The Undead Thread: Pre-Code Horror 21 21

[Norrin_Radd]

Anybody see this?

 

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=7030&Lot_No=92088

 

Feldstein story from War Against Crime #10.

 

[Larryw7]

First appearance of the Vault Keeper.

[Mio]

I didn't see it... but now I'm nothing but jealous. If I owned it, it would have to be torn from my cold, dead hands. I'm surprised it's up for sale!

[Jayman]

Maybe it was torn from someone's cold, dead hands.

[adamstrange]

How did I not know there was a thread devoted to these books?

 

A big "thank you" to everyone for sharing their books! I'm a novice in this area but I'm really getting into them now!

At least you didn't find this hidden one. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=550731#Post550731 We wouldn't just anyone dropping by and looking.

[Jayman]

How did I not know there was a thread devoted to these books?

 

A big "thank you" to everyone for sharing their books! I'm a novice in this area but I'm really getting into them now!

At least you didn't find this hidden one. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=550731#Post550731 We wouldn't just anyone dropping by and looking.

 

By posting this link, I happened to revisit that threads early posts and noticed a book that had slipped past my radar. I did a quick search for a copy on the internet and Harley Yee had one that i snapped up.

To my surprise it was the exact same copy that was in the thread!

[Darth Corgi]

Tough book to find in anything over VG. This copy came from our own Andy over at Goldust Comics.

 

This book is supposed to have an offbeat story about a man who goes crazy in a rubber room. It's titled "The Button" I believe. Ever since reading about it in the Tales Too Terrible Too Tell fanzine Ive been searching for a decent copy. I'll be cracking this slab open on a special occasion and reading that story. Can't wait.

 

[Artboy99]

Tough book to find in anything over VG. This copy came from our own Andy over at Goldust Comics.

 

This book is supposed to have an offbeat story about a man who goes crazy in a rubber room. It's titled "The Button" I believe. Ever since reading about it in the Tales Too Terrible Too Tell fanzine Ive been searching for a decent copy. I'll be cracking this slab open on a special occasion and reading that story. Can't wait.

 

 

I have been interested in picking up a copy of this book. I will have to wait until I have some funds, but my interest is of course because I have worked / still work as an artist. Love that cover. Great pick up Darth. We have such similar taste in books

 

[Scrooge]

I posted about it before and I am sorry I don't know how to create a spoiler box apparently -

 

"[..], TTTT reviews the first story in Mister Mystery # 4 –

 

“The humorous style characteristic of a lot of Gillmor’s later output starts to appear in Mister Mystery # 4. Button, Button … Who’s Got the Button?, while only four pages long, is a true classic of the Gillmor genre of horror. This story deserves some detailed coverage – my analysis will probably contain more words than the dialogue in the story itself. But it’s an excellent demonstration of the point made earlier about how Gillmor’s writers, free of slavish addiction to the rules of logic (and good story composition), were completely unpredictable when laying out their stories.

 

 

Button, Button … starts out with Mister Mystery introducing to us Michael Carter, a “talented young axe murderer.” Apparently, Michael is a newlywed who has recently dispatched his bride with an axe and finds himself on death row awaiting execution in just two weeks. Noticing that escape is impossible, he plots to avoid the electric chair by feigning insanity. (This guy killed his new bride with a hatchet. He’s already got me halfway convinced that he might be nuts!) After a whole panel’s worth of irrational behavior – attacking guards, laughing hysterically and remaining unfazed by high-power water hoses – Michael succeeds in convincing the prison doctor that he is insane. The warden, less naïve and a bit more experienced with the wiles of criminals, decides to give Carter’s mental state the acid-test by putting him in solitary confinement. While in solitary, Carter starts having bad dreams involving his lovely bride and bloody axes. These dreams give him the creeps. Resolved not to lose his mind in actuality, he distracts himself by playing a game with a button off his shirt. He tosses it into the air and recovers it on the ground repeatedly. This goes on for hours. (Sounds like fun, eh?) However, at some point, he throws the button up and it fails to come down. He searches everywhere in the gloomy cell but is unable to find the object of his manic game. At this point, his hallucinations return and he suddenly has a vision of the button appearing on his dead bride’s neck – presumably near where he aimed the axe. This causes Carter to crack completely and he is led out of the cell muttering in the traditional style of the true horror comic lunatic. The warden finally concurs with the doctor’s opinion, concluding “Looks like you were right, Doc! Look at him! He’d be better off dead!” In the last story panel we see that the button had been caught in a spider web. Mister Mystery wraps up the tale with an EC-style punish moral: “What always goes up doesn’t always come DOWN!”

