Horror comics

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Horror comics in the United States, 1947–1954
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Horror comics
EC Comics' Tales from the Crypt #24 (July 1951)
Cover art by Al Feldstein
Subgenres
Related genres

Horror comics are comic books, graphic novels, black-and-white comics magazines, and manga focusing on horror fiction. In the US market, horror comic books reached a peak in the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, when concern over content and the imposition of the self-censorship Comics Code Authority contributed to the demise of many titles and the toning down of others. Black-and-white horror-comics magazines, which did not fall under the Code, flourished from the mid-1960s through the early 1980s from a variety of publishers. Mainstream American color comic books experienced a horror resurgence in the 1970s, following a loosening of the Code. While the genre has had greater and lesser periods of popularity, it occupies a firm niche in comics as of the 2010s.

Precursors to horror comics include detective and crime comics that incorporated horror motifs into their graphics, and early superhero stories that sometimes included the likes of ghouls and vampires. Individual horror stories appeared as early as 1940. The first dedicated horror comic books appear to be

Eerie #1 (January 1947), the first horror comic with original content. The first horror-comics series is the anthology Adventures into the Unknown, premiering in 1948 from American Comics Group
, initially under the imprint B&I Publishing.

Precursors

The

Mixtec codices.[3]

Gilberton Publications' Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (August 1943), possibly the first full-length comic-book horror story

In the early 20th-century, pulp magazines developed the horror subgenre "weird menace", which featured sadistic villains and graphic scenes of torture and brutality. The first such title, Popular Publications' Dime Mystery, began as a straight crime fiction magazine but evolved by 1933 under the influence of Grand Guignol theater.[4] Other publishers eventually joined in, though Popular dominated the field with Dime Mystery, Horror Stories, and Terror Tales. While most weird-menace stories were resolved with rational explanations, some involved the supernatural.

After the fledgling medium of comic books became established by the late 1930s, horror-fiction elements began appearing in superhero stories, with vampires, misshapen creatures, mad scientists and other tropes that bore the influence of the Universal horror films of the 1930s and other sources.[5]

In 1935,

New Fun Comics # 6, where he confronts Vampire Master. In Detective Comics # 31–32, Batman fights a vampire.[6]

By the mid-1940s, some detective and crime comics had incorporated horror motifs such as spiders and eyeballs into their graphics, and occasionally featured stories adapted from the literary horror tales of

Suspense, and The Whistler.[10]

As cultural historian David Hajdu notes, comic-book horror:

...had its roots in the pulps, where narratives of young women assaulted by 'weird menaces' ... had filled magazines such as Terror Tales and Horror Stories for years. Variations on gothic fright had also appeared in several comics—Suspense Comics (which began in 1943), Yellowjacket (which included eight horror stories, billed as "Tales of Terror", in its run of ten issues, beginning in 1944), and Eerie (which had one issue published in 1947).[11]

Early American scene

Avon Publications
' Eerie Comics #1 (January 1947). Cover artist unknown.

Issue #7 (December 1940) of publisher

Don Markstein,[13] and "[t]he first real horror series" by horror-comics historian Lawrence Watt-Evans,[14] the feature ran through Prize Comics #52 (April 1945)[15]
before becoming a humor series and then being revived in horrific form in the series Frankenstein #18-33 (March 1952 - November 1954).

Classic Comics #13 (August 1943), adapted Robert Louis Stevenson's horror novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde as the full-length story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, making it the earliest known dedicated horror comic book.[18]

Historian

Eerie #1, dated January 1947[19] and sold in late 1946, as "the first out-and-out horror comic book".[10] Its cover featured a red-eyed, pointy-eared fiend threatening a rope-bound, beautiful young woman in a scanty red evening gown, set amid a moonlit ruin. The anthology offered six primarily occult stories involving the likes of a ghost and a zombie.[10] While all but one writer are unknown — Edward Bellin, who teamed with young artist Joe Kubert on the nine-page "The Man-Eating Lizards"[19] — the artists include George Roussos and Fred Kida.[10] After this first issue, the title went dormant, but reappeared in 1951 as Eerie, beginning with a new #1 and running 17 issues (1951 - September 1954).[20]

Goulart identifies the long-running

gothic novel The Castle of Otranto, by an unknown writer and artist Al Ulmer.[21]

Following the postwar

The Tell Tale Heart", reprinted from Charlton Comics' Yellowjacket Comics #6.[26][27]
Street and Smith also published two issues of "Ghost Breakers" in late 1948. (ibid GCDB)

The floodgates began to open the following year with the first horror comic from the 1950s' most prolific horror-comics publisher,

Marvel Tales with #93 (August 1949) and the final two issues of Captain America Comics becoming the mostly horror-fiction Captain America's Weird Tales #74-75 (October 1949 & February 1950) — the latter of which did not contain Captain America at all.[28][29] Harvey Comics followed suit with its costumed-crimefighter comic Black Cat by reformatting it as the horror comic Black Cat Mystery with issue #30 (August 1951).[10][30]

EC Comics and the horror boom

Main article: EC Comics

Horror comics briefly flourished from this point until the industry's self-imposed censorship board, the Comics Code Authority, was instituted in late 1954. The most influential and enduring horror-comics anthologies of this period, beginning 1950, were the 91 issues of EC Comics' three series: The Haunt of Fear, The Vault of Horror and The Crypt of Terror, renamed Tales from the Crypt.[31]

In 1947, publisher

twist endings
and poetic justice taken to absurd extremes.

