Author:
Title: JOURNEY INTO FEAR No. 8
Place Published:
Publisher:Superior [Indicia: Superior Comic]
Date Published: July, 1952
Description: CGC certified: VG/Fine (5.0). Off-white to white pages. Grader notes: Subscription crease back cover; light spine stress lines to cover; moderate creasing to cover. Note: Some scratches and marks to slab.

GPAnalysis: A 5.0 sold for $98 in 2/13; a 3.5 sold for $172 in 2/24.

Credits: "Doctor Shade," uncredited Iger Shop hacks. Ruth Roche, editor.Wertham Throws Shade: Superior mags offer abundant material for seekers of the bizarre and outré. Iger Shop editrix Ruth Roche stuffed her stories with so much free-floating psychosexual symbolism that strange, sordid subtexts sprout like weeds in the sensitive reader's imagination.

Dr. Wertham saw depravity in Ms. Roche's signature style, describing Superior's aesthetic as "Sexual sadism with its most morbid psychological refinements." In a parallel tale of two clinics, it seems that while Wertham treated comic book casualties in his Lafargue mental health clinic in Harlem, Superior's mysterious New York operative, known only as "Dr. Shade," plied his trade in a Hell's Kitchen hole-in-the-wall dubbed the Ghost Clinic.

"Superior's head office was in Toronto, Ontario. However, the company did maintain some kind of editorial presence in New York, since the company solicited 'real ghost stories' from readers, asking them to send such yarns to 'Dr. Shade's GHOST CLINIC' [310 West 53rd St., NYC 19]. This solicitation appeared in Superior's first comics: Journey Into Fear #1-4." – George Suarez, Tales Too Terrible To Tell #6. NEC: 1992, p. 35.______________________________________________________________

A limited edition of ten hardcover catalogues is available, in addition to a few dozen softcovers. Fun reference, great keepsake, fully illustrated, chockablock with obscure facts, gags, bon mots. Softcovers are $40, deluxe hardcovers with dust jackets and limitation plates are $200. These books always go fast so don't delay. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com.

Consignments welcome for PBA's Summer 2024 Comic Book sale. Top prices for Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age, Silver Age, original art and ephemera. Find out why PBA is the new fan-fave of funnybook fiends. "This is some of the best commentary I've yet seen on the quality of the content of comic books... Priceless." – R. Crumb. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.

Coming Soon: The DC Universe Collection Part 3: The Golden Age (August 2024) and Weird Tales and Amazing Stories: The PBA Pulp Sale (September 2024). Contact ivan@pbagalleries.com to get on the notifications list.