Heading:
Author:
Title: CHILLING TALES No. 16
Place Published:
Publisher:Youthful [Indicia: Youthful Magazines, Inc.]
Date Published: June, 1953
Description:

CGC certified: Fair/Good (1.5). Off-white to white pages. Cover detached. Cover: Uncredited. No writer credits. Art: Harry Kiefer, Vince Napoli, Steve Kirkel. Overstreet: "Bondage cover." GPAnalysis: A 1.8 sold for $290 in February 2018, a 2.5 sold for $490 in November 2020, and a 3.0 sold for $962 in September 2021.

Skull-faced cultists slay their blonde victim by chucking her down a well. Human sacrifice, both literal and allegorical, occurs with such regularity in pre-Code horror comics that one suspects the trope may have held widespread psychological resonance in the postwar era. What, if anything, did it mean?

Dr. Wertham believed that we were sacrificing our children's innocence to enrich publishers of horror and crime comics, while defenders insisted that kids derived cathartic benefits from the lurid booklets. Wertham considered such arguments to be a smoke screen: "What about the 'emotional release' a child is supposed to get according to the defenders of the comic-book industry? ....Do children really have to learn this sort of thing, and in this way?" — Wertham, Seduction of the Innocent, pp. 24 & 32.

Other critics of midcentury comics, including Geoffrey Wagner and Gershon Legman, considered comics to be a form of anti-social propaganda supporting violence, racial stereotyping, military adventurism, and a general coarsening of the American character. In a sense, the anti-comics campaign can be seen as a sort of public uprising against the sacrifices demanded by the military-industrial-entertainment axis — an attempt to climb out of the ever-deepening well of mass media saturation.

A limited edition of 150 softcover and 15 hardcover catalogues is available. 400 lots, fully illustrated. Fun reference, great keepsake. Softcover $30, deluxe hardcover with dust jacket and limitation plate $200. Ten of the 15 hardcovers are pre-ordered and the rest will go quickly, so reserve yours now. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com.

Consignments welcome for PBA's December 2021 Comic Book sale. Top prices for Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age, Silver Age, original art and ephemera. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.