Tell a Tale Three Times: STRANGE FANTASY "Love Trap"

Here's a tale presented during the heydey of horror comics...

...then modified to satisfy the Comics Code, then re-modified to be more horrifying!

All we know about the credits for this tale from Ajax/Farrell's Strange Fantasy #6 (1953) is that it was produced by the Iger Studio, who supplied several publishers with stories and had a history of re-using their material over and over again...as you'll see from the follow-up entry to this at our "brother" RetroBlog, Atomic Kommie Comics!

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Forgotten Horror Comics of the 1950s

WEB OF EVIL "Vengeful Curse"

Curses on those who open tombs are as old as mankind itself...

...but what about those who put a fresh body into an ancient burial site?

Jack Cole, best-known for creating Plastic Man and doing great spot cartoons for Playboy, wrote and illustrated this tale from Quality Comics' Web of Evil #5 (1953).
He also did the most famous story lambasted in Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent; "Murder, Morphine, and Me", which we posted HERE.

BTW, "Vengeful Curse" has been reprinted twice, first in Quality's one-shot Intrigue in 1955, then in IDW's Haunted Horror #1 this month.
It was redrawn for Horror Tales V5N4 in 1973 using the exact same script, but the art on the re-do by Hector Castellon is vastly inferior.
And, to add insult to injury, it was uncreatively re-titled "Bloody Demon".

Join us next week as we present another tale your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!

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WEB OF EVIL "Hangman's Horror"

If you think political campaigns these days are bad...

...let's look at how things were handled (at least in comics) back in the 1950s!

Jack Cole, best-known for creating Plastic Man and doing great spot cartoons for Playboy, wrote and illustrated this tale from Quality Comics' Web of Evil #2 (1953).
He also did the most famous story lambasted in Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent; "Murder, Morphine, and Me", which we posted HERE.

BTW, "Hangman's Horror" was redrawn for Terrors of Dracula V3N2 in 1981 using the exact same script, but the art on the re-do is vastly inferior.

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UNKNOWN WORLD "Serpent Queen"

Wertham wrote "In ordinary comic books there are pictures for children who know how to look."

While you gaze at this magnificently-rendered splash page, ask yourself "What is the significance of a leashed one-eyed snake in this panel?"

(You'll know by the end of the tale...)

The writer of this never-reprinted tale from the one-shot anthology Unknown World #1 (1952) is unknown, but the illos are by little-known artist Bob McCarty, who did over a hundred stories in the 1950s, but rarely, if ever, signed them!

BTW, though this title was a one-shot, the numbering continued with a new title: Strange Stories from Another World, for four more issues (#2 to #5).

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AUTHENTIC POLICE CASES: VEILED AVENGER "White Death"

Another example of Fredric Wertham taking a panel out of context...

...I didn't know the writings of the Marquis deSade were "forbidden"!

By who, I wonder?

At any rate, here's the tale that panel was taken from...

This story first appeared in Red Seal Comics #16 (1946) by Chesler Publishing, but Wertham probably used the reprint in Authentic Police Cases #3 (1948) by St John Comics, who had bought out Chesler the year before.
The good doctor had taken panels from several other issues of Authentic, for use as examples in Seduction of the Innocent, so this seems the most likely scenario.
Wertham has become notorious for doing this sort of thing, taking images out of context to make specific points without providing reference as to where the pix originally came from, and figuring that it would be too difficult for anyone to trace them.
BTW, the illustrator was Gasparo "Gus" Ricca, who was also the art director for Chesler Publishing!

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AUTHENTIC POLICE CASES "Human Cat Trapped by Death Gun"

A classic example of how Fredric Wertham cherry-picked comics for images...

...this tale from Authentic Police Cases #6 (1948) features one of the more notorious examples!

The image, as shown in the book Seduction of the Innocent, is cropped and the caption reads "An invitation to learning!"

When the story was retitled and re-presented in Fugitives from Justice #3 (1952) and a later issue of Authentic Police Cases, the girl was redrawn with a much more discreet nightgown...

...here's the rest of the tale...

Wertham has become notorious for doing this sort of thing, taking images out of context to make specific points without providing reference as to where the pix originally came from, and figuring that it would be too difficult for anyone to trace them.

Join us next week as we present another tale your grandparents didn't want your parents to see!

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