EC's success immediately spawned a host of imitators, such as

cover-dated March 1955, Atlas released 399 issues of 18 horror titles, ACG released 123 issues of five horror titles, and Ace Comics, 98 issues of five titles — each more than EC's output.[31]

Backlash

The Saturday Review of Literature,[57] and a March 19, 1948 symposium called "Psychopathology of Comic Books" which stated that comic books were "abnormally sexually aggressive" and led to crime.[58]

In response to public pressure and bad press, an

industry trade group, the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers (ACMP) was formed with the intent of prodding the industry to police itself. The Association proved ineffective as few publishers joined and those who did exercised little restraint over the content of their titles.[59]

Seduction of the Innocent

In 1954, Dr. Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent, a tome that claimed horror, crime and other comics were a direct cause of juvenile delinquency. Wertham asserted, largely based on undocumented anecdotes, that reading violent comic books encouraged violent behavior in children.[59] Wertham painted a picture of a large and pervasive industry, shrouded in secrecy and masterminded by a few, that operated upon the innocent and defenseless minds of the young. He further suggested the industry strong-armed vendors into accepting their publications and forced artists and writers into producing the content against their will.[60]

Wertham alleged comics stimulated deviant sexual behavior. He noted female breasts in comics protruded in a provocative way and special attention was lavished upon the female genital region.[60] A cover by Matt Baker from Phantom Lady was reprinted in the book with the caption, "Sexual stimulation by combining 'headlights' with the sadist's dream of tying up a woman".[59] Boys interviewed by Wertham said they used comic book images for masturbation purposes, and one young comics reader confessed he wanted to be a sex maniac. Wertham contended comics promoted homosexuality by pointing to the Batman–Robin relationship and calling it a homosexual wish dream of two men living together. He observed that Robin was often pictured standing with his legs spread and the genital region evident.[60]

Most alarmingly, Wertham contended that comic books fostered deceitfulness in children, who might read funny animal comics in front of their parents but then turn to horror comics the moment their parents left the room. Wertham warned of suspicious stores and their clandestine back rooms where second hand comics of the worst sort were peddled to children. The language used evoked images of children prowling about gambling dens and whorehouses, and anxious parents felt helpless in the face of such a powerful force as the comics industry. Excerpts from the book were published in Ladies' Home Journal and Reader's Digest, lending respectability and credibility to Wertham's arguments.[60]

A 14-page portfolio of panels and covers from across the entire comic book industry displayed murder, torture and sexual titillation for the reader's consideration. The most widely discussed art was that from "Foul Play", a horror story from EC about a dishonest baseball player whose head and intestines are used by his teammates in a game. Seduction of the Innocent sparked a firestorm of controversy and created alarm in parents, teachers and others interested in the welfare of children; the concerned were galvanized into campaigning for censorship.[59]

Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency

Public criticism brought matters to a head. In 1954, anti-crime crusader

Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. Dr. Wertham insisted upon appearing before the committee. He first presented a long list of his credentials, and then, in his clipped German accent, spoke with authority on the pernicious influence of comic books upon children. His passionate testimony at the hearings impressed the gathering. Kefauver suggested crime comics indoctrinated children in a way similar to Nazi propaganda. Wertham noted Hitler was a beginner compared to the comics industry.[60]

Cover shows a hand holding a woman's head by the hair; another hand holds a bloody axe over a woman's legs.
Crime Suspenstories (April/May 1954) was entered as evidence in the Senate hearings.

Publisher William Gaines appeared before the committee and vigorously defended his product and the industry. He took full responsibility for the horror genre, claiming he was the first to publish such comics. He insisted that delinquency was the result of the real environment and not fictional reading materials. His defiant demeanor left the committee (which felt the industry was indefensible), astonished.[60] He had prepared a statement that read in part, "It would be just as difficult to explain the harmless thrill of a horror story to Dr. Wertham as it would be to explain the sublimity of love to a frigid old maid."[59]

Crime Suspenstories, issue 22, April/May 1954, was entered into evidence. The exchange between Gaines and Kefauver led to a front-page story in The New York Times:

He was asked by Senator Estes Kefauver, Democrat of Tennessee, if he considered in "good taste" the cover of his Shock SuspenStories,[61] which depicted an axe-wielding man holding aloft the severed head of a blond woman. Mr. Gaines replied: 'Yes, I do—for the cover of a horror comic.'[62]