 

 

Yow, what a tale! Upon first reading, I presumed that it would conclude with Carter’s ruse being unveiled and his being led off to the electric chair. I reasoned his visions would be so terrifying that he would start pounding on the door, admitting that he was sane and demanding to be executed. Or that his poor victim would actually return from the grave and either execute him herself or drive him truly insane with fear, with or without benefit of a button. These would be classically logical EC-style shock endings. But logic and reason must be tossed to the wind! I never considered that Carter would actually be driven crazy by the loss of the object of his little game. The irony here is that Carter was probably always crazy anyway and the effort at simulating insanity is what actually drove him completely over the edge. Remember, while his motivation is never made clear to us, this guy did kill his new bride with an axe. That’s a fairly insane act no matter how you look at it. While trying not to beat this story to death, I must stress that, as horror stories go, this is quintessential Gillmor. If you like this kind of completely off-the-wall storytelling, coupled with somewhat crude but functional artwork, then you’ll enjoy the Gillmor line of Pre-Code Horror comics.”

 

I enjoyed It can Happen to you more that Button, Button ... personally. The story is really an above-average crime tale with a peppering of eerie mystery behind the scene. Quite an interesting twist.

 

Scans are from my copy -

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Scrooge]

btw, your copy is a heck of lot nicer

[Jayman]

Tough book to find in anything over VG. This copy came from our own Andy over at Goldust Comics.

 

This book is supposed to have an offbeat story about a man who goes crazy in a rubber room. It's titled "The Button" I believe. Ever since reading about it in the Tales Too Terrible Too Tell fanzine Ive been searching for a decent copy. I'll be cracking this slab open on a special occasion and reading that story. Can't wait.

 

 

 

That's quite a nice book for a 7.0! What brings it down?

[Jayman]

While not strictly Horror, I finally did pick up a copy of this book.

 

[Darth Corgi]

Artboy- Indeed, we do share similar taste in PreCodes as do the other frequent collectors in this thread. By the way, nice original art and recreations. That Venus 19 piece is amazing!

 

Scrooge- Thanks for posting those pages! It looks like a typical wild story from this notorious publisher!

 

Jayman- The MM 4 a solid 7.0. The flaws are minor. Just a subtle cover crease that doesn't show up in the scan and a few dings on the back cover/edges. Really a great copy.

 

Congrats on the Front Page! I love that cover and its a nice book. I think the poor guy on the cover just got stabbed in the head by that ghost. Of course he was robbing a grave so it's not like he's totally innocent. I'd like to hear your opinion after you've read through it as to how you'd classify the inside stories. Are they horror, crime, espionage, or some sort of hybrid?

[rjpb]

Front Page may not have a horror title or have horror contents but that great Fuje cover qualifies as a horror cover if anything does. Always thought that was a cool esoteric book.

[Mio]

That's a pretty swanky copy of Front Page - congrats!

[Jayman]

Congrats on the Front Page! I love that cover and its a nice book. I think the poor guy on the cover just got stabbed in the head by that ghost. Of course he was robbing a grave so it's not like he's totally innocent. I'd like to hear your opinion after you've read through it as to how you'd classify the inside stories. Are they horror, crime, espionage, or some sort of hybrid?

 

Well this is an interesting topic. Boardmember Boot had already broken down the issues stories last year and declared it a horror book. It was a very compelling case as shiverbones said. Boot's review

 

The only thing for me though is the usage of the word "Horror".

Wikipedia's definition of terror and horror: The distinction between horror and terror is a standard literary and psychological concept applied especially to Gothic literature and film.[1] Terror is usually described as the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience. By contrast, horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply unpleasant occurrence. In other words, horror is more related to being shocked or scared (being horrified), while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful.[2] Horror has also been defined as a combination of terror and revulsion.

 

When I think of Pre-code horror stories I immediatly think of stories involving ghouls, vampires, zombies or ghastly death/dismemberment. This is more in line with the definition above. I personally consider Front Page as having an absolute "Horror" cover. The first story is more a supernatural story (sorry not horror to me) and the rest really fall into the crime/war catagory. But herin lies the problem where the line blurs a bit. Horror stories show up in other genres of pre-code books, take for example Lawbreakers Suspense Stories #15. In my mind this is clearly a crime book but one only has to look at the cover to get the sense of horror. You then open it and see that every story has gruesome horror elements in it. My review of LSS#15

 

In contrast to this we also have, as Boot pointed out, pre-code horror books that contain only supernatural stories and science fiction stories. Are these horror books based soley on the title name? I have never read the contents of Avon's Eerie #1 so I can't comment but horror started creeping into comicbook titles of all genres sometime in the 1940's as far as I can see. If I recall correctly, the superhero comic Yellowjacket contained horror stories.

