Abrams ComicArts is releasing The Horror! The Horror!: Comic Books the Government Didn’t Want You to Read! this week, which includes sixteen complete comic stories from the early 1950s as well as over 200 covers from some of the best artists of the era.
Featured artists on some of the covers reproduced in the book (some four to a page, some full-page) include L.B. Cole, Johnny Craig, Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Steve Ditko, Bill Everett, Al Feldstein, Frank Kelly Freas, Dick Giordano, Russ Heath, Don Heck, Graham Ingels, Bob Powell, Marie Severin, Alex Toth, Wally Wood, Basil Wolverton, and many more.
The 8” x 11” 304-page volume also includes text by Jim Trombetta, describing the horror comic phenomenon and the growing efforts to censor them, which eventually were successful in scrubbing horror and crime content from comics for a generation (and moving it to TV and film).
A DVD is also included (see “ComicArts Fall Releases”), presenting the 1955 TV documentary Confidental File, the Reefer Madness of the anti-comics movement.
Here are the complete stories included in the volume:
“Nightmare World” from Weird Tales of the Future #3 (1952), by Basil Wolverton
“Dungeon of Doom” from Chamber of Chills #6 (1952), art by Vic Donahue, writer unknown
“Cycle of Horror” from Chamber of Chills Magazine #16 (1953). by Al Eadeh
“The Horselaugh” from Uncanny Tales #14 (1953), art by Mort Lawrence, writer unknown
“Tag… You’re It” from Tomb of Terror #16 (1954), written by Howard Nostrand, art by Howard Nostrand and Sid Check
“Nightmare Merchant” from Strange Fantasy #7 (1953), writer and artist unknown
“Inheritance” from The Thing #14 (1954) by Steve Ditko
“The Brain-Bats of Venus” from Mister Mystery #7 (1952), by Basil Wolverton
“The Eyes of Death” from Dark Mysteries #7 (1952), unknown
“The Living Dead,” from Dark Mysteries #20 (1954), art by John D’Agostino, writer unknown
“Corpses… Coast to Coast” from Voodoo #14 (1954) unknown
“Bargain with a Worm” from Dark Mysteries #3 (1951), unknown
“Susan and the Devil” from Crime Mysteries #9 (1953), unknown
“Vampires? Don’t Make Me Laugh” from The Clutching Hand #1 (1954), art by Harry Lazarus, writer unknown
“Some Die Twice,” from Dark Mysteries #18 (1954), art by A.C. Hollingsworth, writer unknown
“The Report…” from Tomb of Terror #16 (1954), by Bob Powell