Though the committee's final report did not blame comics for crime, it recommended that the comics industry tone down its content voluntarily.[63]

Creation of the Comics Code

By 1953, nearly a quarter of all comic books published were horror titles.[64] In the hearings' immediate aftermath, several publishers revamped their schedules and drastically censored or cancelled many long-running comic series.[59]

In September 1954, the

Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA) and its Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed. The Code had many stipulations that made it difficult for horror comics to continue publication, since any that didn't adhere to the Code's guidelines would likely not find distribution. The Code forbade the explicit presentation of "unique details and methods of crime...Scenes of excessive violence...brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gun play, physical agony, gory and gruesome crime...all scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism...Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, or torture".[59]

Perseverance

As a result of the Congressional hearings,

J'onn J'onzz, the Manhunter from Mars and, later, Dial H for Hero. Similarly, during this period Marvel Comics produced the titles Strange Tales (1951–1968) and Journey into Mystery
(1952–1966). Each company gradually changed from suspense stories toward fantasy, science fiction and monster stories, and then to related superhero characters during the years after the code came into effect. Charlton Comics' suspense titles, such as Unusual Tales, persisted to the mid-1960s. ACG titles Adventures into the Unknown and Unknown Worlds thrived during this Silver Age period until the company folded in 1967.

The publishers

TV series comic book Twilight Zone in 1961 and publishing a Dracula title in 1962 (though only the first issue was horror related; the subsequent issues were part of the super-hero genre revival), followed in 1963 by the new series "Ghost Stories." Gold Key, in addition to releasing Boris Karloff Thriller, based on the TV series Thriller (and retitled Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery after the show went off the air), bought the Twilight Zone license from Dell in 1962.[65]

In 1965 Gold Key put out three licensed horror-themed comics, two based on the TV horror-comedies The Addams Family and The Munsters, and the other titled Ripley's Believe it or Not!, which had three different subtitles: "True Ghost Stories," "True War Stories" (#1 and #5), and "True Demons & Monsters" (#7, #10, #19, #22, #25, #26, and #29).

Warren Publishing continued the horror tradition in the mid-1960s, bypassing the Comics Code Authority restrictions by publishing magazine-sized black-and-white horror comics.[66] Under the direction of line editor Archie Goodwin, Warren debuted the horror anthologies Creepy (1964–1983) and Eerie (1966–1983), followed by Vampirella, an anthology with a lead feature starring a sexy young female vampire.

The low-rent Warren imitator

Comics Code horror comics, most notably in its flagship title Weird (1966–1981), as well as the magazines Tales of Voodoo (1968–1974), Horror Tales (1969–1979), Tales from the Tomb (1969–1975), and Terror Tales (1969–1979). Stanley Publications
also published a line of black-and-white horror magazines from 1966 to 1971, including the titles Shock and Chilling Tales of Horror.

Resurgence

A number of supernatural mystery / suspense titles were introduced in the latter half of the 1960s, including

Monsters on the Prowl and Tower of Shadows/Creatures on the Loose. At DC Comics, new House of Mystery editor Joe Orlando returned the title to its horror roots with issue #175 (July/August 1968); a similar transformation was made to House of Secrets and The Unexpected (formerly "Tales of the Unexpected"), with the company debuting a new title, The Witching Hour
.

In 1971, the Comics Code Authority relaxed some of its longstanding rules regarding horror comics, which opened the door to more possibilities in the genre:

Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with, walking dead or torture shall not be used. Vampires, ghouls and werewolves shall be permitted to be used when handled in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and other high-caliber literary works written by Edgar Allan Poe, Saki, Conan Doyle, and other respected authors whose works are read in schools around the world.[67]

Following this, Marvel returned to publishing true horror by first introducing a scientifically created, vampire-like character,

1971 began a black-and-white magazine imprint, which published a number of horror titles, including Dracula Lives!, Monsters Unleashed, Vampire Tales, Tales of the Zombie, Haunt of Horror, and Masters of Terror. Additionally, Skywald Publications
offered the black-and-white horror-comics magazines Nightmare, Psycho, and Scream.

DC during this time continued to publish its existing supernatural fiction and added new horror series such as

The Dark Mansion of Forbidden Love (later titled Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion), Secrets of Haunted House, Secrets of Sinister House, Swamp Thing, Weird Mystery Tales, Weird War Tales, and Tales of Ghost Castle. Charlton continued in this vein as well, with Ghostly Haunts, Haunted, Midnight Tales, Haunted Love, and Scary Tales
.

San Francisco Comic Book Company, 1969), Fantagor (Richard Corben, 1970), Insect Fear (Print Mint, 1970), Up From The Deep (Rip Off Press, 1971), Death Rattle (Kitchen Sink Press
, 1972), Gory Stories (Shroud, 1972), Deviant Slice (Print Mint, 1972) and Two-Fisted Zombies (Last Gasp, 1973) appeared in the early 1970s.

By the mid-1970s, the horror comics boomlet slowed and various titles were cancelled. Only a few of the DC titles persevered by the end of the decade, the long-running Gold Key mystery comic series ceased during the early 1980s, and some predominantly-reprint Charlton series managed to survive to the mid-1980s. DC's traditional titles sputtered out during the early 1980s, and its transformed anthology "Elvira's House of Mystery" was the final code-approved traditional anthology title to be produced, lasting only a dozen issues around 1987. As these and Warren publications disappeared, new titles from the 1980s onward would all be in new formats (i.e. glossy paper, not code-approved) or sporadically produced by small independent companies.

1980s and 1990s

Beginning in the late 1980s and early 1990s, independent publishers produced a number of successful horror comics franchises. FantaCo Enterprises and Millennium Publications boasted lineups almost exclusively devoted to horror, vampire, and zombie comics. For instance, 1985 saw the revival of Kitchen Sink's Death Rattle, followed a year later by the debut of FantaCo's horror anthology Gore Shriek, edited by Stephen R. Bissette, who also contributed stories to each issue. Bissette also edited the acclaimed anthology Taboo, which ran from 1988 to 1995.

In 1982,

Elvira's House of Mystery). Wasteland (DC Comics)
was a pre-vertigo, non-Code horror series from DC in the late 1980s.

In 1982, DC Comics revived the

occult detective John Constantine
.

In 1993, DC introduced its mature-readers

Sandman, which reworked a number of DC's old horror characters and added fantasy to the mix. A number of other horror titles carried on at Vertigo, like Deadman, House of Mystery and Haunted Tank, or were given a horror spin or an update like Kid Eternity and Jonah Hex
.

In the mid-1990s

Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins
and Midnight Sons Unlimited.

Modernity

North America

In addition to its long-running titles carried over from the 1990s, Vertigo published more conventional horror, like vampires in Bite Club (beginning in 2004),[70] and Vamps. In addition, from 1999 to 2001 they published their own horror anthology, Flinch.

At

The Walking Dead. Steve Niles predominantly writes horror comics, and his 30 Days of Night has spawned a range of mini-series released by IDW Publishing.[71] At Dark Horse, Mike Mignola has been working on Hellboy, and has created a large fictional universe with spin-off titles like BPRD and Lobster Johnson.[72]

There had been also superhero horror comics like with Spawn, Venom, and Ghost Rider.

In the 2000s and 2010s, Marvel produced

H.P. Lovecraft.[80]

Europe

Great Britain

In the post-World War II period, horror comics arrived in Britain, largely based on reprints of American material. This led to protests similar to those in the States. In 1955, the

news agents' shelves.[81]

In the early 1970s there were a couple of horror comics —

Lord Horror
 also was published.

After the

Cradlegrave, as well as those drawing on the Cthulhu Mythos, like Necronauts and Caballistics, Inc.
.

The

Something Wicked
.

In 2008, the London Horror Comic launched, becoming the first full-colour UK horror comic to be shipped worldwide through Diamond Comic Distributors.[83]

Italy

Starting from the 1960s, up until the early 1980s Italy also saw a number of erotic-horror publications usually featuring female characters. One of the first, in 1964, was Satanik, by Max Bunker and Magnus, which belonged to the first wave of the so-called "fumetto nero" characters, alongside Diabolik and Kriminal (also by Bunker and Magnus). Satanik was quickly followed by a flurry of other horror heroines, such as

Yra, Zora (all vampiresses), Ulula (a werewoman), and others. These erotic-horror comics were mostly published by Ediperiodici and Edifumetto, helmed by publishers/writers Giorgio Cavedon and Renzo Barbieri, respectively, and were part of the "pocket erotici" editorial craze, also known as "fumetti sexy". These cheap publications featured the talents of both established and buddying Italian comics artists, such as a young Milo Manara (on Zordon), and featured colourful, gruesome and very effective covers created by commercial illustrators and painters such as Alessandro Biffignandi, Fernando Carcupino, Averardo Ciriello, Pino D'Angelico, Ferdinando Tacconi and Emanuele Taglietti, among others. Some of these publications, like Wallestein the Monster, were briefly published in English and the British publisher Korero Press has collected many of the original covers in its ongoing Sex and Horror artbook series.[84][85][86][87]

Since 2018 Annexia has been publishing one-shots, featuring brand new adventures of Ulula, Jakula, Sukia and Zora, among others, and in 2020 Editoriale Cosmo has reprinted some of the original stories in their "Classics of Italian Erotica" series.[88]

In the late 1980s, the genre became again popular, spearheaded by the Italian horror comic series Dylan Dog, created by veteran comic-writer Tiziano Sclavi, visually defined by cover artist Claudio Villa and published by Sergio Bonelli. It has achieved great success, both in its homeland and abroad, with translations in the US (by Dark Horse Comics, with brand new covers by Mike Mignola), Germany, Spain, Serbia, Croatia, Denmark, Poland, Turkey and India. In the early 1990s, other publishers tried to emulate the success of Dylan Dog. Among them was ACME, which published two monthly horror anthologies titled Splatter and Mostri, which featured both original stories by promising young Italian artists (such as Bruno Brindisi, Roberto De Angelis and Luigi Siniscalchi, who later went to work for Bonelli, some of them even on Dylan Dog) and translated material. A selection of stories from the Splatter anthology has been collected and reprinted in two volumes, published in 2017 and 2018 by Editoriale Cosmo.[89][90]

Among the most recent and noteworthy original horror comics series are The Cannibal Family, created in 2013 by writer Stefano Fantelli and artist Stefano Piccioni and published by Edizioni Inkiostro, and the anthology Mostri, published since 2015 by Bugs Comics, featuring work by young artists and later also established ones, such as Elena Casagrande.[91]

Japan

The term "horror" as a genre, only began circulating in Japan in the 1960s in press and everyday language. Prior to this, horror fiction as it may be known was referred to with terms like "mystery", "terror", and "dread".[92]

According to

H.P. Lovecraft was repedeatly paid homage to by Japanese manga authors.[97]

Following the birth and the weekly magazines, and a new style known as both kyofu and kowai manga (terror and scary respectively) began appearing that attracted a younger audience than Kaidan and Oru kaidan which appealed to teenagers. These included long series such as Hakaba Kitarō by Shigeru Mizuki where characters from Japanese folkore coexist with the themes from teenage manga from the period. The popularity of these stories led to similarly styled anime series Humanoid Monster Bem (1968).[98] Throughou the 1960s and 1970s, different publishers continued horror titles in mainstream magazines, without devoting specific publication to them, with titles like Devilman (1972). Smaller publishers released Hibari Hit series allowed their authors to complete freedom, in which Hideshi Hino got his start.[99] The influence of these smaller published was felt in late 1980s published magazines such as Halloween published from 1986-1995, Suspiria (1987-2012), and the 1990s with Horror M. As it had in the 1960s and 1970s, the genre returned in magazines aimed at women with young women, with some authors such as Hino and Jiro returning along with newcomers like Narumi Kakinouchi and Kanako Inuki.[100]

In the 21st century, series based around zombies and the undead appeared with titles like Highschool of the Dead and Junji Ito's Gyo.[101]

Styles and themes

Material in these stories are often drawn from Japanese folkore figures like

yokai.[102] This includes several stories involving cats with supernatural powers, cat with metamorphic abilities called bakeneko. Cat in these comics are often black, and have appeared in several stories through dcades such as Kin'iro hitomi (1960), Neko to watashi to haha to buta (1968) and Bakeneko shojo (1982).[102] Like the bakeneko, transformation is another key topic, with many stories of foxes, snakes, or cranes that transofmr into beautiful women for either revenge or to ensnare a man and bring him to ruin. Often, the main character also undergoes inexplicable transformation into an animal or monstrous or hybrid creatures. These traits are key in the manga of Kazuo Umezu, which often cycle among the fear that any human being will stop being themselves and turn into something else, such as Reptilia or often a child will transform into an adult, ill and lacking freedom or autonomy.[96]

Among the sub-genres of comics is the guro, meaning grotesque, bizarre, horrific. Horror manga sometimes dedicated an entire page or two to a guro scene, as unlike films which can have music to play to enhance a narrative, horror manga often had these pages to shock the reader at the exact moment of turning a page.[103] Among the major ero-guro (erotic grotesque) manga creators was Suehiro Maruo, described by Thierry Groensteen as "the De Sade of contemporary manga."[103]

Online

Horror comics are also published on the web, with horror webcomics that include the pioneering work of Eric Monster Millikin, an anthology webtoon, Tales of the Unusual and Zuda comics High Moon.

Video spinoffs

Comics have formed part of the

horror video games, like Silent Hill
.

Horror comics have also been sources for horror films, such as

Z ~Zed~ (2014)[104] and two 1980s movies directed by comics creator Hideshi Hino adapted from his manga Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood and Guinea Pig: Mermaid in a Manhole. Robert Kirkman's comic-book series The Walking Dead was adapted in 2010 into an ongoing TV series
on the AMC cable network.

Some horror films and television programs have had comic-book sequels, such as

Saw: Rebirth and 28 Days Later: The Aftermath
, respectively.

Horror hosts

See also: Horror host

Inner Sanctum Mysteries
, which broadcast from the 1930s–1950s, had sinister "hosts" who introduced and wrapped up the stories. The tradition was introduced into horror comics, many of which were also anthology titles, with many stories in each issue.

Mad Mod Witch).[105] Charlton had a large cast of hosts for their horror/suspense titles. Marvel Comics for the most part did not, though they briefly used the characters of Digger
and Headstone P. Gravely.

The following is a list of hosts from various horror comics titles from over the years.

Title Host Publisher Publication dates
Chamber of Darkness Digger
Headstone P. Gravely		 Marvel 1969–1971 (retitled
Monsters on the Prowl
 without a host)
Creepy
Uncle Creepy
 Warren 1964–1983
Dr. Spektor Presents Spine-Tingling Tales
 Doctor Spektor Gold Key 1975–1976
Eagle
The Collector
 IPC Magazines 1982–?
Eerie Cousin Eerie Warren 1966–1983
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
 Claypool Comics 1993–2007
Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion Charity (1972–1974) DC 1971–1974
Ghosts Squire Shade (1981–1982) DC 1971–1982
Ghost Manor (2 vols.) Old Witch (1968–1971)
Mr. Bones (1971–1984)		 Charlton 1968–1971 (vol. 1, retitled as Ghostly Haunts)
1971–1984 (vol. 2)
Ghostly Haunts Winnie the Witch Charlton 1971–1978
Ghostly Tales Mr. L. Dedd/Mr. I.M. Dedd Charlton 1966–1984
The Haunt of Fear The Old Witch EC 1950–1954
Haunted Impy
Baron Weirwulf (1975–1984)		 Charlton 1971–1984
The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves Dr. M.T. Graves Charlton 1967–1986
House of Mystery
Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
(1986–1987)		 DC 1951–1983, 1986–1987 (titled Elvira's House of Mystery), 2008–present
House of Secrets Abel (1969–1978) DC 1956–1978, 1996–1999
Midnight Tales Professor Coffin (a.k.a. The Midnight Philosopher)
Arachne Coffin		 Charlton 1972–1976
Nightmare Skywald Publications 1974
Plop!
Eve
 DC 1973–1976
Psycho Skywald Publications 1974-1975
Scary Tales Countess R.H. Von Bludd Charlton 1975–1984
Scream Skywald Publications 1974
Scream! Ghastly McNasty
The Leper
The Night Comer (1986 Scream! Summer Special)
Ghoul (1989, Scream! Spinechillers Holiday Special)		 IPC 1984, various specials until 1989
Secrets of Haunted House
Eve
Destiny
(issues #1-7, 9, & 11–39)		 DC 1975–1982
Secrets of Sinister House
Eve
(issues #6–16)		 DC 1972–1974
Strange Cases in Judge Dredd Megazine Judge Strange[106] Fleetway Publications 1991–1992
Tales from the Black Museum in Judge Dredd Megazine Henry Dubble[107] Rebellion Developments 2006–present
Tales from the Crypt
The Crypt Keeper
 EC 1950–1955
Tales of Ghost Castle
Lucien
 DC 1975
The Thing! The Thing Charlton 1952–1954
This Magazine is Haunted
 Dr. Death
Dr. Haunt		 Fawcett, Charlton 1951–1958
Tower of Shadows Digger
Headstone P. Gravely		 Marvel 1969–1971 (retitled as
Creatures on the Loose
, with no host)
The Unexpected
Mad Mod Witch
(1969–1974)		 DC 1968–1982
Vampirella Vampirella (1969–1970 as host; afterward as leading character) Warren
Harris Publications/Dynamite Entertainment		 1969–1983
1991–present
The Vault of Horror
The Vault-Keeper

Drusilla (1952–1955)		 EC 1950–1955
Weird Mystery Tales Dr. E. Leopold Maas (1972)
Eve
(1973–1975)		 DC 1972–1975
Weird War Tales
Death
 DC 1971–1983
The Witching Hour The Three Witches DC 1969–1978

See also
  • Lovecraftian horror comics
  • Racism in horror films
  • Vampire comics
  • Weird West comics
  • Werewolf comics
  • Zombie comics

Notes

  1. ^ "Gaki Zoshi (Scroll of hungry ghosts)". Tokyo National Museum. Archived from the original on 2016-04-11. Retrieved 2009-05-20.. .
  2. ^ "Gaki-zoshi (Scroll of the Hungry Ghosts)". Kyoto National Museum. Archived from the original on 2011-06-12. Retrieved 2009-05-27.. .
  3. ^
    FantasiaFest.com, July 16–17, 2005. WebCitation archive
    .
  4. ISBN 1-85375-388-2
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-7851-2771-0
    , p. vi
  6. ISBN 9780671042592
    .
  7. Lev Gleason / Your Guide Publishing's single-issue humor title Spooky Mysteries #1 (1946), all of which appeared before the first regularly published horror-comics series, but after the 1940 premiere of Dick Briefer's ongoing short feature "New Adventures of Frankenstein
    ".
  8. ^ Front Page Comic Book at the Grand Comics Database
  9. ^ Strange Story at the Grand Comics Databsse
  10. ^ a b c d e Goulart 1986, p. 255.
  11. ^ Hajdu 2008, p. 141.
  12. ^ Prize Comics #7 (December 1940) at the Grand Comics Database
  13. ^ Frankenstein (1940) at Don Markstein's Toonopedia
  14. ^ Watt-Evans, Alter Ego, p. 5: "...there were no horror comics as such in the earliest days. The first real horror series seems to have been the 'Frankenstein' series by Dick Briefer, in Prize Comics ... [which was] a superhero title, featuring the Black Owl, the Green Lama, and the like, except for this one aberration".
  15. ^ Indexers Lou Mougin/Tony R. Rose, Prize Comics #52 (April 1945) at the Grand Comics Database
  16. ^ Watt-Evans, Alter Ego, p. 7
  17. ^ Cover, Classic Comics #12 at the Grand Comics Database
  18. ISBN 978-0-375-72108-3
    , p. 499. Notation at Classic Comics #13: "(1st horror comic?)"
  19. ^ a b Eerie (Avon, 1947 Series) at the Grand Comics Database. Eerie Comics is the title as per its cover logo; per this source, its title in its postal indicia copyright information is simply Eerie. Its January 1947 date appears in the indicia though not on its cover,
  20. ^ Eerie (Avon, 1951 Series) at the Grand Comics Database
  21. ^ a b Adventures Into the Unknown (American Comics Group, 1948 Series) at the Grand Comics Database
  22. ^ a b Goulart 1986, p. 256.
  23. Dallas, Texas
    , 1993) pp. 19-21
  24. ^ "Love on a Dime", Time, August 22, 1949, p. 41
  25. ^ Moon Girl #5 at the Grand Comics Database
  26. ^ a b Watt-Evans, Alter Ego, p. 8
  27. ^ Mysterious Traveler Comics #1 at the Grand Comics Database
  28. ^ Captain America Comics at the Grand Comics Database
  29. ^ Watt-Evans, Alter Ego, p. 9
  30. ^ Black Cat (Harvey, Home Comics, Inc. imprint, 1946 Series) at the Grand Comics Database. This title would continue through #53 (December 1954), become a Western for three issues, return with #57 (March 1956), then become the supernatural Black Cat Mystic #58-62 (September 1956 - March 1958)
  31. ^ a b Vassallo, p. vii [clarification needed]
  32. ^ Hajdu 2008, pp. 176–178.
  33. ^ Goulart 1986, pp. 256–257.
  34. ^ Weird Adventures, Ziff-Davis, 1951 Series and Weird Adventures, P.L. Publishing, 1951 Series at the Grand Comics Database
  35. ^ Weird Horrors at the Grand Comics Database
  36. ^ Weird Chills at the Grand Comics Database
  37. ^ Weird Mysteries at the Grand Comics Database
  38. ^ Weird Tales of the Future at the Grand Comics Database
  39. ^ Weird Terror at the Grand Comics Database
  40. ^ Weird Thrillers at the Grand Comics Database
  41. ^ Ghostly Weird Stories, Star Publications [1949-1954], 1953 Series at the Grand Comics Database
  42. ^ Web of Evil, Quality Comics, 1952 Series at the Grand Comics Database
  43. ^ Web of Mystery at the Grand Comics Database
  44. ^ Horror from the Tomb at the Grand Comics Database
  45. ^ Tomb of Terror and Witches Tales at the Grand Comics Database
  46. ^ Witchcraft, Avon, 1952 Series at the Grand Comics Database
  47. ^ Fantastic Fears at the Grand Comics Database
  48. ^ Worlds of Fear at the Grand Comics Database
  49. ^ The Thing at the Grand Comics Database
  50. ^ Adventures into Weird Worlds at the Grand Comics Database
  51. ^ Adventures Into Terror, Marvel, 1950 Series and Marvel, 1951 Series at the Grand Comics Database
  52. ^ Hajdu 2008, pp. 92–94.
  53. ^ a b c Vassallo, Michael J., "The History of Atlas Horror/Fantasy: The Comics Code 1955" (introduction), ‘’Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Journey into Mystery Vol. 3 ‘’ (Marvel Worldwide, 2010), p. vi (unnumbered)
  54. County of Los Angeles on September 23, 1948, outlawed the sale of crime comics to minors (Hajdu 2008, p. 107.); and that same year the American Municipal Society reported that nearly 50 municipalities had "banned the sale of certain comic books". (Hajdu 2008
