precodekeith

My girlfriend bought me that issue of WT for my birthday last year! How cool is that? Not like the girl I had before, who was hounding me to sell all my comics. I think I will marry this one some day...

Punisher!?! OK, let us know when you've started ... Just kidding, OF! And again, hate to be so but, I am looking for the movie where the teens (or college kids?) get car trouble of some sort (wreck? flat tire?) and wait in the woods on the side of the road for help, telling scary stories to pass the time. I think the first tale was of the newlyweds in an RV that runs out of gas/breaks down in spooksville. The guy goes to get gas/whatever in the night & after the bride endures a night of terror she exits the RV only to find the groom hanging by his feet above the Rv with the wedding ring scratching the roof as he sways to and fro. In the end, the stranded teens see a "rescue" light from the roadside, but in a weird series of camera shots we see that the "light" is the penlight of an EMT who is checking the eyes of the teens for signs of life as they are being carried off on stretchers, dead from the car wreck they had went through earlier. Can anyone help?!

OK Jayman, sorry , but just trying to get this straight in my head. (besides, copper horror flix is not that far of a cry from copper horror comics, am I right?!) In Campfire Tales, do they tell a story about two newlyweds in an RV who run out of gas in the middle of nowhere?

Pov, I think the pre-code era is still going through the consequences of the big balloon-inflation days of the mid to late 1990's when the speculators "ruined" the market for the average fan and ended up raising prices all around the board, in all grades. The trickle down has been IMO, that horror fans were driven away from the 50's books due to finance, and ended up getting into the less expensive BA horror as an indirect/or direct result. I point to the dramatic increase in BA horror popularity in the last 2- 4 years. Other factors may come into play as well, though. I think what you may see within the next two years (it's already happening on eBay, hopefully dealers/ cons will be next) is that pre-code is selling once more at the prices of ten years ago before the dreaded boom. Yep. Not every book, not every time, but it is happening for sure. BA is "hot" right now, and eventually I think you'll see a leveling off in each direction (BA up, pre-code down); where the horror collector will have to decide between the two ages for his dollar because the prices will have evened out to a degree. It's just the wax and wane of the hobby....

Hey! Wasn't Deadtime Stories another movie, ala Campfire Tales with the dude from New York Dolls? I'm trying to think of the name of the flick where the teens wreck the car and are dead but don't realize it yet, so they sit around and wait for rescue and tell scary tales to pass the time..... any clue? Is it Deadtime Stories?!

Norinn - Have fun on vacation and live it up a little for all us forumites "stuck" in fall climes right now. Although I must say, this is my favorite time of year what with the leaves falling and Halloween coming and the near constant chill wind and rains. Horror season! Speaking of Halloween - I am giving out beater reader horror comics for Halloween to the kiddies this year along with the candy. Anyone else doing this? Gotta get the youth involved or there won't be much of a hobby 25 years from now! Oh, and HCR 5! Well, no set date yet, it's coming together slowly but I do have material including never before published pages from Neal Adams, Gil Kane, and Wally Wood! I'm going to guess maybe December or January. I wanted to do another Halloween Spooktacular, but it was just not feasible this year.

Jayman - The first copper horror I ever bought was the Twisted Tales with the gooey melting woman on the cover. I think it was Bolton. Those Bruce Jones stories blew me away, and I would consider him my favorite comics writer of all time in the horror genre. Simply untouchable. In the 80's I was hopelessly addicted to PC and Eclipse horror&sci-fi, and some dude named Conan. Back then it felt like I was the only horror & barbarian fan on the planet, as all my buddies were superhero zombies. It almost seems odd how both Conan & horror are once again "hot commodities" in the collecting game.