 

So the first pre-code horror comicbook from cover to cover? I still don't know!

I would however consider Front Page as one of these hybrid attempts but also note that it could possibly contain the first appearance of a "Horror Host", The Man in Black.

[Jayman]

That's a pretty swanky copy of Front Page - congrats!

 

Thanks Mio, I think it's pretty swanky myself!

[adamstrange]

It's definitely a horrific enough cover !

 

While not strictly Horror, I finally did pick up a copy of this book.

 

[shiverbones]

Yeah, that front page is a real Pip, would love to peruse one some day, but i have NEVER seen it in person. in 23 years.

[Darth Corgi]

Congrats on the Front Page! I love that cover and its a nice book. I think the poor guy on the cover just got stabbed in the head by that ghost. Of course he was robbing a grave so it's not like he's totally innocent. I'd like to hear your opinion after you've read through it as to how you'd classify the inside stories. Are they horror, crime, espionage, or some sort of hybrid?

 

Well this is an interesting topic. Boardmember Boot had already broken down the issues stories last year and declared it a horror book. It was a very compelling case as shiverbones said. Boot's review

 

The only thing for me though is the usage of the word "Horror".

Wikipedia's definition of terror and horror: The distinction between horror and terror is a standard literary and psychological concept applied especially to Gothic literature and film.[1] Terror is usually described as the feeling of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying experience. By contrast, horror is the feeling of revulsion that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard, or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply unpleasant occurrence. In other words, horror is more related to being shocked or scared (being horrified), while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful.[2] Horror has also been defined as a combination of terror and revulsion.

 

When I think of Pre-code horror stories I immediatly think of stories involving ghouls, vampires, zombies or ghastly death/dismemberment. This is more in line with the definition above. I personally consider Front Page as having an absolute "Horror" cover. The first story is more a supernatural story (sorry not horror to me) and the rest really fall into the crime/war catagory. But herin lies the problem where the line blurs a bit. Horror stories show up in other genres of pre-code books, take for example Lawbreakers Suspense Stories #15. In my mind this is clearly a crime book but one only has to look at the cover to get the sense of horror. You then open it and see that every story has gruesome horror elements in it. My review of LSS#15

 

In contrast to this we also have, as Boot pointed out, pre-code horror books that contain only supernatural stories and science fiction stories. Are these horror books based soley on the title name? I have never read the contents of Avon's Eerie #1 so I can't comment but horror started creeping into comicbook titles of all genres sometime in the 1940's as far as I can see. If I recall correctly, the superhero comic Yellowjacket contained horror stories.

 

So the first pre-code horror comicbook from cover to cover? I still don't know!

I would however consider Front Page as one of these hybrid attempts but also note that it could possibly contain the first appearance of a "Horror Host", The Man in Black.

 

Well reasoned Jay! This all makes sense to me.

 

Here's a way to look at it. I collect it as three different collections...

 

Collection #1 PreCode Horror (1948-1955)

These books are the meat and potatoes that we see and hear about all the time. Total horror without a shadow of a doubt. Most of these titles meet and exceed my personal requirement for the definition of a "Horror" comic. Some examples of these would be: Mister Mystery, Weird Mysteries, Horrific, Weird Terror, Haunted Thrills, The Thing!, Menace, Haunt Of Fear, Journey Into Fear, Out Of The Shadows, Witches Tales, etc....

 

Collection #2 Pre-Code Horror "flavored" (1948-1955)

I group these books right alongside Collection #1 and consider them part of the same collection however they are noted to be more of the hybrid variety with strong "Horror" elements. One can easily argue that they can be labeled "Crime" or "SciFi" as much, or more then, "Horror". Some of the titles that fall into this category are: Fight Against Crime, Lawbreakers Suspense Stories, Weird Tales From The Future, Journey Into Unknown Worlds, and Amazing Adventures.

 

Collection #3 PRE-Pre-Code Horror (Pre 1948)

This is a wide open and often gray area where a lot of discoveries are made. It's sort of the wild west of collecting from the years of 1938-1948. This is where all of these books pop up that are contenders for "1st Horror Comic". Books like these include: Eerie Comics #1, Front Page, Yellowjacket, etc. I have found many "horror" type books and hybrids as early as 1940 with Shadow Comics, The Claw and The Hangman. One could also make the argument that some of those Timely covers feature some pretty horrific scenes. Also, in 1939, Batman actually shoots a vampire dead while it sleeps in a coffin. It's a pretty gray area. I have found this area very exciting as comics were still finding their feet and the medium was reinventing itself to see what worked.

 

Footnote: There a many references out there for PreCode horror collecting but the most useful ones that I find myself returning to are:

A.) These boards

B.) Tales Too Terrible Too Tell fanzines