Weird Ghastly Horror

The horror comics of the 1950’s are an interesting media in United States history. They came in an era when the country was unusually stable, both economically and mentally, and they were a counterpoint to the conservative attitudes of the time. The stories were often lurid, full of sleazy cops, private eyes, crazy scientists, and political themes. In the 1988 documentary Comic Book Confidential, publisher William Gaines says that they were based on the pulp paperbacks of earlier eras, with material that would not have been allowed in the movies under the Hayes Code, and certainly not on television. Then the Congress got the idea that horror comics were causing juvenile delinquency, and the Comics Code Authority began, and the horror comics were no longer accepted by newsstands. Just about everything that was good in the comics industry was instantly wiped out.

Weird Ghastly Horror is a collection of these 1950’s horror comics, all of which came from public domain. Let me begin by saying that these are NOT the EC comics of the 1950’s. The comics in this book were more of a low-budget type that obviously tried to out-gore the EC comics with even more insane and lurid stories. Stiff artwork predominates, images are often repeated, and the titles seem to have been chosen with a bit of good natured self-mockery in mind; The Ant Master, Fleshless Horror, and Terror Town. These comics also try to out-sex the EC comics, with lots of shady broads, exposed skin, and see-through dresses. As for imagery, it’s pretty nasty, with blood, skeletons, and rotting flesh.

Let me give you an example of just how violent and lurid these comics were. The story Beyond the Past is only four pages long, and not at all dynamic; a professor takes home The Necronomicon, makes his daughter nervous, he says the spell, a creature shows up, and soon he’s eaten down to his skeleton. As for his sexy, well-figured daughter, she puts on a robe that might as well be made of cellophane. I don’t know if women in the 1950’s slept naked, but I can’t imagine that this young lady, frightened by noise, would go downstairs wearing a see-through garment and nothing underneath. The amount of skin shown here would’ve been a no-no even for EC’s most lurid pieces.

As for the artists, they’re rarely even mentioned in the comics. Unlike EC, where the artists and writers’ names were listed, you don’t see who was involved in these. Only two names could be seen, Tim Kirk and Lou Morales, and there’s almost no information on either of these guys on the web. When I think of the sexy imagery, I have to wonder who the target audience was. I can’t see grownups, or even teens, buying these in the 50’s, if they had money for the EC’s. Were they meant for 10 year olds? If so, why bother showing all that skin? When I was 10 years old, my chief interest weren’t creamy thighs and 38-DD bustlines! But the naughty bits? My friends and I probably would have enjoyed looking at them down in the rec room when my parents thought we were playing Scrabble.

There is one story here that could’ve been extended. A little girl, raised as a foster child, kills every grownup that gets in her way. Not the police, judges, or lawyers believe her foster parents’ insistence that she’s really a circus midget who just looks like a kid. For those of you who saw The Orphan, you might remember the theme of the homicidal dwarf masquerading as a child, and it was scary.