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.

Review- ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 7

ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 7 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2014; Hardcover)

Collects Adventures Into The Unknown #31-36 (cover dates May- October, 1952)

Writers: Unknown

Artists: Ken Bald (covers), Edvard Moritz, Art Gates, Milt Knopf, Al Camy, Al Streeter, Charlie Sultan, Lou Cameron, Rocke Mastroserio, Pete Riss, Frank Simienski, Moe Marcus, Harry Lazarus, Lin Streeter, S. Cooper, Tom Hickey, King Ward, Paul Cooper, Paul Gattuso, Charles Nicholas, Leo Morey, Emil Gershwin, George Klein, Gus Ricca, Robert S. Pious, and other unidentified artists

I love '50s Pre-Code Horror comics. This title is fondly remembered and widely considered one of the better non-EC titles. I think that the main reason for this is that it was the first Horror anthology title and it ran for 174 issues. This particular volume has a noticeable dip in quality compared to earlier volumes. There are any number of other Horror comics of the day that crush the comics slapped between these two covers.

That's not to say that these weren't enjoyable. I'm just saying that these were not the most illustrious examples of 1950s Pre-Code Horror comics. The artwork is solid, done by the usual workhorses and journeymen of the day. It's the writing that sinks some of these stories. It's easy to sit here with 2017 eyes and sophistication and critique 65 year old comic books, but I am referring to the quality within the context of the era when compared to other then-contemporary comics.

Oh man! It's like looking into a mirror. 

One of the reasons that these stories would fall flat for readers today is that people are not as superstitious as they once were. While I enjoy stories about cursed masks from some unknown African tribe, werewolves, ghost ships, pacts with the devil, jungle curses, vampires, serpent gods, possessed paintings, ghosts, zombies, frozen cavemen who come back to life, witches, ghosts, magic, cursed jewels, and split personalities, many of these topics are now boring to modern day sensibilities. People are too smart to enjoy a good ghost story. More fool them.

Issue 36 is the best issue in the book. I am hoping that this is indicative of an uptick in quality, as I have Vols. 8-12 in my backlog waiting to be read someday.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone-PS Artbooks reprint public domain material in a high quality hardcover format. While there are several companies that reprint public domain material via Amazon's CreateSpace print on demand imprint, none of them are as nicely made as these books.

Linework and Color restoration: Like any PS Artbook, the quality varies issue by issue. Some are perfectly acceptable raw scans. Others are blurry, muddy messes sourced from lower resolution scans.

The raw scan presentation has the benefit of 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.

This material will likely never be given a full blown Marvel Masterworks level restoration, so this is your only chance to get it in color in hardcover.

Anyone who claims that the four color printing press and "Ben Day" dots were artistic choices are delusional. There is nothing romantic about off register printing.

Paper stock: Bright white matte stock.

Binding: Sewn binding.

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

Review- ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 6

ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 6 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2014; Hardcover)

Collects Adventures Into The Unknown #26-30 (cover dates December, 1951- April, 1952)

Writers: Richard Hughes and other unidentified writers.

Artists: Ken Bald, Ogden Whitney, Edvard Moritz, Dan Gordon, Milt Knopf, Leo Morey, George Wilhelms, King Ward, Al Williamson, Roy Krenkel, Charles Sultan, Al Camy,

Lin Streeter, Pete Riss, Mac Elkan, R.S. Pious, Lou Cameron, Rocke Mastroserio, Art Gates, and other unidentified artists.

This series seems to get better with each successive issue, as ACG tried to match EC in terms of quality writing and artwork. While they didn't quite succeed, they certainly get a solid B+ for their efforts. The artwork is better than the writing, which is at times silly. I say this reading this material with 2017 eyes, but when you compare it to other early 1950s Horror comics it falls pretty much in line with them. I enjoy Pre-Code Horror in moderate doses, as it can get repetitive if you do a marathon of reading it.

