Darth Corgi

Nice book! That guy on the porch is so dead!!

Haunt Of Fear #26 Another incredible cover and one I didn't remember well from when I picked up the reprints. Nonetheless, I am given it the attention it deserves now. -This cover for me is all about the attitude of the characters. Just look at the disgusted look on that guy's face. Classic Ingels! There is a story on this inside that relates to this scene. -Look at the bow on the goul's head. Ghaslty's attempt at humor and simply brilliant! -Great composition again moving your eye perfectly around the picture space, giving it all kinds of horrific stuff to take in. -The background here is cool. I love how the door is ajar with an eerie orange glow coming behind it. -Probably the best copper kettle teapot to appear on any PreCode Horror cover!!

Haunt Of Fear #24 I have always thought this is another standout cover from the Haunt line. -After I get past the great yellow and orange letters over the magenta background in the title, I immediately look at the woman with the lantern. She is in such a dynamic pose and she is so well drawn, Ingels really doesn't make her look creepy here. Instead the creepy qualities lie in everything else in the scene. -This cover is really a show of different Textures and how they contrast each other. The woman is smooth and silky holding a lantern which looks hot and rusty. I can feel the splinters from the wood beam and bucket just staring at the cover. Finally we have a tar-like liquid creature on the ground with strategically placed empty ale jugs pointed at it. Even seemingly insignificant parts are given care such as the beautiful stone wall with all its cracks and breaks. This is another visual feast from the macabre master himself. Thank You Ghastly! Wherever you may be!!

Haunt Of Fear #18 I, like many Ghastly fiends on these boards, love the cover for #17. Many consider it his best cover and I agree, but I am starting to think that the following issue here puts up a pretty good fight for top spot. I have seen this cover many times and I still, to this day, am not 100% sure of what is going on in this scene, and that's ok! The confusion is what partly makes this such a wickedly nightmarish and fantastic cover!! Every time I look at it, I find something new. Other thought chunks: -I am a sucker for covers with lots of green in them. -The critters pouring out of god-knows-what? Simply twisted! -The colors in the face of the old Witch are remarkable. Plus, her red dress simply ruptures off the book. I picked up this book from a LCS here in Orlando where I was doing a signing during Free Comic Book Day last month. It was a great day and I ended up having some store credit which I rolled into this and 2 other Haunts I will be posting next. All 3 books are solid mid grades and what I love about them, is their white/off-white page PQ! These were most likely imports as most native Florida Golden Age is often brittle and brown.

That Heap is a great creature! I have a 60's/70's comic that reprints Heap stories. Has a Kinstler story too!

What he said! Thanks!! I think its around 30 books at this point. I definitely need to slow down and smell the roses, or corpses. No need to rush through it. Plus, my wallet can't handle it Any PreCoders or boardies going to Heroes Con? I'm leaving in a few minutes for the airport. I've got a table in Artist Alley. Stop by and say Hi or maybe drop off a skull filled with maggots!

Haunt Of Fear #28 I'll end today's postings with the final issue in this title. Probably the most subtle of Ingels covers, it still evokes the feeling of Horror, and of course, FEAR. In a way, this might be Ghastly's most scary cover ever because it shows us something that is real. Unlike zombies, vampires and other gouls that oozed from Ingel's pen, this scene shows us what we are all at one time or another afraid of.... death, the unknown, and did we make the most of our time here. Technically this is my first original Haunt book for my collection, though I didn't receive the actual book in hand until after I had acquired the previous two I posted. Some other thoughts about the cover: -Excellent color work. -The perspective of looking up from a grave level is genius. -The composition here is wicked! Notice how everything keeps your eye in the picture frame moving in a circle. You see the cart first moving to the right, then your eye is stopped by the tombstone which carries you up into the sky whose clouds arc back down to the ground and cart again. A dance for the eyes! -I know many boardies here don't like the cut off cover designs that EC used not allowing a full bleed and adding the 3 Host portraits. I agree in most cases, but I think everything works very well for this issue. The somber burgundy background color in the masthead behind the title echoes the color of blood and I like having the 3 Goulunatics here. Appropriate since this is the farewell issue. I wonder if the bodies of the famous 3 are in those very coffins piled up on the cart?

Here are 2 more ... make that 1 more as it seems I don't have a scan of my Shock SuspenStories # 1 handy - That, is an excellent book! Can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this someday!! I think Metro has the Mile High for around $1200.

Haunt Of Fear #12 Another gem and one that has been posted many times before. All the characters rock in this one! Just look at the main character in the foreground looking helplessly at the reader! Absolutely beautiful linework going on here. What a face too! The walking corpse/zombie in the BG aint too shabby either! Just look at the pose and expression. You can almost hear it cackling....I also like the disproportion of its left arm, quite a bit lower as it should be. As if it fell off and was now just in the garment remains. Masterful work!! I was lucky to of picked this up off the boards for the disgustingly low amount of just under $30. I felt like a grave robber taking it for such a song.

