Heading: The First True Horror Comic
Author:
Title: EERIE COMICS No. 1
Place Published:
Publisher:Avon [Indicia: Avon Comics, Inc.]
Date Published: January, 1947
Description:

CGC certified: Fair/Good (1.5). Purple Label (Restored), C-2. Brittle pages. Restoration includes: Small amount of color touch on cover, pieces added to cover, tear seals to interior and cover, spine split sealed to cover. (Panel cut out of page 2, affects story). INCOMPLETE. Note: CGC's grading notes don't mention that there's pencil tracing to the logo. Grand Comics Database gives this mag a street date of January 2, 1947. This is supported by a penciled note to the margin of the 1st page: "1/6/47." Cover: Bob Fujitani. Scripts: Henry Kuttner, uncredited others. Art: Bob Fujitani, Jon Small, Joe Kubert, Fred Kida. GPAnalysis: No Purple Label copies sold in this grade. The most recent (and lowest-graded) Purple Label sale is a 4.0 (MA) that sold for $435 in August 2012. A Blue Label 1.8 sold for $1200 in December 2017.

Every pre-Code horror hound likes to argue their fave pre-Code precursor. Some fans insist that Yellowjacket #7 featured the first true horror story in comics; others point to Front Page #1's ghost-gal cover; still others insist that Classic Comics #13 (Jekyll & Hyde) features the earliest horror scenario in comics. But most fans agree that Avon's 1947 Eerie Comics one-shot is the first proper horror comic book, featuring not just a horror-themed cover, story, or adaptation, but a veritable cover-to-cover four-color fear-fest.

"This is the first horror comic book.... Eerie was probably not intended as a one-shot since the indicia mentions quarterly publication. This implies that the reception to Eerie #1 was not warm; perhaps Avon was a bit premature in publishing a horror comic one year after World War II had ended to sell to youngsters addicted to Nazi-fighting supermen! The cover to Eerie #1 remains, in my opinion, one of the best horror covers of all time in its depiction of a beautiful, exotic woman... menaced by a very non-stereotypical knife-wielding vampire. What makes the cover particularly striking is that the company, as a brand-new comics publisher, had no tradition or history in comic book cover design and therefore came up with something very novel and startling." — George Suarez, "Terrology Chapter One: In the Beginning...," Tales To Terrible To Tell #1. NEC: 1989-90, p. 30.

Consignments welcome for PBA's Fall 2022 Comic Book sale. Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, original art, vintage comic-related photos and ephemera sought. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.

A limited edition of 100 softcover and 6 hardcover catalogues are available. 140 pages, fully illustrated. Fun reference, great keepsake. Softcovers $40, dust-jacketed hardcover with limitation plate $200. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com.

Consignments welcome for PBA's Fall 2022 Comic Book sale. Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, original art, vintage comic-related photos and ephemera sought. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.