I can't rave enough about the work of Ogden Whitney and Edvard Moritz. Solid craftsmanship, interesting panel composition, and effective story flow from one panel to the next. A quick look at the list of artists above reveals a who's who of comic book journeymen of the day. Some, like Al Williamson, remain fan favorites to this day, while most of them are all but forgotten. That is why books like this are important. They help preserve the history of the artform in a relatively affordable format.

I'm surprised that some modern day writer doesn't use this idea for their "IP" and make a series about vampires harvesting "organically grown" humans. 

#28's Double Vision! is the most EC-esque of the bunch, coming off as one of those Jack Kamen-style riffs about love gone wrong and the twists of fate, using a man's last mile to the electric chair for framing. #30s Werewolf Valley seems like a precursor of sorts to Avatar Press' Ferals, or even the movie The Howling. That same issue's The Thing Without A Face is another favorite of mine.

This was another enjoyable batch of dated but fun Horror goodness. It's not high art but that is what makes it so much fun to read.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.

The OCD zone- 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.

Linework and Color restoration: Raw scans with minimal tinkering. They remove all color from the word balloons, leaving them as bright white as the paper stock. The original printed comics had shoddy printing, and that is presented here warts and all. Off register printing and line bleed are all present, just like they were back then. The scans are of better quality than the ones found in Volume 5 of this series, with the exception of #28, which has the same problems with the top of some of the pages.

This is barely legible; it looks better here than in person. This is scanning amateur hour. Some of these PS Artbooks have abysmal scanning. 

Paper stock: Uncoated bright white stock.

Binding: Sewn binding. Lies mostly flat.

Hardback cover notes: No dustjacket. Image printed on casewrap with matte finish and spot varnish. 

Review- ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 5

ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 5 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2013; Hardcover)

Collects Adventures Into The Unknown #21-25 (cover dates July- November, 1951)

Writers: Alan Hartwood, Charles Spain Verral and other, unidentified writers

Artists: Ken Bald, Paul Gattuso, Lin Streeter, Edvard Moritz, Charlie Sultan, Pete Riss, King Ward, Richard Brice, Art Gates, Jerry Grandenetti, Carl Kiefer, George Wilhelms, Leonard Starr, Al Camy, and Ogden Whitney

My rule of thumb when it comes to 1950s Pre-Code Horror comics is the closer that you get to the 1954 implementation of the Comics Code Authority, the better the material is. Every publisher was in direct competition with EC Comics, trying to outdo or even match what they were doing. Despite many valiant efforts no one really made it, but it's woefully ignorant to dismiss the contemporaries of EC.

Ghosts, werewolves, witches, and vampires become the focus of the series as the Horror elements are ramped up from one month to the next. This is easily the best volume in the line thus far, and I half expect Volume 6 to be even better.

#23's Shadow Of The Wolf features artwork by future newspaper strip legend Leonard Starr, who also did some work for DC around this time on Tales Of The Unexpected. ACG used the best hired guns around. The artwork as a whole really shines. The writing is decent but it's the artwork that saves the day here. I have become a big fan of Ogden Whitney due to this series.

Most of these stories tend to run into one another, as writers “borrowed” liberally from one another as well as from movies, books, and television. If something seems derivative or repetitive it is difficult to ascertain exactly where the idea originated from. Horror comics of the day were incestuous in this regard.

I read these books at a leisurely pace, as there is no sense of urgency when reading 60+ year old anthology series comic books. I get around to reading them when I get around to reading them, and it doesn't matter whether I read it in 2013 when this book was published or in late 2016 when I finally got around to it in my backlog rotation.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.

The OCD zone- 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.

Linework and Color restoration: Raw scans with minimal tinkering. They remove all color from the word balloons, leaving them as bright white as the paper stock. The original printed comics had shoddy printing, and that is presented here warts and all. Off register printing and line bleed are all present, just like they were back then.

Paper stock: Uncoated bright white stock.

Binding: Sewn binding. Lies mostly flat.

