Haunted Horror: Banned Comics from the 1950s

Haunted Horror (IDW Publishing) #1-3

by Craig Yoe, Clizia Gussoni (Editor), Steve Banes (Editor)

Special introduction by Misfits' Jerry Only! Back from the open grave are more masterpieces of the macabre from the horror comics of the 1950s. Genius horror artists of the known and unknown variety poured their tortured souls into these comics. The best and rarest stories have been chosen with the help of top horror comic collectors. The comics are all lovingly restored and presented in full-creepy color. Bonus: a story by Warren Kramer reproduced from the original art and Kramer's sketches for this book's iconic cover! You will be thrilled, chilled and maybe even a little sickened by the over-the-top zombies, ghouls and gore in this latest addition to The Chilling Archives of Horror!

Genres: Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

148 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2013

About the author

Craig Yoe is an author, editor, art director, graphic designer, cartoonist and comics historian, best known for his Yoe! Studio creations and his line of Yoe! Books. Yoe is married to Clizia Gussoni, who is also his creative partner

Reviews

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Pre-Code horror comics from the 1950s is really everything you'd expect. Silly, scary, creepy, macabre, but most of all FUN. If I have any complaint about comics from the time period, it's that they are just too wordy. They almost read like illustrated stories rather than comics. I suppose writers were still fighting to find the right balance of words and pictures back then. (Although the really top creators already were there of course.)

Overall its a nice collection of horror stories, with all the usual suspects (vampires, witches, werewolves, aliens, etc.) If you are a fan of 50s horror comics and dont mind them to be a little campy and out there, you'll love this collection. The art is usually nice and eerie and the writing, while sometimes hokey, still comes across as fun. Great Halloween read!

[Scarlet Cameo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Voy a hablar de los cómic como una colección, hablar de cada uno de ellos implicaría que recordara el nombre de cada una y pues...son como 60 y lo leí en digital, no tome notas...digamos que me limite a disfrutarlo.

Estas historias son bastante buenas, no son obras maestras pero realmente son muuuuy entretenidas. Todos los cómics son creados en la década del 50 por lo que no son tan morbidos como las cosas que encontramos en la actualidad pero sí que se entiende porque lo fueron en su momento. Abarcamos temas que van desde un apocalipsis, y las decisiones de los sobrevivientes para continuar en ese estado, hasta personas obsesionadas con un bicho o mounstro que comienzan a tomar características de ellos. Para la mayoría de ellas encontramos que los protagonistas asesinan o son asesinados, son avaros, criminales y, aunque no explicitamente, algunas referencias sexuales.

Hubo algunas historias que de verdad iug! la imagen y lo narrado no hacia más que causarte desagrado en el buen sentido, es decir que no lograba hacer que soltaras el libro, sino que provocaba que entendieras porque el escandalo. Algunas historias incluso conjuntaban este sentimiento con cosas que se hacian graciosas. Pero no es un cómic que se lea rápido, en realidad no te mantiene con la ansiedad de leer el siguiente por que ninguna de las historias están conectadas entre sí, saltas entre distintos tópicos, formas de narrar y estilo de dibujo.

Sí buscas historias que te causem terror no lo encontraras, pero si buscas algo entretenido un poco cómico y grotesco es probable que te guste.

P.D. Tenemos al menos una historia de Jack Kirby

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a joy to read. So. Much. Fun.

Things I learned:

1. Don't murder your business partner.

2. Severed hands make for a lousy militia.

3. Your wife is a goddamn werewolf.

4. Don't fucking punch old ladies in the face, no matter how much you want to smoke out of her shrunken skull-pipe.

5. Don't kill insects. Ever.

6. If a Tibetan Lama ever lets you hang out at his temple, don't try to take his priestess friend back to wherever you live, just because she's a hottie. Also, don't fucking murder a Tibetan lama.

7. You can win a ton of money playing marbles.

8. Indoor pools are a bad idea.

9. Jell-O is terrifying in the 12th Dimension.

10. If General Ackbar invites you to his cave to sit on his sofa (which is made of sand and Skittles), and he gives you a pearl necklace, then he waves goodbye to you and lets you leave his cave unharmed, then lowers the tide to let you escape imprisonment on his island, don't fucking put on that pearl necklace, goddamnit, or General Ackbar will murder you after a week and hump your sloppy wet corpse. IT'S A TRAP.

[Rory Tregaskis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mediocre, at best, collection of pulpy horror comics from the 1950s. Half-arsed writing makes them feel like they came off a production line. Annoying saying what we see which fails to make the most of the comic format, you can do a lot with words and pictures when it works well it's more than the sum of its parts, nothing smart or interesting going on, flabby copy, crap stories. I don't think it's unfair to judge them on modern terms, they're a bit shit.

There are some cool splash panels, but the stories are a let down.

[Dani Nefasto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compilación de historietas de terror pulp de los 50, de un tono muy naíf y en muchas ocasiones con una narrativa torpe, pero donde se ven muchos de los temas y estética que influiría posteriormente a una generación de directores de cine de terror (George A. Romero por ejemplo) que consumieron estos comics de niños y despuntaron con sus pelis en los 70 y 80 influyendo a los de mi generación.

