Precode Game Changers

[bronze johnny]

At nearly 17 years into the 21st Century, the precode era of the last century moves further away from us. The books, artwork, and history of that era reflected many of the fears and insecurities of the post World War ll era.

 

As time moves on and future generations of readers/collectors discover the "taboo" books of the precode era and the "tastes" and interests of posterity change, what are and will continue to be the historically definitive comics from the perspective of collectors today?

 

I will mention a few candidates that are the historical precode game changers:

 

1) The history surrounding Crimes Suspenstories 22 makes this classic cover arguably the single most important precode comic book of the 20th Century. No other precode comic book has the combination of a great precode cover and having achieved the historic defining precode comic moment- one that forever captures the issue during a hearing conducted by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in an exchange between the greatest precode comic book publisher, EC Comics' William Gaines and one the nations most active and well known Democratic Party Politicians of the postwar era, Estes Kefauver - already a household name at that time for his Organized Crime Investigation Committee and later running as Adlai Stevenson's running mate in 1956.

 

2) Crime Does Not Pay 22 is defined as the first crime comic book that started the "wave of precode crime." Not a one shot, this book is what Richard Wolfe says is the second most important comic book after Action Comics 1.

 

3) Seduction of the Innocent: while not a comic book, Wertham's book had an impact on the history of the American Comic Book like no other. The awesome Seduction of the Innocent website provides all you need to know about this game changing book.

 

4) Eerie Comics 1 and Adventures of the Unknown 1: These two books go together since you really can't have one without the other. Eerie Comics 1 was the first comic book devoted entirely to horror if the earlier Classics Illustrated horror comic books are narrowly defined as intended by the publisher only to introduce and educate readers about the classic novels. Still, Eerie Comics 1 was a one shot exclusive comic book and the horror genre required the success of an ongoing series to demonstrate how horror could succeed on its own- without having to be part of the earlier hybrid books/anthologies. Adventures into the Unknown 1 achieved this success and other precode horror comic book series immediately followed. Both books also have classic precode horror covers,

 

5) The first EC Comics New Trend books: Haunt of Fear 15 (1) , Crypt of Terror 17, & Vault of Horror 12. We know what happened after these books dated April/May 1950 hit the newsstands.

 

Please add candidates that are precode game changers.

 

John

 

[Hap Hazard]

I would think that for EC's that the Crypt of Terror issue 17 dated April/May should be on that list.

 

[bronze johnny]

I would think that for EC's that the Crypt of Terror issue 17 dated April/May should be on that list.

 

Definitely - added to the list.

 

Thanks