Hardback cover notes: No dustjacket. Image printed on casewrap with matte finish and spot varnish. 

Review- ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 4

ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 4 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2013; Hardcover)

Collects Adventures Into The Unknown #16-20 (cover dates February-June, 1951)

Writers: Richard Hughes and other unidentified writers

Artists: Ogden Whitney, Ken Bald, Lin Streeter, Emil Gershwin, Richard Case, Charlie Sultan, Al Camy, Paul Gattuso, Edvard Moritz, Bob Jenney, John Belfi, George Wilhelms, Paul Cooper, Richard Brice, Frank Siminski, Art Gates, W.G. Hargis, and John Rosenberger

This series gets better with each volume. The supernatural elements are continually ramped up as the competition from other publishers increased. These stories are more intense than any found in the first three volumes of this series. I suspect that this will only increase as we inch closer to the 1954 Senate sub-committee hearings which killed Horror comics off for a decade.

The recurring Spirit Of Frankenstein feature continues in #16, previously appearing in this series in #5, 8-10, and 12. The robot Frankenstein is basically a superhero type fighting other monstrosities by this point. Think of it in this regard as a precursor to Marvel's Bronze Age Horror comics like Werewolf By Night and Monster Of Frankenstein. There are no further appearances in this book, so I wonder if this is the end of the line. We shall see.

Zombies were becoming a recurring theme in Horror comic books by 1951. 

I found #17's Beast From The Beyond to be a fascinating read, as it felt very familiar. That's because it is an adaptation (authorized or not...) of John W. Campbell's 1938 pulp novella, Who Goes There? Science Fiction fans know the movies which were adapted from that story, The Thing From Another World and John Carpenter's godlike The Thing. This version is closer to the original story (much like Carpenter's movie) than the 1951 film which would hit theatres shortly after this issue hit the stands.

#19's The Hands Of Horror is great, a tale of a pair of artists and ambition gone wrong. It's a great story with the ironic twist ending that EC had already made their hallmark. Let's just say that all of the publishers of the day liberally borrowed from one another and from various other sources (books, movies, etc.).

All of the stories in this book have good writing and above average artwork. I am really enjoying these books, even if the restoration leaves a lot to be desired at times.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.

The OCD zone- 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.

Linework and Color restoration: Raw scans with minimal tinkering. They remove all color from the word balloons, leaving them as bright white as the paper stock. The original printed comics had shoddy printing, and that is presented here warts and all. Off register printing and line bleed are all present, just like they were back then. This one even has one panel where a child wrote on it in pencil. I chuckled when I saw that.

The scan quality seems to vary from one issue to the next. Issues 16 and 18 look abysmal, like they were either scanned at an incredibly low resolution or sourced from microfiche. It's a blurry, nearly unreadable mess. My friend has the Dark Horse Archive with these issues and it blows this one out of the water, as it boasts a full blown restoration job.

Paper stock: Uncoated bright white stock.

Binding: Sewn binding. Lies mostly flat.

Hardback cover notes: No dustjacket. Image printed on casewrap with matte finish and spot varnish. 

Review- ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 3

ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 3 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2012; Hardcover) Note: Book actually released in 2013

Collects Adventures Into The Unknown #11-15 (cover dates June/July, 1950- January, 1951)

Writers: Charles Spain Verral and other, unidentified writers

Artists: Edvard Moritz, Ken Bald, Pete Riss, Howard L. Larsen, Al Camy, Charles Sultan, Art Gates, Ogden Whitney, John Cerlardo, Lin Streeter, Leonard Starr, Emil Gershwin, Bill Ely, and Fred Guardineer

I love Pre-Code Horror comics, but a lot of them tend to blend together after a while, which is not necessarily a bad thing. They are solid, well crafted Horror comics. The closer you get to 1954 the more things get ramped up in terms of gore and violence, so we are still in the early days here. This book features stories steeped in vampires, deals with the devil, werewolves, voodoo, ghosts, and of course, zombies. Zombies were creeping into comics in a major way as the '50s wore on, and this was nearly two decades before George Romero would burn them into the minds of the masses with his movies.