[Gonzalo Oyanedel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una selección con varios puntos altos que incluyen guiones oscuros, pinceles macabros y uno que otro final inesperado. La inclusión de una historia firmada por célebre Warren Kramer (reproducida desde las páginas originales) y sus bocetos para la portada que acompaña el volumen (una de las más icónicas en la historieta terrorífica) completan una entrega magnífica.

[Jason Medina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading this old horror comics. Horror comics were my first introduction to comic books as a little boy. I can never get enough. Even if they are a bit cheesy. It's just classic fun like watching "The Twilight Zone."

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great, an excellent collection of stories from the pre-code, public domain horror comics. There's not a bad one in the bunch, although the third one was pretty ridiculous. The fourth story is a grisly sci-fi tale, the last one is from a comic I'd never heard of. The first two and last one were my favorites.

Now keep in mind, this stuff is pretty silly, but I have an affection for these old comics; their art and even the crazy, over-the-top plot-lines. I never got into super hero comics, but these old horror comics have been a guilty pleasure of mine for a decade or so.

_1_The Wage Earners - Henry us driving through a spooky swamp when he hits a woman crossing the road. She seems to be fine, and she is quite beautiful and mysterious. He drops her off and promises to come back to her. He marries and then murders an old woman for her money, and returns to the spot to meet the beautiful, strange woman. _2_The Constant Eye - A 12 pager. Justin poisons his business partner Mack so he can take over the business, but before he dies Mack puts a curse on him. Everywhere Justin goes he sees his dead partner, and especially his dead eye which refused to close. _3_Black Magic in a Slinky Gown - A rich old collector of spiders marries the beautiful Leonore, and on their wedding night she spins him in a web, turns into a giant black widow spider and kills him. Police investigator Dan starts dating Lenore himself, but becomes suspicious of her affection for spiders. _4_Slaughterhouse! - Aliens arrive on earth and start putting people into killing pens. Two men try to stay under the radar from them, but a woman leads them into a trap. From here one of them is offered to work with the aliens to lead more people to their deaths. _5_The Vengeful Curse - Dave and Andrew discover Montezuma's treasure, and then Andrew buries Dave in the pit after everything has been brought to the surface. While fleeing from the scene Andrew hears horrible laughter, but his scheming fiancee Elsa tells him to man up, and they begin building a mansion on the spot where Dave is buried. Andrew continues hearing the laughter, a harbinger of disaster. _6_Ultimate Destiny - Johnathan calls his friend, Dr Howard Channy and asks him to come to his house. He has just returned to America and is in a bad mental state and collapses, although Howard can find nothing wrong with him. Johnathan tells how he was given eternal life in a sacred temple, but was cursed to decay after he tried to take the priestess from the place.

[Barry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of pre-code horror comics from the early 1950's was a real treat to read. The tales range from quietly comic to fiendishly evil. There is something for everyone in here from ghost stories to Lovecraftian horror to psycho killers and voodoo - pretty much all the tropes are here.

I appreciate the opportunity to see what all the fuss was about as I was aware of the moral panic in the 1950's in the United States over the content of comics and what children were accessing. I initially thought it was over the top censorship, and it is true that the Comic Code stifled creativity and killed large swathes of the business. Now, having read this collection I can see the point from parents point of view. Some of this stuff is quite close to the bone. I will be honest I would have LOVED to have read these when I was a young boy and I acknowledge that elements of these stories would really have spooked me. I bet some kids couldn't sleep alone after stealing their older siblings comics to read in bed.

This collection is lurid, gory and genuinely pushes the buttons and it was fun to read. Redemption and revenge feature heavily throughout. I think a basic rule of thumb in this book is don't go into business or marry.

Compared to comics of today, they certainly don't have the subtlety and range of artistry and using the medium to convey thoughts, feelings and emotions and many of the stories are overly verbose but I guess my review is in the context of now and perhaps it is unfair to compare.

I have knocked a star off due to some of the content viewing it through a 21st century lens. Of course standards of today are different but these comics are particularly misogynistic. Women are ineffectual (indeed, I can't think of a positive female character in the whole collection). They are viewed as possessions to marry, to save. They are portrayed as greedy, devious and cruel. They are almost permanently attached to a husband. It really is sexist stuff, and although I get the context and the audience it says much about the 1950's. Persons of colour are invisible.

Worth a read and a privilege to get a snapshot of a culture and age where horror comics ruled the newsstands.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haunted Horror collects a sampling of pre-Comics Code EC horror comics from the early 1950s. While that idea is intriguing and these largely forgotten works are more than worthy of being uncovered, they aren't great comics by any measure. They're silly and lack development. The characters are flat, and the central conflicts are resolved too quickly. The writing is unsophisticated and, on occasion, full of typos. There's way too much dialogue and exposition, sometimes filling whole panels where visuals should be helping to further the story. They're a lot of fun, though, campy morality plays where envy, greed and other assorted deadly sins lead to the supernatural demise of a variety of corrupt characters. The drawings are pretty cool too (and every bit as male-gazey as you'd expect). I can only imagine how beloved these comics would have been for kids of the era. So, while there's nothing particularly great here, I still enjoyed reading this a little at a time over the past year or so.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The artwork and presentation of the book was great, but my biggest issue was the redundant plot lines. For the majority of the stories there was a cliched story of revenge for a murder. This was enjoyable the first few times, but after a while it became stale.

[Justin Fraxi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the gorgeous art by Warren Kremer in the last story.

[Ralph Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read of old horror comics from the 1950s.