The Undead Thread: Pre-Code Horror

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Happy Halloween gang and thanks for reading!

-Christian Slade

Great selections!

Love that Ghastly cover! It's like a Bosch painting - dreamlike, full of weird details...

Thanks for sharing them!

Happy Halloween!

Thanks Christian, you are a man of impeccable horrible taste and I salute you! Happy Halloween!

1 Haunt Of Fear 18

 

How can I assemble a precode list without my favorite horror comic artist? The greatest and sickest of them all...Mr. Ghastly Ingels!

 

My oh my. Where to start.....If I had to redo the Terrible 25, I think I would have to put this one in there. Every time I look at this cover, I see something else going on. I also am unclear about everything happening in this picture and I do not care. I do not need to know..... I am happy just basking in the glow of the drawing and artwork,

 

As I stare at this cover, I am baffled by how something so grotesque and twisted could also be SO SO beautiful. Perhaps it is my love of the craft, and of making pictures myself but it looks like the artist had a blast with this one.

 

That pose and head tilt on the old witch is just so perfect...and the strange colors on her face.....the green behind the title.......

 

....man.....

 

...I love comics.

 

A Ghastly choice for numero uno! Such a macabre cover and, I think, that human torso on top of the hand very well may have inspired a young Berni Wrightson to draw his unmen years later in his Swamp Thing series...

#23 Chilling Tales 16

 

These four hooded grisly creatures would get along well with the creeps on the cover of Venus 19 and other places Bill E would put them.

 

The Matt Fox Chilling Tales covers seem to get all the love but I always thought this was equally great and actually drawn better in a traditional representational sense. Another poor damsel in distress! How many of them have we seen on these covers?

Great coloring on this issue. Lots of intensity on the characters faces....again, my favorite part of this cover is the actaul black in drawing. Wonderful!

...I also like the guy in the background with that little pitckfork. Makes me think of getting some french fries at Nathans.

 

 

Great choice! No cover credits on GCD for this book and I remember the question has come up here once or twice. Any guesses? I must be wrong but the artwork reminds me of Graham Ingles. Especially like his early work on Wonder Comics 11 and 12.

I think it's Doug Wildey.

#23 Chilling Tales 16

 

These four hooded grisly creatures would get along well with the creeps on the cover of Venus 19 and other places Bill E would put them.

 

The Matt Fox Chilling Tales covers seem to get all the love but I always thought this was equally great and actually drawn better in a traditional representational sense. Another poor damsel in distress! How many of them have we seen on these covers?

Great coloring on this issue. Lots of intensity on the characters faces....again, my favorite part of this cover is the actaul black in drawing. Wonderful!

...I also like the guy in the background with that little pitckfork. Makes me think of getting some french fries at Nathans.

 

 

Great choice! No cover credits on GCD for this book and I remember the question has come up here once or twice. Any guesses? I must be wrong but the artwork reminds me of Graham Ingles. Especially like his early work on Wonder Comics 11 and 12.

 

I think it's Doug Wildey.

I'm confident it's not Inglels but I hadn't considered Wildey.

Wildey was original and good. Unfortunately when he was original he wasn't very good and when he was good he wasn't very original, usually swiping from photos. I can't see him doing work of that quality at that time when you look at a known story by him in Mys Adv 15. Even if he swiped the composition from a pulp the inking is much better than I suspect he was capable of .

Thanks for putting together the list and comments. There were a few surprises but I think it illustrates the depth of quality of the pre-code horror covers. The cool thing to me is that there are easily 50 more out there that are, imho, similar in quality to these.

#5 Tales of Horror 8

 

How about a Toby book? One of the first precodes I bought and I am glad I did. I have never seen a nicer copy. VERY tough book. These Toby books also published the 3 issue series, Purple Claw and reprints some of those stories in here. They also recycled interior art for their covers like Superior. That is cheap and cheesy but I think that is the appeal with many of these...the cheese factor. So bad, its good. For some reason, this cover has always jumped out at me. Maybe it is the striking blood red background and a snake swaying open mouthed in the sky like some reptilian King Kong.

Anyway, not much more to say other thanI think this is a cover that would grab major attention if seen on a newstand.

 

Great books Christian. Having a Toby book on the list is a fantastic choice. It's such an excellent observation you make about how "cheesy" the Toby Tales of Horror books were. Covers like the one you have here along with "Terror Man" and the "Thing in the Pool" are excellent examples of what you said about them being so bad they are good. The Tales of Horror books almost appear to have been published by some amateurs in a garage- and that's what makes this run special. Love all your choices. Next year consider my suggestions for the "Terrifying 25."

#2 Voodoo Annual

 

Oh yeah, here we go!

Good Precode covers are creepy and weird and this one has got both. Jet black background, Laughing and jeering corpses, and a sick gag coming out of the coffin adds up to one messed up Ajax Precode cover. And it rules!

