tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post2528873174917667327..comments2024-03-28T19:52:07.635-04:00Comments on Sweet Freedom: the first issues of 10 (plus one) horror comics magazines I picked up when youngTodd Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-27893025456466650632012-10-01T20:47:35.166-04:002012-10-01T20:47:35.166-04:00As much as I love comics, my exposure to those out...As much as I love comics, my exposure to those outside of the superhero genre is very slight, much to my dismay. Someday I'll five into the horror/SF titles...someday...Phillyradiogeekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06898493001431352624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-83095373384433128742012-10-01T14:16:13.691-04:002012-10-01T14:16:13.691-04:00Oddly enough WEIRD SCIENCE and WEIRD FANTASY, late...Oddly enough WEIRD SCIENCE and WEIRD FANTASY, later merged to become WEIRD SCIENCE FANTASY, were EC's own sf/fantasy comics. A lot of the same fans love them as do TALES FROM THE CRYPT (and SHOCK SUSPENSTORIES)...Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-84901379068061278732012-10-01T14:06:45.621-04:002012-10-01T14:06:45.621-04:00Todd, I agree, DC's horror comics may not have...Todd, I agree, DC's horror comics may not have been as "well-drawn nor quite as devoted to black humour," but they came closest to the EC comics, both in art and content. I thought DC also did a reasonably good job imitating the EC covers, particularly the comic-book labels, The House of Mystery and The House of Secrets, that resemble EC's own "The Haunt of Fear," "Tales from the Crypt," and "The Vault of Horror." I find a lot of similarity between the two.<br /><br />For the past few months, I have been exploiting the Creative Commons License and have downloaded a few vintage e-comics whose artwork left much to be desired. Titles include Avon Comics: City of the Living Dead, Weird Science Fantasy, Unknown World by Fawcett Publications, and Superior Comics: Mysteries Weird and Strange. There are two more short comics whose origins I can't trace, namely The Recluse, 1954, and A Tale of Horror: The Trecherous Gene. Pretty tame stuff though others might like them nonetheless.Prashant C. Trikannadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16079354501998741758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-31425407313625460872012-10-01T12:28:33.891-04:002012-10-01T12:28:33.891-04:00And I'd certainly like to see your issue on co...And I'd certainly like to see your issue on comics, Prashant...Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-75427797297129362022012-09-30T15:36:30.653-04:002012-09-30T15:36:30.653-04:00Oh, my collection, folks, was too battered (and in...Oh, my collection, folks, was too battered (and included a number of secondhand and possibly thirdhand copies) to be too much the collectors' goldmine even if my childhood stash wasn't made up of mostly widely-distributed (as much as any titles were widely distributed in the early '70s) titles.<br /><br />Walker, you must remember that much of the opprobrium that was brought to bear on the horror and crime comics was due at least as much to the lesser imitators of EC, who were doing more-lurid variations than EC itself at times, and whose work would sit on the same newsstands as EC, DC, and Atlas comics. Sorry the EC titles gave you nightmares...their competitors, heirs (and the few reprints of EC comics I read at that time, as well) helped with mine, more than they contributed. Hence my horror fanaticism as a young'n, in all relevant media.<br /><br />So, Prashant, you, too, should take into account that not everyone was as artistically responsible as EC was, nor as comparatively restrained as Atlas and DC were...I don't thing the Comics Code was really a boon so much as a way for the Archie Comics folks and to some extent DC to bully their competitors, and it didn't help the development of comics as an adult medium in the US one scrap. But it did help keep official government censorship out of comics, much as MPAA ratinngs did for commercial film.<br /><br />Politicians everywhere are always willing to seize on something to grandstand about, and if the target can't effectively fight back, so much the better. Sadly, our most reactionary politicians were able to make their influence felt informally, so that self-censorship wasn't restricted, by any means, to the comics industry in the US in the 1950s...but that just made the intelligent or even just the annoyed that much more willing to be "subversive" of that oppression. Hence a whole lot of the humor, music and other cultural expression from the 1950s onward, which I enjoy and tend to cover in this blog. And William Gaines actually inherited the comics business from his father. A real Mitt Romney/Donald Trump-style Self-Made Man (well, to be fair, what he did and helped/allowed others to do--sometimes grudgingly--while working at EC was rather less pernicious than what those other heirs have managed to do, too often).<br /><br />Before they ended up together as divisions of Warner, EC and DC didn't ever work together, even as much as DC and Marvel have from time to time. Though DC did buy the rights to Captain Marvel after winning the war of attrition with Fawcett over whether the Big Red Cheese was too much a ripoff of Superman. Nah. (I dug the Captain Marvel reprints that DC issued in those years, too.)Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-26717336127470318572012-09-30T15:07:09.798-04:002012-09-30T15:07:09.798-04:00Jerry, isn't that the case everywhere! Aunt Ma...Jerry, isn't that the case everywhere! Aunt May gives away Peter Parker's comics too, at least in the movies. Much of my own comics collection is intact because my dad was a comics buff too. He not only introduced me to comics but even bought my first lot that included DC's World's Finest Comics and Shazam! among other things. Prashant C. Trikannadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16079354501998741758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-58432790252228914522012-09-30T15:02:11.638-04:002012-09-30T15:02:11.638-04:00Todd, there's much about EC comics and the con...Todd, there's much about EC comics and the controversy it raked up that I have forgotten. This despite the fact that I helped bring out a cover-to-cover special feature on the world of comics in an Indian men's lifestyle magazine, probably the only issue of its kind in India at least. This was towards the end of the 1990s. Unfortunately, there is no online version unless I scan the magazine, convert it into pdf, and upload it. Now there's an idea though I'll have to check for copyright since I'm no longer with the now defunct magazine. <br /><br />Thanks for the insight into the comics scene as it prevailed in the middle of the last century. I did wonder if the factors you mentioned, the end of WW2, recession and unemployment, nuclear war, and the threat of communism, did not make an already edgy US government and Congress overzealous in its bid to shield the ideals America stood for, to the extent of clamping down on free speech including censoring comic-books it felt were a threat to those ideals. I think Gaines got into the whole comics business to make quick profits, capitalising on the uncertainties of the times, except he failed to anticipate the backlash. What he definitely succeeded in doing was to rattle the US comics industry, for the better no doubt. At least we have the comics code which the rest of the world seems to be adhering to as well. <br /><br />From the instances you and Walker Martin cited, I can see why parental pressure took the wind out of EC's sails. I agree, some of the graphics on EC covers and inside were disturbing and I can imagine their influence on young minds. I read these when I was well into my twenties so my response to these comics or the controversy would be radically different from that of one who lived through the period or close. To me they were just comics.<br /><br />You're right about EC and DC being eventually taken over by Warner. Todd, I think, too, that Marvel did print more than one series of the classics and I have seen a few of them though the ones in my collection are three of a four-part series that includes "Moonstone," "A Christmas Carol" and "Beauty and the Beast." I also have over a dozen original issues of Classics Illustrated and Classics Illustrated Junior as well as a few new editions of the 1990s under Acclaim Books, a label that no longer reprints them. Thanks for the link to your review of comic-book version of "Hell on Earth." I'll check it out soon.Prashant C. Trikannadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16079354501998741758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-9247724696479972922012-09-30T14:07:03.988-04:002012-09-30T14:07:03.988-04:00But Jerry, the problem is if our mothers did not t...But Jerry, the problem is if our mothers did not throw out our comic collections, then they would worth peanuts because they would not be considered rare any longer. Without non-collecting mothers, we would all be cursed with worthless collections.Walker Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16089880902426182100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-12686891435282842342012-09-30T13:45:43.190-04:002012-09-30T13:45:43.190-04:00As the saying goes, we'd all be millionaires t...As the saying goes, we'd all be millionaires today, except our mothers threw out our comics collections.Jerry Househttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482856733981933159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-84190744824660699332012-09-30T13:34:01.042-04:002012-09-30T13:34:01.042-04:00Prashant brings up an interesting point about EC c...Prashant brings up an interesting point about EC comics. Perhaps to our jaded view here in 2012, EC horror makes us wonder about what all the fuss was about and why the censorship which lead to the Comics Code, etc.<br /><br />But as an 8 year old boy, I lived through it and was fascinated by the EC horror and crime titles. I didn't have the money to buy all of them but a friendly deli owner let me read them at his comic bookstand. <br /><br />They scared the living hell out of me and gave me nightmares. After a few times of sleep walking and waking up screaming, my mother threw out all my EC comics. The nightmares soon stopped after the Comic Authority Seal of Approval killed the EC line of titles.<br /><br />But now I have the EC Library to remind me of the horrors. I still remember the great cover of the severed arm hanging onto the subway strap as the commuter gasp in horror. I guess you had to be there to really get the full impact.Walker Martinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16089880902426182100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-44954563919980914502012-09-30T13:24:27.681-04:002012-09-30T13:24:27.681-04:00Randy: I'm only sorry that spotty distribution...Randy: I'm only sorry that spotty distribution kept me from getting too many more issues of TOD in my early years as a comics reader.