Heading:
Author:
Title: MISTER MYSTERY No. 12
Place Published:
Publisher:Stanley Morse [Indicia: Aragon Magazines, Inc.]
Date Published: July, 1953
Description:

CGC certified: G/VG (3.0). Off-white pages. Piece re-attached to cover with tape. Cover: Bernard Baily. Art: Hy Fleishman, Tony Mortellaro?, Frank Frollo?, Charles Stern? Overstreet: "Classic injury to eye cover." GPAnalysis: A 2.5 sold for $3999 in September 2021; the last confirmed sale of a 3.0 was for $800 in 2016; a 3.5 sold for $2640 in February 2019.

Here it is, horror hounds — perhaps the queasiest cover in the annals of pre-Code history. Bernard Baily, who created more iconic horror covers than anyone else, struck gold with this demented masterpiece. Dr. Wertham found the "injury-to-eye" motif in comics to be a prime indicator of the callousness of pre-Code publishers, claiming that "a generation is being desensitized by these literal horror images." Cartoonist Art Spiegelman, on the other hand, called the "injury-to-eye" motif "emblematic of the comic book's visceral power to pass the reader's analytical defenses and pierce the brain." Spiegelman didn't elaborate on the benefits to young kids of having their defenses bypassed and their brains pierced in this manner, but we're sure it's all good.

Anyway, a nice bonus awaits anyone bold enough to crack the slab: the final page of Hy Fleishman's "The Curse of Aladdin" features a severed head lying in a pool of blood. It can be argued that slab-happy collectors are furthering Dr. Wertham's agenda by ensuring that the contents of these grisly mags go largely unseen. The call goes out to latterday Aladdins: who dares to let the pulp-paper genie out of its lamp?

"Overstreet describes Mister Mystery #12 as having a 'classic injury-to-the-eye' cover. I'll say. This closeup shot of a man's bloodshot left eye being approached by the tip of a white-hot poker is hard to even look at for more than a second." — George Suarez, Tales To Terrible To Tell #9. NEC: 1993, p. 18.

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.