OOooooooh, you sneeeeky bastages!!!! I NEVER come to the copper section because it has been pretty lame overall. Nothing horrorfied ever goin' down. (heck, I honestly didn't even know it was here until now, ok!) Now... a reason! Here I felt all alone for harboring this love for 80's horror, and now we can all share our feelings for it just like in therapy.... Sterling.... OMFG! I can't believe you haven't tasted the dark delights of PC's Tiwsted Tales! It's the ICON of 80's horror, man! GO BUY THEM ALL AS A NICE HALLOWEEN TREAT FOR YOURSELF RIGHT NOW!!!! Geez, will this thread symbolize copper horror's "coming out" of the discount bins and onto the display boards the way the BA thread hepled turn on so many new DC BA horror collectors? Time will tell...

Well, they say sometimes even a blind squirrel finds a nut, so I guess I was charmed when I came up with multiples of GHOSTS 65 when I started putting together that run. And I STILL need 15 other issues to finish it up. (Must admit, funds are tight right now and I put plenty of other titles on a higher priority watch/buy list.) However, you won't get an arguement outta me, because I do agree that it is a tougher book for whatever reason. They pop up less often for sure. I just got lucky.

I'm with Shivs, I didn't think jbud was talking about you directly, Shrunk. My feelings were that the statement was made about the type of folks who see that a HoM in 9.6 went for big multiples of guide and decided that, after ignoring or even snubbing the horror genre for years, maybe HoM and co. were "good" after all since money can be made on them. When in fact the books were "good" all along to those that read, collected, and enjoyed them. I felt he was talking about the type of person who only cares that a book has Wrightson or Kaluta art because it will bring him more money, not because he actually loves the form. The type of person that many months from now, discovers that Sad Sack is selling over guide, and will suddenly "find" that Sad Sack is a "good" title for him to start buying up, and hopefully dump his horror books back into the market at a loss ..... (sarcasm, folks) But hey, that's just how I read it. Only Jbud can clarify.

Amen!

I'm glad to see this thread getting a little action lately! It was so quiet for awhile... Anyway, I think the general consensus is that the HG pre-code is going to be tougher hands down, am I right? C'mon, Shrunk! That was a no-brainer! Jury might still be out on 8.0 PC versus 9.6 BA, but give it maybe another two years or so for the census to pan out and I think that PC still comes out on top here. Also, I don't think ANY BA horror can qualify as "scarce" as defined by OS. (20 - 100 copies) Hell, I don't even think Eerie #1 1947 Avon qualifies, even though OS just started listing it as such. But, yeah, some are going to be what I would call "tougher in high grade" for sure.

I can't say with certainty on GA books, but it has been my personal experience that CGG is WAY tighter than CGC on modern material. TOO TOUGH, if you ask me, but the main problem I have seen on their grading is that they are not consistent whatsoever. I'd imagine that this might carry over to the GA material as well. BTW- they recently changed their name from CGG because of legal issues with CGC. Guess what they changed it to..... PGA! Yeah! No potential infringement their, fellas! knuckleheads...

Hey! Yet another cover that Morse used again in the Stanely mags some years later. I've a copy somewhere around here, I'll have to see if I can dig it up....

If memory serves me correctly, TTTTT never got around to covering St. John . So, hopefully the Weird Horrors index will be a boon to collectors, in the same manner as the Witches Tales index in HCR 3 and 4.

Speaking of "Weird" titles, (so many of the great pre-codes titles have "weird" in it) I was fortunate enough to snatch up a Weird Horrors # 2 recently. This completes my run of that St. John title. I'm anxiously waiting for it to get here. So, I may just do an index to Weird Horrors in the next issue of HORROR COMICS REVIEW , especially since I have had a request to do an index of something from St. John. How fortuitous!

Hey!!! Thanks, O.F.!!!

While I haven't seen it up close yet, I heard the latest CBM (114?) actually has a color repro of the cover to issue 3 of HORROR COMICS REVIEW in the Pete Von Sholly article. Yeah!

Are you a Dr.? Anyway, I'm going to have to dig it out, but I think my copy of this book reads:"DR. WEIRTHAM (sic)" not "Lasker." It may be a variant , but most likely a different issue. I'll have to check. Wayne Howard was a cool artist.

