BOY, TAKE A LOOK AT THESE COVERS!

I've mentioned that many crime comics by virtue of the subject are often horror adjacent. This gallery of covers from Lev Gleason's BOY COMICS emphasizes the point. Some pretty ghastly stuff here.

TOMB FOR TWO

I thought I'd fire up this post with a new, occasional series titled, WEIRD ROMANCES. And just a warning: these are not stories from the typical romance comics that glutted the news racks back in the pre-Code days; these I've culled from horror comics and there are plenty of them.

This story, "Tomb for Two", from JOURNEY INTO FEAR #6 (Superior, March 1952) proves that love truly is eternal, especially when it involves a taxidermist. Superior was a Canadian company that packaged comics for distribution in the U.S. The script and art are not credited, but it's highly possible it's from the Iger Shop.

DON'T OPEN THAT BOX!

I missed including this early Poe adaptation in my on-going series of articles for NIGHTMARE ABBEY magazine titled, "Fear in Four Colors: The Hideous History of American Horror Comics". The story appeared in CROWN COMICS #1 (1945) and is believed to be drawn by Alex Blum. Beginning in 1949, Blum drew numerous adaptations for Gilberton's CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED and it's possible they hired him knowing of his skill with this story. The very cool cover is presumably the work of the very talented Matt Baker.

CROWN COMICS was published by McCombs under the imprint, Golfing Inc. McCombs was owned by William A. McCombs. McCombs also operated under Home Guide Publications, associated with Harry "A" Chesler. 

WEIRD ROMANCE: PRINCESS OF THE SEA

The late-lamented Eclipse Comics published a one-shot, WEIRD ROMANCE with a cover date of February 1988. The issue consisted of pre-Code horror comics touched up and reprinted in black and white. This is the original story, "Princess of the Sea", a romance between a man and a mermaid, first appeared in WEIRD THRILLERS (Ziff-Davis, Spring 1952) with art by Dan and Sy Barry. The painted cover is by Allen Anderson.

MAD MONEY!

Here's a short and bittersweet tale of money, greed and murder; one of the trifectas of pre-Code horror comics. "Mad Money!" is from Stanley Morse's WEIRD MYSTERIES #5 (June 1953), illustrated by Ed Smalle.

DEATH KISS

Prof. Casper Skeezer invents a beautiful robot woman with the murderous desire to kiss everyone to death! She goes on a kiss/kill spree until Skeezer knocks her over the head. He soon finds that it takes something more than that to kill a killer.

"Death Kiss" appeared in HORRIFIC #5 (Comic Media, May 1953). The GCD lists the art as by the Iger Shop, but it sure looked like something by Rudy Palais to me. Palais, whose work is sometimes compared to EC's Graham "Ghastly" Ingles, did work for Jerry Iger, but it was for only about 9 months in 1941 and he wouldn't have been drawing stories like this back then. By chance, I came across this hidden on the splash page.

So, there you have it-- drawn by Rudy Palais. GCD is an excellent research tool, but nobody's perfect, as this proves.

HEN-PECKED!

This story from Stanley Morse's MISTER MYSTERY #17 (Aragon Magazines, June 1954) is short and sick. The cartoonish art is by Eugene Hughes. Caution, ladies! If you constantly hen-peck your husband or Dad you may want to think twice after reading this!