When horror comics began to crowd each other out on the newsstands, publishers had only one tactic to lure readers: the cover. They could slap on all the enticing blurbs followed by exclamation points they wanted, but it was the image that had the most impact. The best and the most remembered of these aren't because of artistic or skillfully-rendered ability (although some of them were quite well done), it's because of their shock factor -- the more revolting and disgusting, the better. As Stephen King later put it in his book Danse Macabre, ". . . if I find I cannot terrify him/her, I will try to horrify; and if I find I cannot horrify, I’ll go for the gross-out". These sample cover images certainly accomplished that.
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| Art by Lee Elias. |
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| Art by Warren Kremer/Lee Elias. |
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| Art by unidentified artist. |
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| Art by Don Heck. |
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| Art by Don Heck. |
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| Art by Bernard Baily. |
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| Art by Bernard Baily. |
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| Art by Tony Mortellaro (?). |
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| Art by Bob Forgione/Vince Alascia. |
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| Art by Bernard Baily. |
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| Art by Warren Kremer. |
These are pretty grisly. The head as a bell clapper is especially gruesome. The brain extraction seems too much to attract readers, but there must have been some reasoning behind it. Don Heck's efforts really shine in this gallery.
ReplyDeleteHeck obviously toned it down when he went to the "mainstream" publishers, but he had a knack for the ghastly and gruesome during the Pre-Code horror comics era and we're lucky he did quite a bit of work during this time.
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