THE CREEPING DEATH

I've always enjoyed plant horror stories and there were plenty of them during the pre-Code era. In this second issue of ADVENTURES INTO TERROR (Atlas, February 1951) with art possibly by Allen Bellman, a botanist receives a strange plant from a colleague in South America. As expected in a story like this, it soon grows out of control until . . .

MENACE, ANYONE?

While artists like Lee Elias, Warren Kremer and Don Heck were designing horrific covers that would become legendary in pre-Code horror comics, over at Atlas, Stan Lee was cranking out reams of stories. While they eventually became formulaic, no one can deny that they were nearly always well-written.

Publisher Martin Goodman was a harsh taskmaster and kept his staff at Atlas busy. As a result, the imprint sold more titles (18) and released almost 400 single issues (see FIFC reference page HERE) than any other publisher during the pre-Code years. One of them was called MENACE and ran for 11 issues from 1953-1954 before it was cancelled, another casualty of the Comics Code Authority.

MENACE

Vol. 1 No. 1

March 1953

Hercules Publishing Corp. (Atlas Comics)

Editor: Stan Lee

Cover: Bill Everett

Pages: 36

Cover price: 10 cents

CONTENTS

"One Head Too Many!"

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Bill Everett

"The Man Who Couldn't Move"

Script: Stan Lee

Art: George Tuska

"Poor Mr. Watkins"

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Werner Roth

"The Wait In Their... Dungeon!"

Script: Stan Lee

Art: Russ Heath

EC HALLOWEEN MASKS

It's not too late to order up an officially-licensed EC Comics character mask for Halloween.Available from various web shops, including MONSTERS IN MOTION.

Trick or Treat Studios is proud to present the officially licensed EC Comics Collection - The Crypt Keeper. The Crypt Keeper was the host of EC Comics most popular comic book, Tales From the Crypt. In addition to hosting Tales From the Crypt, he would occasionally appear as a character and these appearances gave readers a glimpse of his biography. "The Lower Berth" (Tales from the Crypt #33) gives an account of the circumstances surrounding his birth. "While the Cat's Away" (The Vault of Horror #34) conducts a tour of his house above and below ground. "Horror beneath the Streets" (The Haunt of Fear #17) tells how he and his fellow Ghoulunatics got their EC publishing contracts. The founders of Trick or Treat Studios, being huge fans of EC Comics, were thrilled when we were awarded the license to EC Comics, directly from the Gaines Family. Without further ado, allow us to introduce The Crypt Keeper. Become the Crypt Keeper and spend your Halloween telling tales of horror to all the little kiddies in the neighborhood.

Trick or Treat Studios is proud to present the officially licensed EC Comics Ghastly Zombie mask. If you know the founders of Trick or Treat Studios, you know that they are huge fans of EC Comics, especially Tales From the Crypt, Haunt of Fear and Vault of Horror. So when we were given the license for EC Comics directly from the Gaines Family, we just about lost our minds. So without further ado allow us to introduce the Ghastly Zombie, which is the third of three masks to kick off our EC Comics collection for 25. Collect them all!

Sculpted by Justin Mabry.