#11's Realm Of The Mist Gods is one of those cautionary tales about the greed of man. The Spirit Of Frankenstein ongoing feature resumed with Issue 12. It was previously featured in #5 and 8-10. It is a lame concept and has worn thin by this point in time, and it doesn't appear again in this book. We'll have to see if it resurfaces whenever I read Volume 4.

#13's Menace From Mars is a typical Cold War metaphor. Communism and Russia was the greatest threat facing the United States at this time, and space aliens became the go to plot device in these exercises in fear and paranoia.

This was a great escapist read that helped get me in the mood for Hallowe'en. You can certainly do much worse than these comics.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- 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.

Linework and Color restoration: Raw scans with minimal tinkering. They remove all color from the word balloons, leaving them as bright white as the paper stock. The original printed comics had shoddy printing, and that is presented here warts and all. Off register printing and line bleed are all present, just like they were back then. The scan quality seems to vary from one issue to the next.

Paper stock: Uncoated bright white stock.

Binding: Sewn binding. Lies mostly flat.

Hardback cover notes: No dustjacket. Image printed on casewrap with matte finish and spot varnish. 

Review- ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 2

ACG COLLECTED WORKS: ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN VOL. 2 (PS Artbooks, First Printing, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects Adventures Into The Unknown #6-10 (cover dates August/September, 1949- April/May, 1950)

Writers: Lynneal H. Diamond, J. Yakayima, Robert Brice, E. Nelson Bridwell, and other unidentified writers

Artists: Edvard Moritz, Robert Brice, Jon Blummer, Paul Gattusso, Charlie Sutton, John Celardo, Bob Lubbers, R.S. Pious, Johnny Craig, Harry Lazarus, Bob Jenney, George Klein, and Ed Good

This series was the first ongoing Horror comic book, predating even EC's entry into the field by a year. This series runs through the usual Pre-Code Horror gamut, with scenarios such as deals with the devil, ghosts, vampires, knowledge forbidden in the Western world (such as tribal voodoo, witchcraft, swamis, etc.), ancient curses, mummies, etc.

#5's Spirit Of Frankenstein became an ongoing strip in this series, with the characters and their “Frankenstein” robot appearing again in #8, 9, and 10, with a promise of more in the next issue. I guess I'll find out if that's the case when I read Volume 3 in this line of books.

Issue 6's The Mummy's Cloth features artwork by EC great Johnny Craig. I always enjoy stories like #9's The Thing At The Bottom Of The Sea. The writing and artwork are all solid and typical for the era. I'm still in the early pre-boom part of the series.

Dark Horse launched their own line of Archives for this series since it is in the public domain. The primary difference between their line and this line is that this book has raw scans of original comics and the Dark Horse one has full blown restoration. My friend bought both and we have compared them side by side. I was already several volumes into this run and decided against the double dip. The Dark Horse line stalled, presumably because most people bought this line first and were reluctant to double dip.

A lot of these 1950s Horror comics are admittedly interchangeable, but I enjoy them all. I am glad that PS Artbooks is rescuing these lost gems from obscurity. I just wish that they didn't pump them out so dang fast. I can't keep up on buying them, and I certainly can't keep up on reading them. I'm pretty sure that my Halloween reading is all set for the next 40 years.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- 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.

Linework and Color restoration: Raw scans with minimal tinkering. They remove all color from the word balloons, leaving them as bright white as the paper stock. The original printed comics had shoddy printing, and that is presented here warts and all. Off register printing and line bleed are all present, just like they were back then. The scan quality seems to vary from one issue to the next.

Paper stock: Uncoated bright white stock.

Binding: Sewn binding. Lies y flat in one hand when reading.

Hardback cover notes: No dustjacket. Image printed on casewrap with matte finish and spot varnish.