Gallery: Horror! Book Digs Up Lurid 'Pre-Code' Monster Comics
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During the golden age of comic-book gore, ghoulish stories about zombies, werewolves, skeletons and gorgons arrived in drugstore magazine racks on a monthly basis. Honoring America's midcentury infatuation with all things macabre, new book *The Horror! The Horror!* surveys "pre-Code" comic titles from the early 1950s that specialized in outlandishly violent supernatural fantasies. Written by [Jim Trombetta](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0873449/) (*Star Trek: Deep Space Nine*), the 305-page soft-cover chronicles the period's rich stew of graphic insanity. Often produced by uncredited illustrators, the comic books eventually attracted congressional attention. In 1954, Senate hearings concluded that pulp fiction posed a threat to the mental health of youthful readers. The Judiciary Committee's investigation into juvenile delinquency summed up the genre as a compendium of "murder, mayhem, robbery, rape, cannibalism, carnage, necrophilia, sex, sadism, masochism ... and virtually every other form of crime, degeneracy, bestiality and horror." Publishers then formed the [Comics Code Authority](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comics_Code_Authority), which forbade "lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations." Here's a sampling of pre-Code comic-book art culled from the pages of *The Horror! The Horror! Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read!*, which hits stores in November. __Above:__ *The Horror! The Horror!* ------------------------- Written by [Jim Trombetta](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0873449/) (*Star Trek: Deep Space Nine*), with an introduction by R.L. Stine, *[The Horror! The Horror! Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read!](http://www.abramsbooks.com/Books/The_Horror!_The_Horror!-9780810955950.html)* comes bundled with a DVD of a 1955 TV documentary, *Confidential File*, that focused on horror comic books. *Images courtesy [Abrams ComicArts](http://www.abramsbooks.com/comicarts.html). All rights reserved.*
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*Weird Terror* No. 5 -------------------- Artist Don Heck drew this *Weird Terror* cover, published in May 1953 by Allan Hardy Associates. *All rights reserved.*
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*Strange Mysteries* No. 8 ------------------------- Published in February 1963 by Visual Editions and included in *The Horror! The Horror!*, this cover was created by an unknown artist. *The Horror! The Horror!* author Jim Trombetta writes that "a ghost is a spirit without a body, but what possessed the '50s was the reverse: a body without a soul — a zombie." *All rights reserved.*
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*This Magazine Is Haunted* No. 6 -------------------------------- Fawcett Publications brought out this comic by an unknown artist in August 1952. *All rights reserved.*
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"The Eyes of Death" ------------------- This zombie story appeared in a February 1954 issue of Master Comics' *Dark Mysteries* magazine. The artist is unknown. *The Horror! The Horror!* author Jim Trombetto writes that an uptick in these comics occurred after so-called "zombie" attacks occurred during the Korean War, in which Chinese women, men and children moved forward on U.S. troops in seemingly unstoppable waves. *All rights reserved.*
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*Chamber of Chills* No. 18 --------------------------- Artist Lee Elias created this cover, published by Witches Tales in July 1953. *All rights reserved.*
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*Weird Mysteries* No. 1 ----------------------- Though many of the artists active during the pre–Comics Code era were not credited for their for-hire work, Basil Wolverton early in his career claimed credit for this cover, published in October 1952 by Gillmor Magazines. *All rights reserved.*
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*Adventures Into Darkness* No. 8 -------------------------------- This cover by an unknown artist came out in February 1953, published by Visual Editions. *All rights reserved.*
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*The Thing* No. 16 ------------------ Though *The Thing* was not a zombie, it drew from the same pool of pulp-fiction inspiration found throughout the pages of *The Horror! The Horror*. Published by Charlton Comics Group, the creature became one of comicdom's most compelling semi-dead creatures. This September 1954 cover is by an unknown artist. *All rights reserved.*
