House of Horror #1 Warren

[raybowles]

Anyone have any idea if this magazine has any demand? I purchased 2 of them back in 1978? from a comic book store in Hawaiin Gardens CA.

 

How much would a copy sell in 9.2 condition?

[DiceX]

It's the top one or two hardest to find Warren mags.

Print run is believed to be in the 400-500 copy range.

 

I'd say the value of a 9.2 copy would be called "Stupid Money".

 

If you could post scans of your copies, I'd have to wipe the drool out of my keyboard.

 

 

[DiceX]

I found these quotes in another thread...

 

I located the article mentioning the House of Horror magazine for anyone who is interested…

 

The following is an excerpt from an introduction by Forrest J. Ackerman for the 1988 “Collector’s Guide to Monster, Science Fiction and Fantasy Film Magazines” price guide.

 

“This mysterious magazine American oneshot, House of Horror, missing from 99% of completists’ collections: here’s the story on it. There was such a magazine in England. Warren learned they were about to ship a number of copies to America each issue. He didn’t want any extra competition so he rushed into print a domestic magazine with the same name, reprinting 4 articles by me with a 5th reprint by Dennis Billows, an assistant of mine at the time. The edition was extremely limited ---only 400 copies, if I recall correctly, though on a nice white better stock of paper than FM ---because the publisher only had to satisfy certain copyright regulations, such as circulating 200 copies in 5 states (or whatever). This was in 1978. The unsold copies of the “ashcan” edition he gave to me. At one time an assistant (not Billows) stole about 30 copies from me and sold them to a dealer in a nearby city. After the perfidy came to my attention (and the assistant was gone) I bought back my own magazines because they had been sold for far less than I knew they were worth.”

 

Never seen that one before. Can someone elaborate a little on its rarity and value?

 

October, You could say that this is probably the rarest Warren book out there. At least top 2. It has a dismal print run of 400 copies. I'm not even sure how they were distributed to newstands? Maybe just on the East Coast. But Warren, printed this book in order to secure the name House of Horror. If you had heard, Warren had done some work in the European market working with some of the Hammer Magazine groups out there. Where there was a little bit of a falling out as I understand, and Warren caught wind that they were going to create a new magazine titled House of Horror. Well they did, but Warren got the rights to the name first so the House of Horror Mag that was created by the European publisher had to pull their copies immediately. There might be some corrections to be made in that statement, but that is how I understand the situation.

 

As for value, it is really up in the air. I've seen copies go as high as $450+ in stated FN/VF, but they dont come up too often. So I've only seen 2.

 

-bounty

 

Bounty (as usual) is on the mark with his info on this lil gem. That being said, let me interject my ego err opinion. Its definitely a rare Warren book, the print run gurantees as much but it is by no means the rarest... Being that 'House of Horror' is a non-comic it opens the door for rarity comparsions with all Warren mags. This includes the original magazine 'After Hours' adult magazine. I'd daresay that few (if any) on this board have ever seen an 'After Hours' #1 in person. Also, the Vampirella HardCover had a run of 500 (of which almost half were destroyed when they came back from the printer). And then there is the insanely troublesome Eerie#1 which I have given up on as I will never be able to convince myself on the authenticity of any of these copies that find their way to market. The Illustrated History of Heidi Saha is another that deserves mention, however for the most ridiculously rare Warren we have the '1961 Famous Monsters Convention Book ' which was handmade, only 3 exist and they are all in Forrest Ackermans personal collection. Woe to the Warren completist.

 

 

[DiceX]

I didn't realize these have actually had sales...

Only sale of a 9.2 was for $2,136 in September of 2005

Only sale of a 9.0 was $1,434 in May of 2006

 

 

[50 Cent #II (1st)]

There's a Raw #1 for $895 on eBay.

[DiceX]

I think that one is a slabbed 6.5, IIRC.