KI NA TU, MAGONDI!

"The Seven Skulls of Magondi" appeared in CHAMBER OF CHILLS #6  (March 1952) with inks by Lee Elias and pencils believed to be the work of Warren Kremer.

In this issue is another story with unintelligible verbal nonsense, Carl Carruda thought he had it made when he killed the witch doctor and stole his necklace of priceless rubies. With it strung around his neck, he heads out of the jungle but soon learns that the witch doctor's magic is still potent after death.

PRE-CODE HORROR COMICS COVERED

It's no secret that a lot of the appeal for Pre-Code horror comics are the covers. After EC showed how it was done, virtually every other publisher that sold horror comics jumped on the wagon and attempted to outdo each other with some of the outrageous, shocking and excessive images they could come up with.

Here are a few examples that range from mild to wild and that are currently up for sale at Heritage Auctions. The finished, color covers are also shown as a comparison. Included are a few of the most notorious covers that came out of that era.

1. CHAMBER OF CHILLS #21 (Harvey, January 1954). Seen here is the preliminary cover art designed by Warren Kremer using ink and crayon on onion skin paper (when was the last time to heard of that?). He then handed it over to Lee Elias for the finished work. Be sure to check out the notes on the margins -- "Guys dead at desks"!

2. CHAMBER OF CHILLS #24 (Harvey, July 1954). Cover art by the great Lee Elias.

3. CHILLING TALES #16 (Youthful, June 1963 ). Unknown artist illustrating the only cover for this title not done by Matt Fox.

4. TALES OF TERROR #1 (Toby, 1952). Cover art for this one-shot by Gene Fawcette. It was pulled by Toby after one issue after a complaint by EC that the title was already being used by them. It was reprinted by I.W. Publishing in 1958 for EERIE #9.

5. TOMB OF TERROR #15 (Harvey, May 1954). Cover art of a classic by Lee Elias.

5. WITCHES TALES #25 (Harvey, June 1954). Another classic cover by the great Warren Kremer.

NOTORIOUS PRE-CODE HORROR COMICS COVERS

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.

Art by Lee Elias.

Art by Warren Kremer/Lee Elias.

Art by unidentified artist.

Art by Don Heck.

Art by Don Heck.

Art by Bernard Baily.

Art by Bernard Baily.

Art by Tony Mortellaro (?).

Art by Bob Forgione/Vince Alascia.

Art by Bernard Baily.

Art by Warren Kremer.