Weird Fantasy 19 help plus a question

[Secret Son]

I'm looking for some assistance. I recently bought a large lot of pre code horror comics from Craigslist and I'm trying to get it in order. The lot came with a pile of coverless pre code horror books and a couple with detached covers. One example of that is Weird Fantasy 19.

 

Here's were the assistance portion of my post comes in. I'm trying to see if the cover belongs to one of the many coverless books in the pile. Does anyone have a scan of page one?

 

Now for the coverless question. Is there a market for coverless pre code horror? I'm sure there won't be a line around the corner for them but would there be any interest at all?

 

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

 

[Scrooge]

Sure, pre-code coverless sell very well.

 

The first story in Weird Fantasy # 19 is titled: King of the Grey Spaces

[Secret Son]

Great, thank you for your help. Now to play the match game.

 

[FlyingDonut]

Great, thank you for your help. Now to play the match game.

 

Use Comics.Org, makes it very easy. A hint - put your coverless horror books on eBay. You'll be very pleasantly surprised.

 

Or, you can sell them to me.

[Doohickamabob]

Great, thank you for your help. Now to play the match game.

Use Comics.Org, makes it very easy. A hint - put your coverless horror books on eBay. You'll be very pleasantly surprised.

What he said... Use Comics.org and it will tell you the names of the stories in any given comic issue (unless the comic is relatively obscure and its data hasn't been added yet). This also comes in handy for spotting when somebody tries to "marry" the wrong cover to a different issue.

 

As for the marketability of coverless comics, there are a number of coverless comics up for auction on eBay right now. Examples include Venus #9 and Slave Girl #2. Here are some links to look at:

 

-- Coverless GA comics on eBay NOW

 

-- Coverless GA comics on eBay COMPLETED

 

At a glance there were numerous coverless comics that did very well in auction. Not everything does, but if it's something cool then it should get some bucks.

[Secret Son]

Great information guys, thank you again.

 

I'll start my research to get a general idea of worth but if anyone has interest in the entire pile shoot me a pm. I'll give you as much information as I can.

 

[originalisbest]

If you do want to sell the whole pile in a bunch, you won't go wrong listening to an offer from Flying Donut; if you want to scan, post and sell them one by one or in small batches, you could do well on eBay or the BST boards here. I love to get coverless PCH if they're otherwise complete, intact and decent in appearance.

[originalisbest]

Depending on the issue, I like grabbing one for $5 or $10 if it's nice; for a nice coverless copy of An Earthman on Venus I paid about $20; special issues/those with notable art will do better -- issues whose main appeal was the cover, and with drecky contents, won't do as well.

[Secret Son]

I think I would rather sell them as a group. The problem is I can't tell what some of the titles and/or numbers are on many of them. If someone were interested I would send a load of pics. Once I get some research completed I will reach out to any interested parties.

 

Thanks for the advice.

[originalisbest]

Of course! Maybe send flyingdonut a pm, I'm sure he could be of help.

[Scrooge]

 

I'll be taking over this thread.

 

In a PM, I offered Secret Son to help him ID the books and after he sent me the pics, I was able to ID all the books in his stack. I turned out to be interested in the lot and it is now sitting next to my computer.

 

With time permitting, I'll read the books and post pages of interest (if any).

 

Tonight I grabbed Weird Terror # 3 from Media.

 

The book start with another clean job by Pat Morisi. I believe it was done close to the start of his career. I would have to check when he did his first job. The story is nice: The Mask of Medusa kills those who find the mask ugly but does not hurt those who appreciate its artistry. Needless to say, a lot of people don't take to the mask and the body count is high in the story.

 

The second story: Hackie's Return is mediocre about a taxi driver taking revenge on a gang after they dropped him and his cab into the river.

 

Don Perlin does a better job on the third story about explorers discovering a source of uranium in deep dark Africa, except that it's also the location of a portal to Hell. It does not end well for the explorers as recounted by our narrator, Satan as revealed in the last panel (see below).

 

There is little point to the last story except for gratuitous and gruesome torture panels. This one should have been on Wertham's radar. I post a particularly graphic page below by Rudy Palais (? - ID is uncertain on GCD).

 

Enjoy

[Scrooge]

Next on the pile was Atlas's Mystic # 24

 

The book starts with a bang (or should that be a ding dong?). I find that by 1953 thereabouts Maneely is ramping up to do the best work we got to see him do + Maneely foreshadows in this story how adept he is at the medieval theme as he will re-establish once he draws The Black Night in 1955.

 

The Maneely story is followed up by Gil Kane inked by it seems Mat Fox. Fox's inks are typically overbearing but Kane's pencils do peek from underneath, esp. in the splash (that you can see here http://www.atlastales.com/supersize.zdz?t=s&i=2116 ). I scanned in the second page with the alien.

 

The rest of the issue never lives up to these two stories' promise. The book is quite a contrast to yesterday's Weird Terror. Atlas's horror stories, which can get gruesome though not always terribly graphic, suffered at times of EC envy. Reading the last three stories makes this obvious. First, we have a narrator that always has the last word on the previous story and the -script calls for a twist ending ... but Atlas didn't have the right writers with the EC knack of a true surprise, nor are the situation as aptly handled which leaves us with so-so stories and when drawn by Toni DiPreta, the results are underwhelming as the last story is.

