Darth Corgi

#22 Mister Mystery 4 Originally I had Mister Mystery 6 (the one with the girl on the wheel drawn by the talented Tony Mortellaro) in this spot but then I remembered this one. Classic and underated in my opinion. When it comes to Mister Mystery it seems #6 and the later Bailey issues get most of the love. This is an early gem and pretty wild. As an artist myself, I always appreciate covers featuring the craft and supplies in some way....a weird take using the theme art about art. One of the best things about this issue is not even visible here. It is the story inside Button? Button? Whos Got The Button? which was mentioned in the excellent fanzine Tales Too Terrible Too Tell.

#23 Chilling Tales 16 These four hooded grisly creatures would get along well with the creeps on the cover of Venus 19 and other places Bill E would put them. The Matt Fox Chilling Tales covers seem to get all the love but I always thought this was equally great and actually drawn better in a traditional representational sense. Another poor damsel in distress! How many of them have we seen on these covers? Great coloring on this issue. Lots of intensity on the characters faces....again, my favorite part of this cover is the actaul black in drawing. Wonderful! ...I also like the guy in the background with that little pitckfork. Makes me think of getting some french fries at Nathans.

#24 The Thing! 11 Over the years, I have heard dealers and collectors continuely say The Thing! run of 17 issues is as perfect as a Precode Horror comic set can can be. There is not a bad one in the bunch. This goes for the covers as well as the stories. -Bob Forgione cover -This issue has a great Lou Morales story as well. Lots going on here. It seems like there are 5 or 6 seperate stories or events taking place at once. The strange coloring on the man adds to the strangeness of this scene. Lots of small creatures and tons of sharp things and critters in all the nooks and crannies....just like my favorite comic shops and booths at conventions!

#25 Mens Adventures 22 Let us start with an underated classic drawn by the great Bill Everett. This is a pretty gruesome cover. Take a moment and really look at what is happening in the scene. Yeah. pretty sick.... I like the pose of the goul and his expression. I think this is one of the best character drawings from the hundreds of Atlas horror books that were published. The column thumbnails on the left featuring other stories in the book are also equally entertaining. My personal favortie is Deadline! Also, this book has plenty of that famous Atlas Green!....... Always easy on the eyes.

How about another Top 25 Precode Horror List? 5 books a day will be posted with my reasons leading up to Friday, the 31st. This is the sequel follow up to my TERRIBLE 25 from earlier in this thread and later posted on Bleeding Cool over here: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/10/31/the-terrible-25-of-pre-code-comic-book-horror/ That was 4 years ago. Looking back on that list, I still agree with most of it, though I felt over half could of been swapped out for other covers. This list is the next 25. The only books that will not be here are the ones directly below, my previous Terrible 25: Since this is a list of my favorite Precode Horror covers, these books are only horror comics that feature an element of supernatural or fantasy to them. So no crime comics here like CSS 22 or Lawbreakers 11, etc.... I love those books but they will be on another list. So let us kick it off. It is going to be 5 books every day this week. Here begins my TwisTeD 25....

Awesome Brad! Thanks for sharing it. Jayman, those Unexpecteds look great. Excellent covers and condition.

THE TwIsTED 25 is coming...

Bong! Yes!! Well done Jimbo. Great taste.

I was jealous too. That book is worth $700. Mystery Tales and a cover as nice as the Venus 18 boat tunnel cover. Nice grab.

I bought em, just priced em, and they will be on our web-site in the next week. Glad to hear! And thanks! Here are the few I kept. I don't consider these the best covers of the run, but they each had a weird story or two that I liked. Superior books are some of the best non EC horror books out there. Whenever this time of year rolls around, I always read at least a few of these comics. I'm a bit behind this year because I am finally reading the early Wrightson Swamp thing issues and into the Alan Moore stuff (off GA topic: sorry). Anyway, here are the Superiors.... And by the way, stay tuned to this thread. I've got something special planned for next week. -Christian

I had the full run but sold of most of them this summer. I'll post the ones I kept later.

"I'll String Along" reminds me a lot of a Twilight Zone Episode whose name escapes me at the moment. It was near a creek and involved the hanging of a man......there are a few other life-blinks-before-your eye moments in these precode stories. Wrath of Satan was pretty demented since one of the carni operators shared my last name. -Mr. Slade

I am a fan. He might be my favorite comic artist,...easily in my top three. Definitely my favorite horror artist. I just noticed he signed his proper name Ingels on this opening page as opposed to his later nickname, Ghastly.

Nice! I love that short run of Saunders covers. I've got all of those. Great stories and a nice little run of books. Ace is so underrated. I've never seen that Web Of Mystery. Looks like a great cover. Any Lou Cameron in there?

That Beyond 1 cover is sweet Jayman. I've always wanted one. How are the insides?

That Sir, is Atlas gold! Fabulous books! I think you mean.....Goul's Gold. Nice collection of books.

Those Heaps are great Jayman. I've always like the one with the crab. How are the insides?

You sir are the awesome one! Hope life is well.

Nice Fifties! Looking forward to the nightmares tonight. Fantastic and Fantastic Fears is a great series!

And lest we forget (and this was noted in a Simpsons treehouse of horror episode) the one constant in most of these stories - ironic punishment. Right you are Andy! Are there many Precode references in those episodes? Where wolf? There wolf. There castle! Right you are Jayman! And speaking of McDonalds, you have any Superior Chronic to go with my Big Mac?

Some random thoughts on these stories: -a lot of these Precode stories feature cheap and sometimes hack writing and art. That said, McDonakds sure can taste good. I think a lot of the best stories are more unique than the others in idea and or art style and feature an especially brutal panel. Here are some of the most popular and repeated story types... I think these four themes might account for half of the stories in these comics: 1. Spouse kills spouse for money (half the time one or both is a vampire or where wolf) 2. Travel to Islands or Africa and steals sacred gem/statue which unleashes vengeful voodoo/black magic. 3. Business partner, spouse or lover killed and returns as a zombie or ghost to kill the murderer. 4. Alien invasion or world takeover using disguise or mind control. Side note: I've been rewatching many Twilight Zone episodes. I think Mr. Sterling was a fan of these Precode stories. There are a lot of parallel ideas happening here. For those that haven't watched them Twilight Zone stories are incredibly sharp, classic and still hold up very well today.

That 4th to last panel gets me every time. "Mother! Don't hurt Bobby! Please!" "Shut up!" Crack! Yeah, that's messed up. This is one if those stories that solidified Werthams arguments.

Brad, Yes, there were definitely shops popping up in the 1970s... Lots of them I think...... Lots to learn on these boards. Hope you stick around bud! EDIT: I found a link to a thread about the earliest shops. Here you go: http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=7889361&fpart=1

Looks like a horror cover to me! Also, that puppet jester looks like Harry Osborn. Oops....is that allowed over here in Gold?