Yup, more Baily. In fact, this cover came up in the Skywald, Eerie,etc. mags thread over in the mag section. Morse recolored it and used it for Chilling Tales of Horror, which he seemed to have a habit of doing, hehehe... I got my AIWW "man holds hypo and splits in two classic cover" for under $20, and it was just 3 years ago, bwahahaha.... I had to pay WAY more than that for my WM #11, though. So it all comes out in the wash, right? As far as the Morse pre-code books go, there are cats on eBay who bid on every copy every time they show up. So yeah, I think there is certainly some hoarding going on there of that particular publisher.

Yes! I loved that as a kid. First bootleg video I ever bought at a con as well. I vaguely recall it raised some issues of debate not too long ago on these boards.

Wow! William Stout is a pretty nice guest to be pulling in for a con with only 10 exhibitors. I love his work, great artist, plus the dude is a true horror comic fan. Did you get to speak with him about horror comics? I can't believe next year would be Kaluta & Wrightson! Unbelievable pull for such a small show! OT- but man, I really have such fond memories of going to comic cons in the Carolinas in the 80's when I'd be visiting my mom for the summer. In fact, my step dad got up early one morning and hauled our little cul de sac comic crew (there were 3 of us on the street into comics) from Charlotte to somewhere in South Carolina (Spartanburg? Can't recall) to a tiny show that sounds similar to the one you described. Anyway, it was the first time I had ever seen the Wrightson Swamp Thing books, and fell in love with that dark art style. Sadly, I was a kid who was essentially broke and focusing my limited funds on Conan, so it wouldn't be years before I picked up a Wrightson book. Sorry OT, but ah , the memories....

Oh man, I can't wait to chime in on this! I have some very "interesting" views on this, but they will have to wait until I get time. I'm jetting out the door in a few minutes to spend the night at my girlfriend's, and will be raiding some comic shops tomorrow with my cousin. Wish me luck! BTW - some cool choices so far!

Jayman - I really love this first issue! I only have one other issue from the series besides this, and it is packed with informative articles that the first lacks. The art is very good (especially the Bissette!) and for the most part the stories are intelligent enough to sometimes have moments that rival what I consider the epitome of 80's horror -Twisted Tales. Oh yeah, I also love the PMRC - style "Warning" tag on the cover, haha! Nothing says mid- 80's like a warning label!!! Hhhmmm, think I may just go track down the rest of the series......

Join the club, Sid! I never thought they were reprints, but I just generally felt the BA stuff couldn't be that great compared to the pre-code material because of the Comics Code. So, I ignored them. I remember back in, say 1996, going to a local show loaded with $$ to blow on comics, but there was no pre-code horror to be had. One dealer had 3 long boxes of HG DC BA horror, which I glanced through, but didn't bother to buy because of the stigma of the CCA seal. The dealer just didn't understand that I didn't want to touch a "horror" book that was code approved. It wasn't until one day about 3 years ago that I came out of my stupor, had a moment of clarity, and I realized that DC BA was what I was reading when I was say 10 years old, and those books had made a lasting impression on me. Viola! Overnight my collecting habits changed. I still collect all ages of horror comics, but right now, and for the last couple years, it's been all about the DC BA for me. I agree these books have nowhere to go but up. Myself, I'm what Doug would label a "traditional" horror collector, more concerned with reading the stuff and getting complete runs as opposed to HG hensteeth. I certainly won't knock HG horror guys, though. Hey, if I could afford it I'd be right there with 'em! I think it would be completely rockin' to own a BA set of 9.4 - 9.8 HoM's! Still, I catch myself freaking out when I see someone plunk down $350 for an UNSLABBED HoM 193! Yikes! That kind of "speculation" makes us "reader" guys a little nervous, as it can eventually mean the old "trickle down effect" to the cost of lower grades, ala the mid 90's pre-code horror craze. But... that's the hobby we are in, and anything can happen .....