 

Out of the three remaining stories, only the third one of the issue is worthy of mention for the art. AtlasTales does not mention artist for this story but I am sure someone here can ID the artist. He's not an Atlas steady but I've seen this work around during that time period. Maybe Pat can tell us who it is?

 

[Pat Calhoun]

really like the Kane-Fox, one-of-a-kind. third story drawn well in house style by ?. but do like artist on fourth, though story here doesn't show him well. included splash panel from Weird Worlds 24 to give a better glimpse of the frenetic art of Chuck Winter. (would like to see his early Planet stuff...)

 

 

 

[Scrooge]

but do like artist on fourth, though story here doesn't show him well. included splash panel from Weird Worlds 24 to give a better glimpse of the frenetic art of Chuck Winter. (would like to see his early Planet stuff...)

 

The story was sooooo lame that I didn't even truly pay attention to the art on that one. Winter is not always my favorite artist and then I confused the Winters ... Aren't there two Winter artists? Chuck and Charles.

[Pat Calhoun]

beats me. I do remember Edgar and Johnny Winter. believe it was Ed who covered this Rick Derringer tune- but could'a been Johnny...

 

Rock & Roll Hoochie Koo

 

Couldn`t stop moving

When it first took hold

It was a warm spring night

At the old town hall

There was a band called The Jokers

Laying it down

You know I`m never gonna

Lose that funky sound

 

Rock and roll hoochie koo

Lawdy mama, light my fuse

Rock and roll hoochie koo

Truck on out and spread the news

 

Squitas start buzzing

Bout this time of year

There's one round back

Said she`d meet me there

We was rolling in the grass

Growing behind the barn

When my ears started ringing

Like a fire alarm

 

Rock and roll hoochie koo

Lawdy mama, light my fuse

Rock and roll hoochie koo

Truck on out and spread the news

 

I hope you all know

What I`m talkin about

When you wiggle that thing

It really knocks me out

Getting high all the time

But if you're not there too

Come on a little closer

Gonna do it to you

 

Rock and roll hoochie koo

Done got tired of paying dues

Rock and roll hoochie koo

Say goodbye to all my blues

Rock and roll hoochie koo

Lawdy mama, light my fuse

 

[Scrooge]

I prefer Johnny myself.

[Pat Calhoun]

probably for me, in this case, (to turn Mick on his head) it's the song not the singer...

[Scrooge]

Wow! With Dark Mysteries # 6, put out by Master Comics, a one-title company (?), we are really hitting the bush leagues of '50's material.

 

I riled against the quality of writing in Weird Terror but now it looks like Pulitzer quality compared to any of the stories in this issue of Dark Mysteries. Seriously, I had to read some panels multiple times in the second story and I am not convinced I follow it yet (and I won't even mention the lettering therein).

 

We go from a ghost revenge in a Go-West story to Vampires coming back to Europe to growing nooses from a 300-year old witch hanging to probably the most shocking story about cannibalism though this was done by spirits to the protagonist :shrug:

 

All in all, it's a case of you've got to see it to believe it with some artists whose sense of anatomy has yet to develop :doh:

 

I picked three pages to showcase:

 

1) Splash of the Vampire story by Hy Fleishman

 

2) A page of the noose story by ?? At the top of the stairs the guy will be attacked by a growing noose ... and

 

3) the page by Lou Cameron (?) where the protagonist realizes he's just eaten part of his girlfriend

 

P.S.: 18,000th post

[Larryw7]

These stories are great, Scrooge. Thanks for posting them.

[Scrooge]

Thank you Doiby

 

After the Yugo, here comes the Cadillac! The next book I grabbed was Strange Adventures # 16, DC Sci-Fi book par excellence, the dominance of early '50's DC on the comics scene is on full display. No one else except EC did comics better than DC during that time period.

 

The issue starts with a Broome / Anderson (with Anderson inks) Captain Comet story which makes sense whereby a creature from an alternate dimension is projected to earth and appears as many ghosts as his apparition is fed by people's psyches and loved ones are the ones most thoroughly missed. Thanks to his mutant powers, Captain Comet, a.k.a., Adam Blake, can communicate with the creature and help send him back to his dimension.

 

Not only is the story scientifically grounded (gotta love all the editorial asides about science facts) but the coloring job in this is fantastic to convey the evanescence of the ghostly characters (see second page below)

 

 

The second story is scripted by Edmond Hamilton and drawn by Kane with Giella inks. Compare the look of this Kane job to the one that was buried under Fox's inks and you get the sense of how Fox took any job and made it his.

 

Hugh Reed, archeologist, uncovers the alien race at the origin of the Easter Islands giant figures and asks them for knowledge while his companions request: wealth, strength and power. Humanity is surely not yet ready for the science of these aliens so they go back dormant for another cycle.

 

 

The final story is by Gardner Fox and is half-a-turkey with inanimate objects become "alive" once they touch a lake of liquid. Could have been a better story to wrap up the issue. Oksner turns out the best job he can given the circumstance. Yes, the one guy is being attacked by his plane's radio in the splash ... It's silly in conception but so well executed by Oksner in the pencils that it's in fact charming.