Countdown to Halloween 2023 MONSTER TIMES "Here Come da SHRINK!!!" & "Introducin' the Gruesome Threesome"

Who was the fiend in human form who almost destroyed comics in the 1950s?

(Control-click on the art to enlarge)

Read on and find out in this article from Don Thompson, co-editor of the Comics Buyers Guide trade newspaper and the reference books All in Color for a Dime and The Comic Book Book!

Now that you've absorbed all that knowledge, let's talk trash...with the three hosts of EC's horror books, moderated by noted comics historian, movie/tv/comics scriptwriter, and (at the time) assistant to Jack (King) Kirby, Mark Evanier!

Next Week, an interview with EC's  Publisher, Bill Gaines, and Editor, Al Feldstein!

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Ten-Cent Plague

Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America
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Countdown to Halloween 2023 MONSTER TIMES "Horror Comics of the 1950s"

Our premiere post is an overview (with a familiar title) about the rise and fall of EC's horror comics line!

(Note: click on the pages to enlarge them!)

(The final page of the article is a two-column half-page.

Again, click on the art to enlarge)

Remember, in the 1970s, there was no internet, so no way to learn about the history of comics from the Golden Age to the 1970s except though reference books.
And while there were a few non-fiction books about comics out there like All in Color for a Dime and The Great Comic Book Heroes, there were none about horror comics (unlike the kool book from the 1990s advertised below)!
Note; There was an oversized (and expensive) 1971 comic reprint hardcover officially-called EC Horror Library of the 1950s, but better known for the title on the cover...

...which had a much too-brief historical text feature before the wonderfully-gory reprints!
So for Baby Boomers born after EC ended their color comics in the mid-1950s, this bi-weekly newspaper was their introduction to the joys of EC!
BTW, Monster Times sold it through their mail-order department.
Note the price, at a time when comics were 15¢ and the average paperback was 95¢!

(And, yes, click on the art to enlarge it!)

Next Week: A demonic double-feature of "Here Come Da Shrink: Spawn of Dr Wertham", about the MD who wrote Seduction of the Innocent, and "Introducin' the Gruesome Threesome" about the Crypt-Keeper, Old Witch, and Vault-Keeper by comic writer and historian Mark Evanier.

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Taylor History of Comics Vol 1

Horror Comics
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Countdown to Halloween 2023 MONSTER TIMES "EC Comics"

In the early 1970s, there was a kool bi-weekly newspaper devoted to horror/sci-fi...

...and, for October, we've unearthed a slew of the paper's never-reprinted features from #10, an issue from half a century ago, dedicated to EC Comics!

Be here every Tuesday (including Halloween itself) for a terrifying tidbit!

You've been warned!

Hearts and Horror BEYOND "It Happened on Valentine's Eve"

Sometimes what happens in the hours before Valentine's Day is more exciting...

...than what happens on Valentine's Day, as this tale from Ace's Beyond #4 (1951) demonstrates!

The unknown scripter laid the prose on thick in this tale illustrated by John Belfi and Charles Nicholas.

Was it originally-intended to run a page longer, but cut/re-edited to fit the page count?

Sure feels like it!

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Taylor History of Comics Vol 1
Horror Comics
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Holiday Horror MARVEL TALES "Third Ghost"

This is basically Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"...

...but with a plot twist you'll never see coming!

Written by Carl Wessler and illustrated by Larry Woromay, this never reprinted-tale from Atlas' Marvel Tales #112 (1953) turns the classic Yuletide ghost story on it's ear with the Scrooge surrogate triumphing over the specters!

Asian Horror WEB OF EVIL "Terror in Chinatown"

Behind this art which has nothing to do with the cover-featured tale...

...lies a story not as lurid or sensationalistic as the cover art would indicate!

But it is rather kool...

Illustrated by Charles Nicholas, this cover-featured tale from Quality Comics' Web of Evil #17 (1954) is actually quite mild, compared to some of the incredibly-gruesome material being published bo other companies in those pre-Comics Code Authority days!

BTW, The cover by Chuck Cuidera is an unabashed reworking of the cover for Quality's Ken Shannon #8 (1952)...

...which was inked by Cuidera, but penciled by Reed Crandall.

It matched the issue's story, which had no supernatural elements, about a tong in Chinatown!

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Four-Color Fear

Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

Hearts & Horror MENACE "Fake!"

Remember the old adage "Don't judge a book by it's cover"?

 Here's the codicil; "It goes both ways"!

Illustrated by Al Eadeh, this tale from Atlas' Menace #10 (1954) follows the classic trope of golddigger tripped up, not by her own greed, but by the fact her husband (who still loves her) is not even human!

Remember, the target audience for horror (as opposed to romance) comics was 8-14 year old boys, to whom girls were "yukky".

They were also the audience for whom Lois Lane , the nosy reporter who was always trying to either expose Superman's secret identity or trick the Man of Steel into marrying her, was the typical woman!

Support Horror Comics of the 1950s!
Visit Amazon and Order...

Taylor History of Comics Vol 1
Horror Comics