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The Undead Thread: Pre-Code Horror
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Favorite Pre-Code Publisher  

9 members have voted

  1. 1. Favorite Pre-Code Publisher

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10,225 posts in this topic

14 minutes ago, exitmusicblue said:

Sheer breadth of titles is just stunning.  I wonder how many total different horror books were published in the GA.  Thousands, no doubt.

And most were from 1951-1954, someone should compile a Gerber like glossy covers book of just precode horror titles.  

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9 hours ago, exitmusicblue said:

Sheer breadth of titles is just stunning.  I wonder how many total different horror books were published in the GA.  Thousands, no doubt.

It depends on the definition of "horror comic" but somewhere between 1300 and 1450.  This excludes many comics that would be considered horror hybrid (e.g. superhero or crime comic involving horror elements).

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I count 12 full magazine boxes of them in my junk pile. I’m pretty close. I am still missing about 1/3rd of the ACGs, a few Avon’s, many Star. I didn’t actively seek them out as much due to their lack of “spark”. Also about a dozen others. I discovered them early in my collecting quest and bought up everything I didn’t have. It’s been a fun ride and one I wouldn’t ever attempt now...

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2 hours ago, Robot Man said:

I count 12 full magazine boxes of them in my junk pile. I’m pretty close. I am still missing about 1/3rd of the ACGs, a few Avon’s, many Star. I didn’t actively seek them out as much due to their lack of “spark”. Also about a dozen others. I discovered them early in my collecting quest and bought up everything I didn’t have. It’s been a fun ride and one I wouldn’t ever attempt now...

JUNK PILE???  How many in your good pile? :whatthe:

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13 hours ago, exitmusicblue said:

Sheer breadth of titles is just stunning.  I wonder how many total different horror books were published in the GA.  Thousands, no doubt.

The Precode Horror Era in terms of the regular continuous publication of an all horror/supernatural (refer hereafter simply as horror) comic book begins with ACG’s Adventures of the Unknown #1 in 1948. The only all horror-type comic books published during the Golden Age (1938-1945) were Gilberton’s Classic Comics books that adapted classic horror stories and a number of  “hybrids” that also in some cases included stories in anthologies hosted by a horror host. Eerie Comics #1 was published between the first Classics books and 1948 but came and went without influencing the industry. Still it’s an important point in the evolving history as publishers move toward the critical year of 1948 for the horror comic book.  The Fall of 1948 is critical because publishers soon thereafter picked up on ACG’s horror comic book and started to publish their own horror comics- especially EC Comics.
Horror comics are a dominant genre of the Atomic Age of Comics that started to grow after the end of WW2 as newfound fears crept into American’s lives. The success of the horror genre is pretty much attributed to the fears of Post War America and these fears could not be conquered by the superheroes who fought against the evils of the War. We owe the Golden Age for giving us the rise of the superhero genre but the first great era of the horror genre belongs to the Atomic Age of the American Comic Book.

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2 hours ago, bronze johnny said:

The Precode Horror Era in terms of the regular continuous publication of an all horror/supernatural (refer hereafter simply as horror) comic book begins with ACG’s Adventures of the Unknown #1 in 1948. The only all horror-type comic books published during the Golden Age (1938-1945) were Gilberton’s Classic Comics books that adapted classic horror stories and a number of  “hybrids” that also in some cases included stories in anthologies hosted by a horror host. Eerie Comics #1 was published between the first Classics books and 1948 but came and went without influencing the industry. Still it’s an important point in the evolving history as publishers move toward the critical year of 1948 for the horror comic book.  The Fall of 1948 is critical because publishers soon thereafter picked up on ACG’s horror comic book and started to publish their own horror comics- especially EC Comics.
Horror comics are a dominant genre of the Atomic Age of Comics that started to grow after the end of WW2 as newfound fears crept into American’s lives. The success of the horror genre is pretty much attributed to the fears of Post War America and these fears could not be conquered by the superheroes who fought against the evils of the War. We owe the Golden Age for giving us the rise of the superhero genre but the first great era of the horror genre belongs to the Atomic Age of the American Comic Book.

Cool -- I'm one of those in the Golden-Age-ended-1955 camp!

While we're at it, my one Golden Age PCH original art page, from the first issue of Harvey's Chamber of Chills, pencilled by Rudy Palais:

https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1532902

Edited by exitmusicblue
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15 minutes ago, exitmusicblue said:

Cool -- I'm one of those in the Golden-Age-ended-1955 camp!

While we're at it, my one Golden Age original art page, from the first issue of Harvey's Chamber of Chills, pencilled by Rudy Palais:

https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=1532902

Love it!

I studied the post-war era from 1946-1955 and the comics are just one example of the fears that came with the Atomic Age and Cold War- so different than what fears and anxieties we’re like during WW2. 

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2 hours ago, bronze johnny said:

The Precode Horror Era in terms of the regular continuous publication of an all horror/supernatural (refer hereafter simply as horror) comic book begins with ACG’s Adventures of the Unknown #1 in 1948. The only all horror-type comic books published during the Golden Age (1938-1945) were Gilberton’s Classic Comics books that adapted classic horror stories and a number of  “hybrids” that also in some cases included stories in anthologies hosted by a horror host. Eerie Comics #1 was published between the first Classics books and 1948 but came and went without influencing the industry. Still it’s an important point in the evolving history as publishers move toward the critical year of 1948 for the horror comic book.  The Fall of 1948 is critical because publishers soon thereafter picked up on ACG’s horror comic book and started to publish their own horror comics- especially EC Comics.
Horror comics are a dominant genre of the Atomic Age of Comics that started to grow after the end of WW2 as newfound fears crept into American’s lives. The success of the horror genre is pretty much attributed to the fears of Post War America and these fears could not be conquered by the superheroes who fought against the evils of the War. We owe the Golden Age for giving us the rise of the superhero genre but the first great era of the horror genre belongs to the Atomic Age of the American Comic Book.

Well put, and I would add that the real life horrors of WW2 influenced the advent of horror comics as well, evidenced by the number of PCH stories that used the war as their setting. Farrell had a couple of great ones involving concentration camps, and the classic “Master Race” from EC’s Impact #1.

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10 hours ago, fifties said:

"Tales Too Terrible To Tell, number 1" gives a pretty good treatise on the subject.  Apparently about 2500.

In issue #3 he produces a revised list indicating 1450 issues. 

I don't think you can get to 2500 without counting marginal items like crime comics, comics with hybrid themes or comics that include at least one horror story or had a horror cover only.

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48 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

In issue #3 he produces a revised list indicating 1450 issues. 

I don't think you can get to 2500 without counting marginal items like crime comics, comics with hybrid themes or comics that include at least one horror story or had a horror cover only.

Yes, I saw that after you posted.  I think his revised list is most likely more accurate, as he described the output from 28 companies over about 4 to 5 years.

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Some horror titles were published every other month, although most were monthly.  And they didn't all start in 1950 and do a five year run, as a number of them came into being over the following four years.  So the 1450 figure -of strictly horror content titles- does seem reasonably accurate.

I'll have to count mine someday; the collection would be pretty close to the total output...:wink:

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I think horror comics filled a void. In 1947, major studios like Universal and RKO cancelled production of Horror movies, because they wanted to make more prestigious films. The older horror classics were still in circulation, but if you wanted new horrors, the comic books filled the void. And they made most horror films from any era up to that point look like nursery rhymes.

Eventually Universal started losing money, so in the early fifties they made two Gothic horror vehicles for Karloff, and then we got the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Tarantula, the Mole People- and Universal was on its way to solvency again.

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