<br /><br />Prashant: Well, some of the covers do have some good imagery and rendering, but the framing strikes me as bad even for them. Actually, EC didn't merge with DC...but both EC (which was essentially publishing only MAD by then) and DC at different times were bought by Warner Communications, before that became Time Warner (and well before the relatively brief period of AOL Time Warner). So now they're corporate siblings, but not until well past even these early/mid 1970s issues. <br /><br />No, the specific issues I had were lost some time back, in one of my moves from one residence to another. They were too "well-read" by me and my friends to be particularly collectible by that point.<br /><br />Sadly, the hysteria over the possibility of nuclear war, and the hysteria over Communist subversion of American government, simply flowed into the typical US fantasy of this being a perfect nation that need just a little improvement on perfection, and since these comics were clearly perverse and dealt with crime and monsters and generally didn't seem to be Uplifting like that nice Bishop Sheen on television, they made a nice scapegoat for the supposed tide of juvenile delinquency (And Worse!) that was sweeping over the country in the early '50s...when factors such as lack of jobs for boys who hated high school (because all these returning veterans, from WW2 and latterly Korea, got first crack at those jobs) had a lot more to do with the uptick in gang activity and the like...the recessions of the early '50s didn't help. Not to mention that comics, as a relatively profitable but independent (at the time) and rather scruffy subset of the publishing industry couldn't stand up for itself too well, and certainly didn't have much in the way of political pull, when a House UnAmerican Activities Committee session or a Senator wanted to grandstand, and William Gaines's somewhat smartass, if not incorrect, testimony didn't help matters. Wertham was at least as het up about the supposed lesbian influence of WONDER WOMAN and the ugly behavior in the crime-fiction comics (even if one of the most popular was called CRIME DOES NOT PAY) as he ever was about EC's or the often imitative but also often clumsier other horror comics, but their revelry in grue upset him, too. (One of the most famous captions in SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT accompanies panels from a crime comic in which thugs are beginning to torture a woman, and one thug has an apparently hot fireplace poker in hand. Werthan suggests that children quizzed about this told their interviewers that the thug was about to rape the woman with the hot poker, which he hoped to suggest was Vastly Worse than the kids thinking the thug was about to brand her skin or hit her with it...not the crime itself, mind you, but that the young readers might think of that, rather than being Innocently unaware of that possibility. Wertham for his part couldn't bring himself to actually report what the kids said, rather than make an innuendo.)<br /><br />Another set of publishers were responsible for CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED, the most famous of literary-adaptation comics, rather than Marvel or its predecessors, but I'll believe Marvel either reprinted the CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED titles eventually or tried their hand at their own series (perhaps more than one). DC has had similar adaptations series from time to time...I reviewed their version of HELL ON EARTH, a Robert Bloch novella originally in WEIRD TALES the pulp magazine, which kicked off a short, ambitious mid '80s set from DC, for example.<br />http://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2011/03/ffb-robert-bloch-hell-on-earth-graphic.htmlTodd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-5182384450310102272012-09-30T12:11:31.409-04:002012-09-30T12:11:31.409-04:00Great covers, Todd! I hope you're still holdin...Great covers, Todd! I hope you're still holding on to them. I have a couple of Gold Key Twilight Zone and House of Mystery comics but not the ones displayed here. I have read plenty of The House of Secrets and Weird Mystery Tales. The Weird War cover is quite something. Its merger with EC comics might have influenced DC’s decent output of “ghost” and “horror” comics. DC and Marvel both competed well in this arena. <br /><br />Till date I don’t know what the fuss over EC comics was about. I found nothing objectionable in Gaines’ comics notwithstanding Fredric Wertham’s informed view in “The Seduction of the Innocent” and the Congressional hearing for a bunch of comics that were meant to be read for sheer fun. I read about this entire issue years ago including, if my memory serves me right, Wertham’s articles that resulted in the blow-up. Did America really need this sort of censorship? Times were different then, but still… <br /><br />Marvel also came out with a swell series based on the classics such as Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, which I have in my collection.<br />Prashant C. Trikannadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16079354501998741758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-36029732132579781982012-09-30T11:37:01.164-04:002012-09-30T11:37:01.164-04:00I had that TOMB OF DARKNESS, but none of the rest....I had that TOMB OF DARKNESS, but none of the rest.Randy Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16627907086811387527noreply@blogger.com