fifties

Good pickup there, Hap. "The thing in the pool" is a cool story.

Hmm, methinks I'll have to sample some of the '54 Atlas crime fare. You know, you can tell which splash pages come from post or pre code issues; the former are in neat block lettering, while the latter often have squiggles and such in the letters, similar to the covers of each era.

Sorry Hap, I only bought a few issues of Frankenstein, and kept but one; the title just wasn't in my radar.

I don't have any of those. Most are post code so I never looked at any of them. Anybody know if the contents are good? Without the CCA seal, would this copy count as pre-code? I've never had a raw copy, so I'm not sure about the contents. I think issues 19 and 20 had Stuntman reprints. What CCA seal? This book doesn't have one, what with a cover date of December, 1954. I think they first appeared on books dated March of '55. This issue, according to the OSPG, reprints Tomb of Terror 1. I have a copy, and with stories like The Dead Awaken, and Wax Museum, ain't no way this book would ever pass the code censorship, eh eh. I would certainly recommend getting a hold of a reading copy.

Nice pickups, HHwolfman. I too have the JIM 14; in fact, it's about the only pre-code issue of the title that I DO have. For whatever reason, that particular title has always been expensive, relative to any other PCH Atlas.

Tough book to find in decent shape. Congrats. Very, very tough! Congrats! Definitely a comic that would be among the last to go, in my collection. Tough to find in any grade, congrats! One of the few MM's that I personally don't have. If you find that you don't have room for your existing undercopy, shoot me a PM...

Nice pick up, and definitely an "upper tier" Atlas cover!

Yes, the title didn't survive past the first issue, most likely due to the footsteps of the approaching CCA. They watered it down, but the next issue (Mysterious Stories) did have some decent pre-code reading in it, as did a few of the post code issues. I didn't collect them all, just a few; Here's a splash page from Mysterious Stories 2;

Selling just under a dozen various GA genre books on eBay, ending Sunday. Crime, horror, Sci-Fi, jungle, super-hero; http://www.ebay.com/sch/fifties/m.html?_ipg=50&_sop=10&_rdc=1

Just finished reading it at comicbookplus; the stories aren't bad, but it's simply a crime book.

You're ahead of me on that run, Hap; I only have issues 2 & 3. The story, "Blood Vengeance", I posted in the Classic PCH Stories, as it's one of the goriest of the PCH tales.

I really didn't think that The Clutching Hand was that great, and apparently neither did anyone else at the time, , or perhaps it just came along too late in 1954, with the publishers feeling the heat of the approaching code, since it never got beyond one issue. I forgot to mention Out Of The Night. Issue 13 is my call for the best ACG book put out during the PCH era, with 4 good stories. Here's one, about the ninth post down; http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=8254388&fpart=6

Nice going, Jimbo; musta cost you the rent money for Atlas PCH books in that condition, eh eh.

Thanks for showing those, very interesting! I too have the Roly.Poly bleedin' 'ead issue. AFA ACG, I have fairly complete runs of the later issues of Adventures Into The Unknown, and Forbidden Worlds. I would say that each of the '53 and later books all had at least one good story, although generally not on the gore level as The Thing or Mister Mystery. St. John, agreed, pretty antiseptic AFA gore, but they also had some interesting stories.

Thank you, gentlemen! What you see there was accumulated on eBay almost or entirely (I can't remember) from about 1998 to about 2007 or so.

Here are some full runs of Fawcett's shorter series titles;

Very good. How are the stories? Nice run, congrats on the no.2! The eyeball cover is great and I very well could change my mind for favorite cover if I ever get a copy. But until then I have to say issue 3 is tops in my book with that killer jungle mask just staring you in the face against that black background. If that wasn't enough, they throw in a putrified corpse stalking his victims. As for the insides all I can say is George Evans GKLOOMS! (thumbs u I would agree on #3 being in the top three as well. What ashame that Fawcett folded in '53. Would have loved to see another year of their PCH output.

Because, however, I don't want to lose my "Collectinator" status, here's the full run of Worlds of Fear; I'm sort of partial to the cover illus of issue 10, followed closely by #9.

I don't have issues 1, 2, or 23. I had 23, but it was so lousy, including the cover artwork, that I sold it. I didn't figure 1 & 2 had gory enough stories, which is why I never got them. Shameless plug; I have another copy of Dark Mysteries 5 listed on The Bay right now, along with issue 9 of The Thing...:wink:

Those must be Gerber 11's...:wink:

Nope; different heads;

I have most of the run, starting at I think their number 5, when they began to get more into a gruesome mode. Reasonably decent horror/crime stories, borrowing occasionally from EC story lines. I would say sort of like EC's Crime Suspenstories to an extent.

A little late for the EC's, but here's one of my favorite Crypt covers; I can't leave Haunt out; And then there's the Monster Times EC edition C/F, showing how Crypt 38 should have looked;