THE CREATURE FROM DIMENSION 2-K-31

Another tale about a blob, this time from outer space that appeared in THE THING #1 (Charlton, February 1952) with pencils Al Tyler and inks by Bob Forgione. It combines horror, science-fiction and war elements.

If you're interested in owning a copy of Charlton's THE THING head over HERE to my pre-Code horror comics sale page where I've got a copy of #16 that's in pretty good shape.

GROUNDS FOR MURDER!

This is a story of a couple's insurance scam that went horribly wrong, from Charlton's LAWBREAKERS SUSPENSE STORIES #15 (November 1953) with a script by possibly Joe Gill and art by Stan Asch. Obviously influenced by EC's CRIME SUSPENSTORIES, in my opinion, while not as text-heavy it still packs a similar punch.

Besides teaching at the University of Montana and being a fine arts lithographer, Stan Asch ghosted for Milton Caniff and Al Capp on TERRY AND THE PIRATES and LI'L ABNER respectively. He also ghosted on the KATZENJAMMER KIDS Sunday strip during the 1940s. His primary comic book output was with DC.

GETTING A-HEAD

Call me morbid, but I just love a good "headless" story. There were a number of them during the pre-Code horror comics era, and this one comes from one of those odd crossover crime/horror titles that seemed to indicate that the comic publisher was testing the waters to see if more extreme horror stories would attract readers but weren't quite ready to pull the trigger. Well, we all know the answer to that, don't we?

"Getting A-Head" is from LAWBREAKERS SUSPENSE STORIES #10 (Charlton, January 1953) and was the first issue of the re-named title after LAWBREAKERS had a nine-issue run containing straight crime stories. The book was edited by Al Fago and the story drawn by Dennis Laugen, who also worked on western and hot rod comics for Charlton.

If the title of this comic sounds a little familiar, you'll know where its inspiration came from after reading the story. Then remember the old saying from Oscar Wilde: "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness."