Lately I've spent a fair amount of time reading pre-Code stories (circa 1945-1956)
The one I just finished reading that compelled me to create a topic on the subject is "Jailbird's Romance", from MY ROMANTIC ADVENTURES 49, September 1954.
While clearly a product of its time and not Alan Moore or of the same narrative style of modern fare, this story and many others of the period are interesting and compelling, and in some ways more human than the current era. They manifest the values and colloquialisms of that period, and their narrative style and dialogue manifests a strong influence of classic-Hollywood films.
On the latter fringe of the pre-Code era, one I spent several years assembling a full run of is a 36-issue series called THE WORLD AROUND US (1958-1961) for Gilberton (Classics Illustrated) that has some nice art by Al Williamson, Sam Glanzman, Gray Morrow, and a guy I discovered with this title, Gerald McCann. McCann illustrated comics in the 1950's and early 1960's until he finally left the field, and excels at drawing historic adventure stories, particularly westerns and naval/pirate scenes. With a linestyle comparable to Williamson and Frazetta. The Pre-Code era has work that gives early insight to artists who rose to major or minor acclaim in work they did later for Marvel and DC in the 1960's and 1970's. Other artists for the series include more E.C. alumni such as George Evans, Graham Ingels, Sid Check, Ed Ashe, and other forgotten talents.
But beyond schlock horror and lurid crime stories, there's a lot to explore in this era.
The E.C. titles.
Basil Wolverton horror stories.
Various crime, horror and romance titles by Simon and Kirby.
FOUR COLOR COMICS and other Dell titles, with a huge range of material, from Carl Barks funny animal stuff to historic adventure and movie adaptations.
Matt Baker's good girl art.
Quality Comics (although they were more quality in the 1940's era).
Plus work of guys like Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Don Heck and others, who evolved from anthology horror and SF/monster stories into the superstars of Marvel Comics in the early 1960's. It's interesting to see how their styles evolved, both at Marvel and elsewhere.
It's a fun era to explore, and for me the most obscure and difficult era to collect. But in a flurry of recent hardcover books by IDW and others, in complete runs available for next to nothing on DVD's you can buy on ebay, or just scans of stories like the "Jailbird's Romance" one above you can read off the internet, these stories are arguably far more accessible now than when they were first published. Probably easier to find in these various formats than even when they were fresh on the stands.
I purchased the IDW hardcover of STRANGE WORLD OF YOUR DREAMS. While I love the Simon and Kirby art, the dream analysis stories are admittedly dull. But the series has some exceptional covers.
"They Crawl By Night", written by Daniel Keyes, with art by Basil Wolverton. From JOURNEY INTO UNKNOWN WORLDS 15, Feb 1953 (click image to view story).
Great art and colors, combined with a story by the guy who would later write the Hugo- and Nebula-winning Flowers For Algernon.
A two-issue Dark Horse collection of 1930's/1940's/1950's Basil Wolverton unpublished comic strips and "Spacehawk" series material, including (as seen on this cover) a series of published images Wolverton did of the tribulation period envisioned in Revelation, for a Christian publication.
I think a great sampler of pre-code comics is Michael T. Gilbert's collection of reprints in MR MONSTER SUPER-DUPER SPECIAL issues.
Across 8 issues, he gives a sampling of (1) 3-D horror comics, (2) horror stories by Wolverton, Grandenetti and Evans, (3 and 4) "TRUE CRIME" and drug stories, (5) 50's S-F and flying saucers by Bob Powell, (6 and 7) lurid horror, commies, and sexual innuendo stories, (8) a collection of Basil Wolverton S-F stories with a horror edge to them.
Of them all, I think issue 8 is my favorite. Closely followed by issues 1 and 2. Michael T. Gilbert clearly loves this era, and that love comes out in the editorial text pages accompanying these stories, and in the framing sequences he wrote and illustrated for each issue. As does his 10-issue run of MR MONSTER in his regular series, that this collection of specials is an outgrowth of. And in subsequent revivals and specials over the last few decades.
In 1957-1958, barely 2 years after the introduction of the comics code and the shockwaves it sent through the industry, Kirby, taking work here and there for various publishers in a very thinned-down comics industry, did one of several series for Harvey, an SF anthology titled ALARMING TALES.
Kirby drew all the art in ALARMING TALES 1 (5 stories, 22 pages) and 2 (4 stories, 20 pages), and one story each issue in 3, 4, and 5.
Some good girl art on this 1948 cover for BLUE BEETLE 54, courtesy of Jack Kamen. Kamen did most covers from 46-60 and interior art, from 1947-1950, at which point he left for greener pastures at EC comics.
From the blog link for the story in my opening post:
Quote:
Two of my favorite comics genres are crime comics and romance comics...and THIS comic book, MY ROMANTIC ADVENTURES, mixes those two genres together like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup!
An artist I discovered on my explorations of Golden Age/Pre-Code material is Al Walker. He worked almost exclusively on lesser-known backup strips for Fiction House (well-known for its good-girl art adventure series), on likeable humorous backup characters who were generally doing support work in the military such as mechanics, driving a jeep and other behind-the-lines jobs during World War II, who despite their less than alpha-male stature, always seemed to be surrounded by gorgeous women.
And despite being a mixture of humor and adventure, more humor, Walker's art was beautifully rendered, ornately detailed, and presented intelligent but fun storytelling. In its mix of wartime patriotism, playfulness and optimism, with down-on-their-luck heroes, Walker's art presents the core spirit of the Golden Age/Pre-Code era, with an abundance of skillfully drafted visual humor.
Under the byline "Bob Hickock". For reasons I don't fully understand, virtually no one in the Golden Age seemed to do art under their own name. Presumably the idea was for a workshop/studio to do a strip under a pen name, so that any artist could draw the strip under that name and appear to be the same artist.
Possibly also, many new artists didn't think their work was that good, and chose to use a pen name till they reached a level of talent. But even artists like Will Eisner and Lou Fine often worked under pseudonyms. And needless to say, many artists and writers similarly working on Superman and Batman went uncredited under other names. Most likely it was studio-imposed, and not the choice of individual artists.
So far as I know, Walker did a total of approximately 106 stories across 1941-1948, with a two-year gap from 1943-1945, presumably because (like Jack Kirby) he had to take a break from comics to serve in the military overseas.
Walker's longest run was in WINGS COMICS, issues 8-34, 48, and 70-96, mostly doing "Greasemonkey Griffin".
And also in:
FIGHT COMICS 21-22, "Blackout" series.
JUNGLE COMICS 16-35, "Simba, King of Beasts"
RANGER COMICS 2-4, "Jeep Milarky", 6-9, "Private Elmer Pippin and the Colonel's Daughter" 7-48 "Glory Forbes"
When I think of "Pre-Code" comics, the two publishers that immediately come to mind for me are Quality Comics (begun by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger, Eisner-Iger studios), and Fiction House. And I happened to notice that one of the few female comics illustrators from that period, Lily Renee (born May 12 1921) turned 100 last year, and will be 101 tomorrow !
The bulk of her work was for Fiction House (the publisher that pretty much created what we now call "good girl art") . And Lily Renee did several good girl art series for them:
FIGHT COMICS issues 34-44, 47-51 (complete stories linked) ________________ "Senorita Rio" series , Oct 1944 - Aug 1947--- Lily Renee covers on 37, 39, 40, and 47
PLANET COMICS 32-49 (link is to covers only) ____________________________ "The Lost World" series, Sept 1944 - July 1947 Lily Renee covers on 33, 39
RANGER COMICS 14-38, 40 (link is to covers only) ________________________ "The Werewolf Hunter" series, Dec 1943 - April 1948 No Renee covers on RANGER COMICS.
WINGS COMICS 31-48 (link is to covers only) _____________________________ "Jane Martin, Pilot" series, Mar 1943 - Aug 1944 No Renee covers on WINGS COMICS.
When I think of "Pre-Code" comics, the two publishers that immediately come to mind for me are Quality Comics (begun by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger, Eisner-Iger studios), and Fiction House. And I happened to notice that one of the few female comics illustrators from that period, Lily Renee (born May 12 1921) turned 100 last year, and will be 101 tomorrow !
The bulk of her work was for Fiction House (the publisher that pretty much created what we now call "good girl art") . And Lily Renee did several good girl art series for them:
FIGHT COMICS issues 34-44, 47-51 (complete stories linked) ________________ "Senorita Rio" series , Oct 1944 - Aug 1947--- Lily Renee covers on 37, 39, 40, and 47
PLANET COMICS 32-49 (link is to covers only) ____________________________ "The Lost World" series, Sept 1944 - July 1947 Lily Renee covers on 33, 39
RANGER COMICS 14-38, 40 (link is to covers only) ________________________ "The Werewolf Hunter" series, Dec 1943 - April 1948 No Renee covers on RANGER COMICS.
WINGS COMICS 31-48 (link is to covers only) _____________________________ "Jane Martin, Pilot" series, Mar 1943 - Aug 1944 No Renee covers on WINGS COMICS.
And I was sorry to see that Lily Renee, one of the longest surviving Golden Age/ Pre-Code artists, either male or female, finally died a few months ago at the age of 101, on August 24 2022.
It was interesting to me that she gave up drawing comics in the 1940's, got married and lived an entirely different life for 60 years, until she was approached by artist Trina Robbins who did a book about women creators in comics, and only then attended conventions and in her final years enjoyed some celebrity as a female comics artist.
. Lately I've spent a fair amount of time reading pre-Code stories (circa 1945-1956)
The one I just finished reading that compelled me to create a topic on the subject is "Jailbird's Romance", from MY ROMANTIC ADVENTURES 49, September 1954.
The blog-link of the story I started this topic about has expired. Although the site and most of its text is still there, so maybe he'll later update the images, so you can read it there again later.
But it's also collected in the book WEIRD LOVE: JAILBIRD ROMANCE, from IDW (2017).
I think a great sampler of pre-code comics is Michael T. Gilbert's collection of reprints in MR MONSTER SUPER-DUPER SPECIAL issues.
Across 8 issues, he gives a sampling of (1) 3-D horror comics, (2) horror stories by Wolverton, Grandenetti and Evans, (3 and 4) "TRUE CRIME" and drug stories, (5) 50's S-F and flying saucers by Bob Powell, (6 and 7) lurid horror, commies, and sexual innuendo stories, (8) a collection of Basil Wolverton S-F stories with a horror edge to them.
Of them all, I think issue 8 is my favorite. Closely followed by issues 1 and 2. Michael T. Gilbert clearly loves this era, and that love comes out in the editorial text pages accompanying these stories, and in the framing sequences he wrote and illustrated for each issue. As does his 10-issue run of MR MONSTER in his regular series, that this collection of specials is an outgrowth of. And in subsequent revivals and specials over the last few decades.
. Lately I've spent a fair amount of time reading pre-Code stories (circa 1945-1956)
The one I just finished reading that compelled me to create a topic on the subject is "Jailbird's Romance", from MY ROMANTIC ADVENTURES 49, September 1954.
The blog-link of the story I started this topic about has expired. Although the site and most of its text is still there, so maybe he'll later update the images, so you can read it there again later.
But it's also collected in the book WEIRD LOVE: JAILBIRD ROMANCE, from IDW (2017).
My latest Halloween offering is 17 stories Basil Wolverton did in roughly 1950-1953. They were to be collected in a hardcover several years ago, but that ended up not happening, and the book disappointingly didn't contain any complete Wolverston stories.
I posted a few of them before in another Wolverton topic. Even the more science-fictiony stories are wonderfully horrific. Wolverton has a beautifully detailed linestyle that perfectly lends itself to horror, and to the splicing of horror with S-F. Perfect Halloween reading.
Here are the Wolverton stories:
1. "Gateway to Horror" 6p ...........................originally in MARVEL TALES 104, Dec 1951
2. "Where Monsters Dwell" 6p....................... originally in ADVENTURES IN TERROR 7, Dec 1951 (r in CRYPT OF SHADOWS 1, Jan 1973) (r in CURSE OF THE WEIRD 3, Feb 1994)
14. "Robot Woman" 5p................................... originally in WEIRD MYSTERIES 2, Dec 1952. (also in MISTER MYSTERY 11, May 1953) (also in MISTER MYSTERY 18, Aug 1954) (r in DEATH RATTLE 5, June 1986, with new colors)
15. "The Eye of Doom" 6p............................ originally in MYSTIC 6, Jan 1952 (r in WEIRD WONDER TALES 1, Dec 1973) (r in CURSE OF THE WEIRD 1, Dec 1993)
16. "Swamp Monster" 6p................................originally in WEIRD MYSTERIES 5, June 1953 (r in MR MONSTER 3, Oct 1985, re-colored by Steve Oliff, offset printing)
17. "The Man Who Never Smiled" 3p............. originally in WEIRD MYSTERIES 4, April 1953 [r in MR MONSTER SUPER DUPER SPECIAL 2 (MR MONSTER'S HIGH-OCTANE HORROR) Oct 1986, re-colored by Steve Oliff, offset printing ]
Where possible I linked to complete online versions of the stories, in most cases in their original colors, in a few cases they were only scanned in black and white from reprints.
"They Crawl by Night" is written by SF author Daniel Keyes, who later won Hugo and Nebula awards for novella, and later book, Flowers For Algernon.
I posted these elsewhere, but Wolverton's stories were a nice sampling of the range of material in the Pre-Code era.
Courtesy of Comics.org , here's a chronological list of all Basil Wolverton's work in comics, from the very beginning of his career in 1938 up till his death, and reprint editions decades long after. https://www.comics.org/checklist/name/Basil%20Wolverton/
As I recall, he died in 1978.
Beyond Wolverton's above science fiction/horror stories, his best known works are his World War II-era "Starhawk" series that ran in TARGET COMICS (issues 5-34, June 1940-Dec 1942) .
And his scattered work for MAD (as a comic and as a magazine) issues 10, 11, 17, 29, 31, 36, 40, 82, and 137. Most reprinted in later MAD SPECIAL issues.
And his work for PLOP (1973-1975) as a cover artist, and a few interior 1 and 2 page stories.
When I think of "Pre-Code" comics, the two publishers that immediately come to mind for me are Quality Comics (begun by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger, Eisner-Iger studios), and Fiction House. And I happened to notice that one of the few female comics illustrators from that period, Lily Renee (born May 12 1921) turned 100 last year, and will be 101 tomorrow ! http://spanengrish.blogspot.com/2011/07/comic-book-legend-lily-renee.html
The bulk of her work was for Fiction House (the publisher that pretty much created what we now call "good girl art") . And Lily Renee did several good girl art series for them:
And I was sorry to see that Lily Renee, one of the longest surviving Golden Age/ Pre-Code artists, either male or female, finally died a few months ago at the age of 101, on August 24 2022.
.
The online library of available issues of her work has expanded to include all the above issues listed, since I last posted about her.
In collaboration with her second hisband ( Eric Peters, also an artist, also a refugee to the U.S. from war-torn Vienna, Austria) Lily Renee also did ABBOTT AND COSTELLO COMICS 2-40 (St. Johns Publications, April 1948-Sept 1956 Renee co-illustrated most or all covers shown But unfortunately these stories are still not scanned to read online yet. But you can at least see the covers and dates of publication at the MyComicShop link.
And really, the Fiction House titles that are now all linked above, are the work she is truly known for.
The ABBOTT & COSTELLO series was just her final work, and in collaboration with and perhaps less her work than her husband's, but would still be interesting to see in historical context, as part of the whole of her comics work.
Two other female artists from the Golden Age alsso did work alongside her at Fiction House :
...who recently died since my last post. I know her best for her work on Metamorpho stories, and on the 1960's AQUAMAN series, a revival for one issue of Metamorpho in 1st ISSUE SPECIAL in 1975, and a few scatered stories in 1974-1981 in PLOP, HOUSE OF MYSTERY, HOUSE OF SECRETS, and other DC anthology series.
The collected book is not scanned, but here are the 24 issues of WEIRD LOVE pre-code reprint comics from Craig Yoe. I linked to issue 11, That presents "Jailbird's Romance", from my opening post.
A persuasive video about the merits of a comic series published in 1957-1959 in Argentina. A a science-ficion alien invasion series that drew the attention and backlash from the authoritarian Argentinian government in power at that time.
The narrator makes comparison of these series to high-concept work by Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman, which would make me seek it out if it were in print and easy to access.
I hope someone in editorial at Dark Horse or IDW sees this video, and pushes to get the rights for a new printing of this series in the U.S. I'd love to see it happen. Fantagraphic seems to already be aware of it, and already published Oesterheld's other goundbreaking series, MORT CINDER, and CHE. Having published the others, maybe Fantagraphics already has plans to release the other out-of-print works listed.
Another example of worthy comics work from probably the least known era of comics, that deserves to be seen by a modern audience, either in a new reprint series in comics, or as a nice collected hardcover, and/or made accessible in scans online.
![[Linked Image from m.media-amazon.com]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Pe6rO7McL._SX218_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_FMwebp_.jpg)
![[Linked Image from gatheringbooks.files.wordpress.com]](https://gatheringbooks.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/lilyrenee.jpg)
![[Linked Image from askart.com]](https://www.askart.com/assets/artist/11388035/lilybio.jpg)
![[Linked Image from lambiek.net]](https://www.lambiek.net/artists/img/1021-80261-999-t4n.jpg)
![[Linked Image from m.media-amazon.com]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61cfHls+AKL._SX377_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
![[Linked Image from 66.media.tumblr.com]](https://66.media.tumblr.com/23cb365e8a7713c1e39e2ed49335e819/tumblr_p1ewctYCrd1w49lylo1_500.jpg)