    , p. 108)
  55. ^ Hajdu 2008, p. 95.
  56. ^ Hajdu 2008, p. 98.
  57. ^ Hajdu 2008, p. 113.
  58. ^ Benton, Mike (1989) The comic book in America: an illustrated history pg 45
  59. ^ a b c d e f g Goulart 1986, pp. 161–162, 172–183, 206–217.
  60. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8018-7450-5
    . 152–153, 161–166.
  61. ^ The actual issue in evidence was issue no. 22 of Crime SuspenStories, May, 1954.
  62. ^ Kihss, Peter (April 22, 1954). "No Harm in Horror, Comics Issuer Says". The New York Times. p. 1.
  63. ^ Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency: Interim Report of the Committee on the judiciary pursuant to S. Res. 89 and S. Res. 190 (83d Cong. 1st Sess.) - (83d Cong. 2d Sess.): A Part of the Investigation of Juvenile Delinquency in the United States.
  64. ^ Harris, Franklin (June 2005). "The Long, Gory Life of EC Comics: Why the Crypt-Keeper Never Dies". Reason Magazine. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 2009-02-05.
  65. ^ a b (Golden, Christopher; Stephen Bissette, Thomas E. Sniegoski (2000) The Monster Book Simon & Schuster)
  66. ISBN 978-1-893905-08-5
    .
  67. ^ Thompson, Maggie (February 1971). "Crack in the Code". Newfangles (44).
  68. ^ Comic Book Legends Revealed #216, Comic Book Resources
  69. ISBN 0-7148-3008-9
    .
  70. ^ Brady, Matt (July 19, 2003). "Joining Chaykin & Tischman's Bite Club". Newsarama. Retrieved October 4, 2008.[permanent dead link]
  71. ^ STEVE NILES WEEK, Day 3: The IDW Books, Comic Book Resources, October 30, 2003
  72. ^ Mignola on Hellboy's Extended Universe, Comic Book Resources (March 3, 2008).
  73. ^ Richards, Dave WW Philly: Devil-Slayer Returns in "Dead of Night", Comic Book Resources, May 31, 2008
  74. ^ Warren Simons & Brian Keene On Max's Devil-Slayer, Newsarama, June 3, 2008
  75. ^ Swierczynski on "Werewolf By Night", Comic Book Resources, December 19, 2008
  76. ^ Aguirre-Sacasa talks "Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing", Comic Book Resources, February 13, 2008
  77. ^ Singh, Arune (June 2, 2006). "Marvel Fanboys: Mike Raichit Talks 'Zombie'". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved 2009-03-11.
  78. ^ Shout at the Devil: Irvine talks "Son of Satan", Comic Book Resources, June 2, 2006
  79. ^ WW Philadelphia - Axel Alonso on The Return of Hellstorm Archived 2007-10-17 at the Wayback Machine, Newsarama, June 2, 2006
  80. ^ Corben and Lovecraft at Marvel in June Archived 2008-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, Newsarama, March 20, 2008
  81. ^ Barker 1992.
  82. ^ Jordan, Darren. "Scream! the Eighties British Horror comic mystery...", Comic Book Review (April 17, 2008).
  83. ^ Editor, The. "British Horror Invasion," Comic Book Bin (June 22, 2008).
  84. ^ VVAA. "Sex and Horror: The Art of Emanuele Taglietti", Korero Press (March 2015).
  85. ^ VVAA. "Sex and Horror: The Art of Alessandro Biffignandi", Korero Press (June 2016).
  86. ^ VVAA. "Sex and Horror: The Art of Fernando Carcupino", Korero Press (February 2020).
  87. ^ VVAA. "Sex and Horror: Volume Four", Korero Press (March 2021).
  88. ^ VVAA. "I classici dell'erotismo italiano", Editoriale Cosmo (2020).
  89. ^ VVAA. "Splatter 1 – Profeti dall'inferno", Editoriale Cosmo (July 26, 2017).
  90. ^ VVAA. "Splatter 1 – Un pugnale nel cervello", Editoriale Cosmo (April 4, 2018).
  91. ^ VVAA. "Mostri 9", Bugs Comics (October 31, 2018)
  92. ^ a b La Marca 2024, p. 1.
  93. ^ a b La Marca 2024, p. 3.
  94. ^ La Marca 2024, pp. 1–2.
  95. ^ La Marca 2024, p. 2.
  96. ^ a b La Marca 2024, p. 5.
  97. ^ La Marca 2024, pp. 3–4.
  98. ^ La Marca 2024, p. 8.
  99. ^ La Marca 2024, p. 11.
  100. ^ La Marca 2024, p. 12.
  101. ^ Clements & McCarthy 2015, p. 369.
  102. ^ a b La Marca 2024, p. 4.
  103. ^ a b La Marca 2024, p. 6.
  104. ^ "Ring 0/Orochi's Tsuruta Directs Live-Action Film of Zombie Manga Z". Anime News Network. 9 April 2014. Retrieved 30 July 2014.
  105. ^ DC's Secrets of Haunted House #44 [January 1982] was a special issue in which horror hosts were being murdered. Abel, Cain, Eve, Lucien, and Squire Shade gather with a group of children for a Halloween party at the Haunted House. A murderer is killing them, though, and the Three Witches are nowhere to be seen.
  106. ^ Judge Strange at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
  107. ^ Henry Dubble at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)

References

Further reading

External links
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