Haunt Of Fear #17 I picked this book up along with the Eerie Adventures #1 from the FX Show here in Orlando. I think I overpaid a little, but I also got a few other books thrown in and I really wanted this copy. The page quality and printing are unbelievable and the cover color/gloss holds up real well. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I spent the last 10 years very casually putting together all the single reprints of the EC titles as I found them. It was a very enjoyable (and cheap) way to stay in the hobby. My favorites are the Ingels stories. I think Ghastly might be my favorite comic book artist. So when I decided to start picking up Non EC PreCode horror, It didn't take long before I realized that I wanted at least a few original EC's in my rag box. So, I've decided to just get the Ingels covers which ends up being about half of the run of Haunt. I have made a significant dent in these issues already. What more can be said about this cover that hasn't already been told? Here's a stab at it: -The olive green/yellow faces with pink/purple accents just screams rotting corpses! -These 3 faces are all sensational yet I keep looking at the one in the back, furthest away. In fact if you stare at that one long enough, then very quickly look over into the eye of the closest one, you just might get some goosebumps like I did! -Bernie Wrightson said it best in the EC featurette on the Tales From The Crypt season 1 DVD when he said something along the lines of......Ingels drew in a way that you could somehow SMELL the rotting flesh.... You could SMELL the drawing!

Eerie Adventures #1 The first and only issue in this title from Ziff-Davis. I've got a few more of these wonderfully painted covers coming up soon as part of my "starter PreCode kit". I can't say enough great stuff about these covers. It took me a few seconds to come around and notice the dagger being pulled out of the robe while the deathly fellow makes his final checkmate move. (thumbs u Also, the other attached pic is the backside of the book featuring another piece of cover art! I was thrilled and surprised when I first saw it. Bats..

Weird Mysteries #11 I picked this copy up on ebay and felt I got a pretty good deal on it. Definitely a reader, this is still a solid book with some great page quality. I have noticed that this run is quite desirable and I must admit that many of the covers are quite amazing, though I'm not sure this is one of them. Still, I wanted to at least grab one and see what the insides were like. Regarding the cover: -Bizarre Creature -Yellow dress! -Strange Hands reaching out from the readers perspective. -My first Bonnett's stamp

Witches Tales #14 After I heard from TTTTT that this issue featured a story about a giant mutated rabbit, I had to get it! I love covers that have a sort of animation or sequential quality about them. I think all the drawings are fantastic here, especially the "middle" stages of this poor man's transformation. This is my first (and probably last) file copy. Though I love the wicked cover and gloss, the outer edges of the pages are way to tan/brittle for me. Still, its a nice copy. Also, I really wanted to see what CGC called "Light Tan to Off White Pages" as this was a slabbed book. Also, my first Heritage win!

Adventures Into The Unknown #33 I'm getting all my stuff together for the upcoming Heroes Con and thought I'd post some books tonight! Going to post a whole bunch! Get ready fellow gouls!! Not as great as Startling Terror #11, but still cool. Also, another book for my "Giant Spider Attack" cover collection. Love the green background and the dame is drawn so nicely! I know these are sort of the underdog of PreCodes, but I'm sure there are some gems among them. This copy is what I would call really nice shape for my reader PreCode collection.

Glad everyone enjoyed the story. I thought the artist did a really great job at designing the main crazy guy. Really nuts!!

Part 2...

Great books everyone! Love those Venus covers! Here is part 1 of the Paper Cutter story from Fantastic Fears #6 per request.....

Nice creepy looking book! I love the skull face logo in the slug! Anytime you've got eyeballs in a skull face, you've got a winner!

that's one fugly dude That panel is so many kinds of awesome, I can't count that high! Can we get a vomiting/worship icon?

Mister Mystery #11 My favorite Mister Mystery cover and probably in my top 10 of the greatest PreCode Horror covers. I searched for this book early on and probably paid a bit more for it than I should of, but this is one I had to have for my moldy comic crypt! Everything about this cover screams awesome: -Wild concept! -Excellent drawing overall, particularly the expression on the poor guy's face. -Great colors! -Another book in my "Nature Vs. Man" collection. -Double skull cover!! -Those are some giant ants!

Hopefully not about the prices some of these books cost!

Venus ..... Great books guys!!! I'll probably have some nightmares tonight.

Haunt #12 is a pretty rotted out cover! Great book!

Fantastic Fears #6 This book has the classic story about a guy who decapitates a lady with a papercutter (reprinted in TTTTT). I sought this book out for its cover which as you can see features a very disturbing character with some scary-looking dental work. This character is somewhere between human and monster I think. I love the exaggerated teeth and gums and the color choice of pink is so strange I think it works well. This book visually pops in a linup of the other Pre-Codes I've gotten so far. I'm going to feature a group shot of my beginner collection when I finish highlighting each book.

Wow! Awesome books! This is probably one of the best covers Gilmour put out. Nice collection!