EC (Indicia: "I.C. Publishing Co., Inc."). October-November, 1954. VG- (3.5). Moderate spine stress. Top corner creased, bottom corner soft. A few small rusty specks to staples. Decent cover sheen. Ownership rubberstamp to top margin of inside front cover and bottom margin of first page, with name crossed-out with black Sharpie. White to off-white pages. Jack Davis cover. Scripts by Carl Wessler. Art by Jack Davis, Reed Crandall, Jack Kamen and Graham Ingels.

"An early manifestation of vice"

Kids were far less inured to media violence in the '50s, and gruesome horror mags could scramble their psyches in ways that are hard for modern folks to fathom. "I remember feeling, as a kid, that the ECs were sicko and probably bad for kids like me. When the Wertham thing happened, I remember thinking, based on how deeply comic books were affecting me, that Dr. Wertham was probably right." – Tom Veitch, Blab #1, 1986. ZAP cartoonist Kim Deitch has similar memories: "I never bought a single horror comic book off the stands. They were strictly forbidden by my parents so they all came my way second and third hand. They really were an early manifestation of vice to me. I read them... knowing full well the horrible pay-offs would come back to haunt me at night. I'm not kidding." -Ibid.

A limited edition of 100 softcover and 15 hardcover catalogues are available. Over 200 pages, fully illustrated. Fun reference, great keepsake. Softcovers $40, dust-jacketed hardcover with limitation plate $200. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com or call 415-989-2665

R. Crumb says, "I found [PBA's catalogue] so interesting that I am saving it for the texts that accompany the comics which were put up for auction. This is some of the best commentary I've yet seen on the quality of the content of comic books. I especially enjoyed the reviews of the post-war horror comics. Great. Priceless."

Consignments welcome for PBA's Spring 2021 Comic Book sale. Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, original art and ephemera sought. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com or call 415-989-2665