Number 1856: The Heck you say...

Craig Yoe has a volume in the IDW Chilling Archives of Horror Comics dedicated to artist Don Heck. He collects the pre-Code horror stories Heck did for Comic Media, a small-time publisher. Heck later went on to Atlas/Marvel, where he was an integral part of their line for several years. Heck was a solid professional, even if (in my opinion in the late fifties-early sixties) his more illustrative approach seemed too different sandwiched as it was between the work of comic art stylists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko.

In the early fifties Heck had a flair for horror, which may come as a surprise to some. This is one of the stories collected in the IDW volume. What you see here are my scans, not the ones in the book. It is from Weird Terror #2 (1952). The story is about what I have always suspected, that my accidents are caused by external forces (in this case, evil gnomes), not by my clumsiness and inattention to my surroundings.

Yoe’s book is available from the usual outlets.

Number 1300: Frankenstein and Sam Pyre the vampire

For our fourth and final posting of Funky Funnies week at Pappy's I'm going back to the early days of this blog, when I had a tradition called “Frankenstein Friday.” I revived it for one post in Pappy's #966 over a year-and-a-half ago, and yes, the wheels turn slowly at Pappy's, but eventually we get things done.

Poor Frankenstein — he's the victim of a misimpression that he has become a vampire, and noble sort that he is, wants to end his miserable existence. And that's the bizarre plot of “The Brain of Sam Pyre the Vampire,” from Frankenstein Comics #13 (1948). It's written and drawn by Dick Briefer, who wrote and drew several different features for comic books during his time in the industry. He is best known for his various versions of the Frankenstein monster character, which he drew for over a decade in Prize Comics, and then two different series of Frankenstein.

I made sure I wasn't posting something that Frankenstein fans can find in Craig Yoe's compilation, Dick Briefer's Frankenstein, which is Volume 1 of Yoe's Chilling Archives of Horror Comics. I support Craig in his labors to get great comic books in more permanent format, and his matching sets of books are collectible, must-haves for comic fans. The book is still available from Amazon.com and from Craig's own catalog at Yoebooks.com.

Number 1209: Jeepers! A zombie!

This is a good opportunity to remind you of Zombies, the book edited by Craig Yoe and Steve "Karswell" Banes. It's number three in their series, “The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics.” It's available from Amazon.com, Yoebooks.com, or your other favorite online book dealers. And I'm sure if you promise not to eat his brain, your local comic book dealer could order it for you.

“The Lair of Lost Souls” from Adventures Into the Unknown #33 (1952) is a zombie story, art attributed to Al Camy, not included in the Zombies book. I'm showing it today because the splash panel is part of an ongoing search I have for what I call the Jeepers girl, a girl in a pose that looks like this panel from the anti-comics book, Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham, M.D. When I started seeing similar girls in similar poses I began to collect them under the overall title Jeepers girl, based on this.

I have found this supine girl in other comics, not only Golden Age but Silver Age, as well as a couple of magazine covers, Mad, and even an issue of Life magazine.

After the story I'll show you what I've collected so far in my quest for the Jeepers girl.

 “Jeepers! A dame!”

So far the earliest example of the Jeepers girl I've found has been in an article on the radio program, The Fat Man, from a 1946 issue of Life. Lots of artists used Life as a source of reference material, and this may be one of those instances.

The next is from artist Lily Renée, from Fight Comics #47, also 1946.

After that the Jeepers girl pops up in several places. I'm aware that the poses aren't exactly alike, but I believe that the Jeepers girl is a pretty good example of how you can't keep a dead girl down when you've got artists looking to other artists for inspiration.

 

Number 1063


Bob Powell's TERROR


The latest in Craig Yoe's fantastic series of comic book retrospective reprints is Bob Powell's TERROR, book two of Craig's series, The Chilling Archives of Horror Comics.

TERROR is full of Powell classics. With the aid of his crew of assistants (explained and identified in an informative biography of Powell, born Stanley Robert Pawlowski in 1916), Powell turned out a tremendous amount of comic book work in the 1940s and 1950s. He worked in all genres, but his special love seemed to be horror, where he lavished considerable skill in making his stories into the highlight of any comic in which they appeared. Craig has chosen well, but then, he had a lot to choose from. Fawcett and Harvey published most of his work during the horror comics boom of the early 1950s, and so a lot of Powell stories are available.

Craig has reproduced two of Powell's best from the original art: "The Rat-Man" is a classic from Tomb Of Terror #5 in 1952, with its bizarre and creepy premise: "It...it is Bennie! He's turned into a real rat!" The other original is "Pit Of the Damned!" from Chamber of Chills #7, also 1952. Powell pulled out the stops with stories with the devil, or those showing hell. Was Powell religious, or raised in the church? I don't know, and Yoe doesn't say, but there is something of a religious fervor to panels of souls writhing in eternal damnation.

The book is uniform in size to the other books of Craig's, and you can see his catalog with his other titles at Yoe Books. Yoe's books are available from the publisher or the usual booksellers. Production on the volume is up to Yoe's standards, made to exacting specifications, quality paper and binding. You buy one of Craig's books, you know if you keep it in the family your great-grandkids will be reading it long after you're gone. I'm giving Bob Powell's TERROR my highest recommendation whether you're buying it for yourself or the Golden Age comic book fan in the family. It's priced affordably at $24.95.

Long time Pappy's Golden Age readers know that Powell is one of my favorite Golden Age artists, and I've had 37 prior posts with his work. The story I'm showing today is not in Craig's book. "Shrunken Skull" appeared in Harvey Comics' Chamber of Chills #5, but is just about the only one of my favorite Powell horror stories that Craig didn't show. Heritage Auctions sold the original art for "Shrunken Skull" in 2004, but only showed five of the eight pages, so I have included pages from the comic.