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Author:
Title: WEIRD HORRORS No. 7
Place Published:
Publisher:St. John [Indicia: St. John Publishing Co.]
Date Published: April, 1953
Description:

CGC certified: VG- (3.5). Off-white pages. Cover: William Ekgren. Art: Joe Kubert, Bob Forgione, Lou Cameron. GPAnalysis: A 3.5 sold for $955 in March 2021.

Isn't it a bit strange that the bizarre imaginings of outsider artists were so well-suited for the mainstream comic books of the Eisenhower era? The early 1950s are remembered as a time of bland conformity, but the horror comics craze suggests that the nation's collective dream-life was rife with perverse visions simmering just below the surface, like a heavily commercialized form of mass psychosis.

For decades, nothing was known about the enigmatic cover artist William Ekgren, except that he produced three rather bizarre paintings that were used as comic book covers for the St. John Publishing Company before he vanished into obscurity. When comics historian Ken Quattro tracked Ekgren down in 2007, the artist admitted to lifelong struggles with schizophrenia, which he said fueled his creativity.

The public perception of comic book professionals in the 1950s was abysmal. According to Carmine Infantino, "If you said you drew comic books, it was like saying you were a child molester" (Hadju, Ten-Cent Plague, p. 326). Critic Gershon Legman loathed comics creators, writing that "the publishers, editors, artists and writers of comic books are degenerates and belong in jail" (Love & Death, p. 45). At a time when mental illness was heavily stigmatized, it's just as well for pre-Code publishers that parents didn't know troubled artists like Ekgren and Graham Ingels were purging their scrambled psyches onto the pages of children's comic books. As one fan recently opined, "Would you want your kids reading psychotic pamphlets by drunkards and kooks?"

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.