precodekeith

That's my pal Pov, always with his "the vein is half full" attitude! Adam - GREAT bit of info there man!

This one brings back memories. An eBay purchase from when I was living with the Anti-Comic Girlfriend from Hell. This buy really miffed her off...

Alas, if only the right edge wasn't shot...

Bill Everett sings Bob Dylan.... "How does it feel...to be grabbed by bones...in a graveyard unknown....on an Atlas tome?"

I wish all sellers were as strict as the dude who sold me this (cheap!)... he graded it POOR, and it is totally complete with attached cover!

I wish this #5 was as nice, it has fantastic interior art all throughout...

It actually is one of the nicer Atlas books I have. The main defect is a chip on the right edge just below the verbage circle, which shows up in the scan but is hard to see. You can see some spine stress as well in the black ink. I did a double take of the scan myself and compared it to my book because the title looked oddly to the left, but this is actually how it was printed. I'm quite proud of it myself!

Thank you, Pov! It is in fact issue THREE! Very wise you are in the ways of pre-code...

His music career may be over, but opening beer bottles will be a breeze! Wonderful book, Pov!

...back to some books.... just a wonderful Maneely cover!

I must confess, even though the stories by ACG are for the most part dreck, they do have some very nice covers. They've grown on me over the years more & more. Especially the early issues without verbage clutter, and the "TrueVision" books.

Jayman, I picture you doing that "Slowly.... oh so ever slowly" in the voice of Evil Ed from Fright Night! You're creeping me out , dude! Chamber of Chills.... ya can't go wrong there, my fiend!

Stick to pre-code DC horror, Sterling! Honestly, I think if you PM Pov he can help you out... tell him I sent ya! Otherwise I can't think of any web resource. Back issues of TTTTT # 2 and #3 will be very helpful.

Jayman, Happy Anniversary! All I have to say about your WM..... You the man, Jayman!

Paul, there was a Fantastic Fears #5 that went for less than $50 on eBay not too long ago! It would have graded "apparent VF" according to seller, as there was an ad cut out that did not hinder the Ditko story..... BTW - nice pick-up!

...and I have to hand it to them, despite their tame & lame approach they were very innovative....3D w/out glasses!

At least ACG was aware that they were the first continual supernatural comic and used it to promote themselves... ..... the "greatest" is probably up for debate!

Pound for pound, PCH is king of gore versus BA. The irony though, is that the DC BA stuff is more graphic than their PCH!

Personally, I'm a fan of most horror comics with the exception of some of the schlock dredged up in the post code period up until about House of Mystery 174 (roughly thereabouts). Agreed, the PCH stories are just plain wacked out compared to a lot of what happend in the BA. Surprisingly though, DC in particular was pushing the envelope in the 70's with what they could get away with. There are several extreme stories tucked away in some of those books! It will be interesting to see what happens in the future with Copper Age horror. That time period features great art by the likes of Wrightson PLUS crazy no-code stories by guys like Bruce Jones.

This one has a special place in my heart. It was the very first pre-code horror book I ever bought. I got it on a trip to a used paperback store with my late grandfather. I had no concept of pre-code horror at the time... this book started my PCH addiction!

... and believe it or not I actually DO have some HG books in my collection! There's a story similar to the "Thing" in this issue. If I were going to slab some PCH, I would include this one. I'd be interested in hearing grade guesses based on the scan.......

ACG generally gets no respect, but ya gotta love this one! First horror series. Beat to death, but for $25 who can complain!?

Yes, that could happen. In fact however, one reason (of many) that horror collectors started flocking to BA books was because the pre-code market became too expensive for many. So, you end up with a possible yo-yo effect. If BA starts getting too steep, they might come here if the market has become more favorable to their purchasing power. OR... they might move on to Copper Age horror, which really could be the next hot area in horror. In general though, horror goes in cycles. Right now the pre-code is soft and the BA is hot. If the BA cools off, there's really no guarantee ANY horror age will heat up in it's place.

Here's my ratty Suspense 24 Adam was talking about. Nice comparison.

I think prices are relatively stable, except for a handful of icon and heavily in demand, genuinely scarce books that rarely turn up in any kind of decent shape. I think the PCH market is actually dropping down to pre-boom levels for lower and mid grade books. I've even seen unbelievable deals on some high demand books lately on eBay. Comics are unpredictable, but I'd guess it will be another five years at least before we can expect another resurgence. The money & action right now in the horror comic genre is in HG BA books.