Founded in 1949 by Elliot Caplin, Toby Press published reprints of newspaper strips, licensed animated and movie characters, as well as their own original romance, war, westerns and more. Since superhero comics had cooled off after WWII, they avoided that market.
Caplin, a cartoonist himself, was the brother of Al Capp and he reprinted a number of his strips including Li'l Abner, Shmoo and Wolf Gal early on. Under the Minoan Publishing Corp. imprint, he published thirteen issues of the comic you see here, TALES OF HORROR from June 1952 until October 1954. He also published two other horror titles, the one-shot TALES OF TERROR in 1952 and three issues of THE PURPLE CLAW (January 1953 - May 1953).
Caplin pulled the plug on his comics business in 1955; sources blame the onset of the Comics Code Authority as the reason, but it's hard to claim that since he only published a total of 17 horror comics during the Pre-Code era.
The standout in this issue is Myron Fass exercising his predilection for grisly images in the story, "Who Shall Inherit the Earth?" He would use several stories from this issue later in the Eerie Publications reprints.
NOTE: Ads have been removed from this scan, except inside front cover w/indicia.
TALES OF HORROR
Vol. 1 No. 4
January 1953
Toby Press (Minoan Publishing Corp.)
Editor: Elliot Caplin
Cover; Ernie Schroeder
Page: 36
Cover price: 10 cents
CONTENTS
"The Curse of King Kala"
Script: ?
Art: Ernie Schroeder
"Death From the Sea"
Script: ?
Art: Ben Brown; David Ganz
"The Man Who Imagined a Monster!"
Script: ?
Art: Ernie Schroeder
"Who Shall Inherit the Earth?"
Script: ?
Art: Myron Fass
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