EERIE NO. 1 COVER RE-CREATION

Nearly a half-century after drawing the cover for Avon's EERIE #1, the first all-original, all-horror comic book in 1947, Bob Fujitani painted a re-creation of his work in 1994.

It is not known if it was a commission or for his own enjoyment, but the result is astounding, especially when one considers the simple line work of the original. The re-creation was painted in oils on a 16" x 20" canvas board. It is currently up for auction. At the time this was written, the current bid, including a buyer's premium, is $408, but is sure to go up from there until the auction closes in mid-January.

[Image Source: Heritage Auctions.]

I wondered how this new image would actually look as the cover for EERIE #1, so I had some fun and took a few minutes to "re-imagine the re-creation".

COMIC MEDIA'S LAST GASP

An clever attempt at getting as close to the word "Terror" without raising the ire of the newly-adopted Comics Code Authority, TERRIFIC was the last of Comic Media's horror comics (WEIRD TERROR #13 preceded it in September).

Comic Media was formed in 1952 under the company, Allen Hardy Associates after Hardy left Harvey Comics. He took with him one of the premiere horror comic artists at the time, Don Heck, who was adept at creating particularly revolting covers along with his interior art. Also jumping ship from Harvey was Pete Morisi (aka PAM). Other imprints under the company were Artful Publications Inc. and Harwell Publications Inc.

During its short, two-year existence, Comic Media published Western, romance, adventure, humor, and war titles along with horror. Created by Pete Morisi, Johnny Dynamite was the most popular character to come out of the line.

Hardy had a call for submissions that appeared in the August 1953 issue of WRITER'S DIGEST, which was known for regularly providing market reports for various comic book publishers. He stated he wanted "the unusual, artists and writers who don't have hackneyed approach to comics[sic]."

Writer's Digest, August 1953

Comic Media ceased publishing in 1954. Most of the titles were sold to Charlton. Farrell continued TERRIFIC for one more issue (a non-horror comic featuring Wonder Boy) in March 1955, then disappeared. Don Heck went on to work for Atlas, which soon became Marvel. Pete Morisi had a successful career with Charlton.

Don Heck later commented on Hardy's death: "Allen was an alcoholic. He was a member of AA but he went off the wagon. While he was in this way, I could not leave him." He added, "I stayed until I cleaned up the stuff for Allen Hardy who, by that time, couldn't do anything. He had to go back for treatment. Not too long after that he died. I heard the story he was smoking a cigarette and it dropped and he burned himself to death. I liked him! He was a good guy as far as I was concerned."

TERRIFIC

Vol. 1 No. 14 (first/last issue)

December 1954

Mystery Publishing Company Inc. (Comic Media)

Editor: Alan Hardy

Cover: Don Heck

Pages: 36

Cover price: 10 cents

CONTENTS

"Dead on Arrival"

Script: ?

Art: Marty Elkin

"Human Cross"

Script: ?

Art: Don Heck

"The Wolf Twins"

Script: ?

Pencils: Ross Andru?

Inks: Steve Kirkel

"Dance of Death"

Script: ?

Art: Rudy Palais

YOU CAN'T JUDGE A HORROR COMIC BY ITS COVER!

After reports that EC Comic's horror titles were becoming profitable, numerous publishers were tip-toeing their way into the field, reluctant to go all in for an as-yet, largely untested new subject. As a result they used an interesting, but misleading "bait-and-switch" tactic.

A number of publishers mimicked EC's strategy of introducing horror stories into their crime titles (CRIME PATROL and WAR AGAINST CRIME), as well as swiping cover design ideas.. Thematically, it seemed like a fairly good fit and it was a cautious way of finding out how readers would react.

There was one problem with that: the cover images were as far as they went -- the interiors were still comprised of the usual crime stories that they had been using all along.

Shown here are a few examples some of the other publishers who experimented (such as it was) to test the blood-filled waters.

This is not an exactly a horror story, but it is definitely a weird tale (STARTLING TERROR TALES #13, art by Jay Disbrow).

Perhaps the most blatant come-on of all was Hillman's MONSTER CRIME, cover-dated October 1952. Behind the cover of the 52-page, 15-cent book were nothing more than crime stories from their overstocked inventory. The closet thing to horror was one story's title, "Another Hallowe'en".