The best part of this cover though is the mans face. His hand clutching his eye sockets and pulling them...is he pulling so hard, he is bending or pulling his face as if it was made of warm clay? I do not know but the distortion makes for an unsettling and wild ride.

 

Excellent choice, and nice copy, btw.

I sometimes question my own sanity by even looking at this thread. All it does is spark jealously, envy and evil thoughts toward the owners of these beautiful books

...that and add issues to my want list

#5 Tales of Horror 8

 

How about a Toby book? One of the first precodes I bought and I am glad I did. I have never seen a nicer copy. VERY tough book. These Toby books also published the 3 issue series, Purple Claw and reprints some of those stories in here. They also recycled interior art for their covers like Superior. That is cheap and cheesy but I think that is the appeal with many of these...the cheese factor. So bad, its good. For some reason, this cover has always jumped out at me. Maybe it is the striking blood red background and a snake swaying open mouthed in the sky like some reptilian King Kong.

Anyway, not much more to say other thanI think this is a cover that would grab major attention if seen on a newstand.

 

 

Great choice on this one as it been on my radar for quite a while now. Very iconic cover and did you look close and notice the ever so tiny ant sized victims falling from the snakes mouth. A very tough book to find in HG and I'm still searching...

You don't say. This has been on my to-watch-for list for some time too ... but alas, a rarely seen book.

Thank you for the list and the not so obvious choices included!

Thanks for another group of 25 cool books Darth Corgi. I enjoyed the countdown and the write-ups.

#5 Tales of Horror 8

 

How about a Toby book? One of the first precodes I bought and I am glad I did. I have never seen a nicer copy. VERY tough book. These Toby books also published the 3 issue series, Purple Claw and reprints some of those stories in here. They also recycled interior art for their covers like Superior. That is cheap and cheesy but I think that is the appeal with many of these...the cheese factor. So bad, its good. For some reason, this cover has always jumped out at me. Maybe it is the striking blood red background and a snake swaying open mouthed in the sky like some reptilian King Kong.

Anyway, not much more to say other thanI think this is a cover that would grab major attention if seen on a newstand.

 

 

Great choice on this one as it been on my radar for quite a while now. Very iconic cover and did you look close and notice the ever so tiny ant sized victims falling from the snakes mouth. A very tough book to find in HG and I'm still searching...

I've had #8 on my list for a while also.

The cover image from #8 originally comes from the first story of issue #3.

Big thanks to everyone for chiming in and reading. Lots of fun.

#5 Tales of Horror 8

 

How about a Toby book? One of the first precodes I bought and I am glad I did. I have never seen a nicer copy. VERY tough book. These Toby books also published the 3 issue series, Purple Claw and reprints some of those stories in here. They also recycled interior art for their covers like Superior. That is cheap and cheesy but I think that is the appeal with many of these...the cheese factor. So bad, its good. For some reason, this cover has always jumped out at me. Maybe it is the striking blood red background and a snake swaying open mouthed in the sky like some reptilian King Kong.

Anyway, not much more to say other thanI think this is a cover that would grab major attention if seen on a newstand.

 

 

Great choice on this one as it been on my radar for quite a while now. Very iconic cover and did you look close and notice the ever so tiny ant sized victims falling from the snakes mouth. A very tough book to find in HG and I'm still searching...

I've had #8 on my list for a while also.

The cover image from #8 originally comes from the first story of issue #3.

 

Like many Toby covers, it is recycled art. This time, the art was flopped and I like it better that way...makes for a good cover. Kind of like Horrific #3....

Yes, this Tales of Horror seems to be on a lot of want lists. I have yet to find a copy better than this one. There has to be some out there....just need to look harder I guess. Anyone have any copies, please post them. I would love to see a high grade or better yet, a high grade pedigree copy.

Thanks again for reading!

-Christian

Mine seems to be in about the same condition as yours, but not as brilliant inks.

I think "Pool of Skeletons" is the best story; genuine pre-code, eh eh!

Mine seems to be in about the same condition as yours, but not as brilliant inks.

 

I think "Pool of Skeletons" is the best story; genuine pre-code, eh eh!

 

 

Congrats on having a nice copy of this book! I never even see low grade copies surface. This really is a scarce book. The "no-frills pch" Tales of Horror run has some tough ones. Is there a Spokane and/or Bethlehem Copy of this book out there? Maybe adamstrange has an answer?

Briefer did some great Frankenstein covers, but this one is my favorite.

Just recently read one of the Frankenstein reprint books and I love the stories also.

mm

Damon- nice Frank! That is a good one indeed. I love how the art takes up the whole cover...reflective...

Marty Mann- is this Eerie cover a print error. Those banding stripes along with ink drop outs in spots looks weird and cool.

What's the story?

 

Marty Mann- is this Eerie cover a print error. Those banding stripes along with ink drop outs in spots looks weird and cool.

 

What's the story?

Could be a print error.

mm

Thanks Darth and I also love when good art gets the "full cover" treatment.

I can't tell how many times I've seen an EC cover and thought, "If only"...