"Disc Jockey"...Before and After...

Remember when "disc" could mean "flying saucer" or "lp record".

Or both...

Tonite, we present another case of crazy censorship by the Comics Code Authority!

First, the original version of the story, as it appeared in Harvey Comics' Black Cat Mystery #46 (1947)...

OK, a straightforward tale of just desserts illustrated by comics legend Bob Powell.

Nothing too gory or gross.

But the Comics Code Authority thought otherwise!

When the tale was reprinted in Harvey Comics' Race for the Moon #1 (1958), there were some odd art changes to the aliens...

As we said, some odd art changes to make the aliens less-insectoid...which really made no sense!

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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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WEIRD MYSTERIES "Life Insurance"

When you're a kid, the idea of "life insurance" is like "health insurance"...

...something that would keep you alive just as health insurance pays for curing you!

(Makes sense, doesn't it?)

Rod Serling later did a Twilight Zone episode, "Escape Clause", using the same concept, with a different ending.

If you think about it, what we call life insurance should really be called death insurance!

The art team for this tale from Key Publications' Weird Mysteries #11 (1954) combines the legendary and the obscure with pencils by John Romita Sr (Spider-Man) and inks by Les Zakarin (who has only a couple of dozen credited stories, but probably worked, uncredited, on many more tales).

In fact, Romita apprenticed under Zakarin before going off on his own.

This story has been reprinted only once, in Stanley Publications' b/w magazine Chilling Tales of Horror #1 in 1969, but it's so much kooler in color!

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WEIRD MYSTERIES "Live with a Man"

Some say marriage is hell...

...and, in pre-Comics Code days, they'd be right, as this wild tale from Weird Mysteries #11 (1954) shows!

The strangely-styled art is listed by "Eugene E. Hughes", which I suspect is a pen-name for an artist or penciler-inker team since the only stories attributed to him are work published in Weird Mysteries, Weird Tales of the Future, Mister Mystery, and Real Adventure by the same publisher, Key Publications.

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"Supreme Penalty" 1.0 & 2.0

Last month, we presented two radically-different versions of the same sci-fi comic tale...

...and we're doing so, again! Enjoy!

This version appeared in Black Cat Mystery #47 (1953) during the height of the horror comics boom.

It was re-presented in Race for the Moon #1 (1959) after the Comics Code went into effect.

Let's see how things have changed...

Almost every panel has a change from the original, either in art or balloons!

Panel 4 has an interesting change in dialogue indicating the condemned survive in space...

Only change is dialogue in the first panel, which indicates the exiled criminals are still alive, but in orbit.

The figure of Judge Krenk being murdered in Panel 6, and his corpse in Panel 7 have been removed!

Panel One: Judge Krenk is said to be wounded, not dead!

Panel Six: Frances' face redrawn to look less maniacal and his sentence altered to confine him to his lab!

Interesting to note the alterations inflicted by the Comics Code!

Art (and probably story) by Bob Powell.

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HORRIFIC "Hating Corpse" aka WEIRD TERROR "Double Murder" aka...

Sometimes a title just doesn't do the story justice...

...as this terror-tale from Horrific #4 (1953) from Comic Media aptly demonstrates!

When it was reprinted in the same publisher's Weird Terror #13 (1954), the title and opening caption text were altered...

...but nothing else (except the coloring, which was normal in reprints) was changed!

The original creatives are unknown.

The story was redrawn by Oscar Stepancich, using the exact same script, for Eerie Publications' b/w magazine Horror Tales #V6N4 (1969), and retitled "The Corpse that Lives!".

Regrettably, I don't have a copy of that issue.

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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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