Review- COLLECTED WORKS: SKELETON HAND

COLLECTED WORKS: SKELETON HAND (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects Skeleton Hand In Secrets Of The Supernatural #1-6 and Clutching Hand #1 (cover dates September/ October, 1952- July/ August, 1954)

Writers: Richard Hughes, Paul Gustavson, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Ken Bald, Pete Riss, Charles Sultan, Jon Blummer, Frank Simienski, King Ward, Gus Ricca, Edvard Mortiz, Harry Lazarus, Charles Nicholas, Milt Knopf, John Rosenberger, Sam Cooper, Dick Beck, Paul Cooper, Sheldon Moldoff, George Klein, Art Gates, Lin Streeter, Paul Gustavson, Ed Good, Ken Landau, and other unidentified artists

ACG (American Comics Group) is widely considered to be in the top 5 Pre-Code Horror comics publishers. Most of these comic books were thrown away by angry mothers who were aghast that their perfect 1950s children would soil their minds with such trash. These comics remain a sort of forbidden fruit nearly 70 years after they were originally published for that very reason.

Issue 2's The Bat And The Brain features artwork by Gus Ricca, whom I was previously unaware of. His art is incredible and my research revealed that he was a professional artist but only worked in comics for a dozen or so years.

Parenting techniques have changed in the last 70 years.

A lot of these Pre-Code Horror comics tend to bleed into one another after you've read enough of them. It becomes difficult to tell who nicked what and where they might have nicked it from. Most of the series writers are unknown. This series seemed to pick up steam with each issue.

The Clutching Hand one-shot is the best issue in the book. I especially enjoyed Flowering Death!, a tale of a serial killer who chooses his victims by their names (Rose, Aster, Marigold, etc.). It was an effective hook for a story.

This was a neat done in one volume series. PS Artbooks has buried us alive with these books and we love them for it. I likely won't live long enough to read and review them all but I'll give it a go.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone- This is the part where I go into tactile sensations and materials used in physical media. Those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or women who are pregnant should exit my blog at their earliest convenience, as their safety cannot be guaranteed beyond this point.

I enjoy huffing these Chinese made books. PS Artbooks smell the best. Whenever I crack one open I sit there and snort it...Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

This book has the ever delectable sweet, sweet toxic Chinese printing press smell, likely* the result of paper sourced from virgin Amazon rainforests and ink which is a concoction of lead paint chips, broken and pulped asbestos tiles, mercury from recalled thermometers, and the final magical ingredient: the blood, sweat, and tears of the children working the sweatshop printing presses. If loving these books is wrong then I don't want to be right!

*This is a joke, folks. Lighten up.

Linework and Color restoration: Like any PS Artbook, the scanning quality varies issue by issue. This looks decent for a scan and print collection although it could have been better in spots.

The raw scan presentation has the benefit of giving the reader the feeling of reading the original comic book. The drawback, which is a huge one subjectively speaking, is that all of the shortcomings of the primitive four color printings presses are apparent. Line bleed, off register printing, and other anomalies are all present. It's a warts and all approach. Your mileage may vary and it all boils down to your preference.

Paper stock: Bright white matte stock.

Binding: Sewn binding. This book is on the thicker side for a PS Artbook and it doesn't lay flat until a little ways in.

Hardback cover notes: Matte casewrap with spot varnish. No dustjacket. Images printed directly onto the casewrap.