC Comics horror did not start with a jump scare.  Like the Pre-Code Horror genre itself, the line practically snuck up on its readership in late 1949 and early 1950.  The now-infamous Crypt Keeper and Crypt of Terror first appeared in Crime Patrol #15, cover-dated[...]

Lovecraft's Shadow Over Innsmouth.  Although the Amazing Mysteries series would be short-lived, the series that did pick up where Marvel Mystery leaves off, Marvel Tales, would continue Marvel's fledgling horror line. While Eerie Comics #1 is widely considered the first horror comic book, and ACG's Adventures into the Unknown is considered the first comic book horror series,[...]

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, it was also the driving force of the market —[...]

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[...]

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

"Prototype" probably isn't quite the right name for the concept.  It's often just a name, a visual look, or a super-power that was recycled for later use — perhaps sometimes knowingly, perhaps not.  Still, prototypes do have their appeal.  It's another little hook into understanding comics history.  While Marvel Tales #116 isn't widely considered a[...]

It's a shame that the cover artist of Haunted Thrills #13 is unknown because the skeletal in-your-face symbol of death on this PCH classic is driving the petrified couple in the backseat of that car straight to Hell.  Throw in some equally creepy interior stories like "Death Do Us Part" featuring a supernatural baboon and[...]

Over a decade ago, Bleeding Cool ran a "Terrible 25" list of great Pre-Code Horror comics on Halloween.  Such lists are fairly common around the end of October every year, but as I said back in 2010, they tend to cover the same unhallowed ground — consisting of lots of EC Comics plus a small[...]

Books are expected to be in-store October 7, 2020, and will retail for $24.99. #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */ The cover of PS Artbooks Softee Planet Comics. The cover of The Phantom Witch Doctor. Want to read some classic pre-code horror? The[...]

Vividly violent and sometimes disturbing images would no longer grace horror or other mainstream comics for the following decades, making pre-code horror one of the most collected books in the comic world This copy of Fight Against Crime #20 is one such book, and the auction is set to end May 20th. This pre-code crime comic[...]