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HomeExploreComicsPre-Code Horror and Crime Comic Covers
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A tombstone bears a man's name, a skeleton raises a toast, and a ten-cent crime comic ends up in a Senate hearing. These original U.S. and Canadian newsstand covers show how horror and crime comics caught the eye from 1947 through 1954, before the Comics Code changed what could appear on the rack. Some covers depict graphic violence.

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1
Tales from the Crypt #20
Tales from the Crypt #20: EC Comics, October–November 1950. Johnny Craig draws a man recoiling as a stonecutter carves his…
2
Chamber of Chills #19
Chamber of Chills #19: Harvey Comics, September 1953. Lee Elias worked from a layout by art director Warren Kremer for this…
3
The Vault of Horror #12
The Vault of Horror #12: EC Comics, April–May 1950. Johnny Craig drew the cover for the debut of The Vault of Horror, which…
4
Ghost Comics #1
Ghost Comics #1: Fiction House, 1951. Maurice Whitman sends a woman running down a dark street as a towering specter closes…
5
Crime SuspenStories #22
Crime SuspenStories #22: EC Comics, April–May 1954. Johnny Craig's cover became an exhibit in the Senate's juvenile…
6
Eerie Comics #1
Eerie Comics #1: Avon Comics, January 1947. Bob Fujitani stages a threatened sacrifice in a ruined temple under a full…
7
Crime Does Not Pay #54
Crime Does Not Pay #54: Lev Gleason Publications, August 1947. Charles Biro draws a car smashing through a road-closed…
8
Adventures into the Unknown #1
Adventures into the Unknown #1: American Comics Group, fall 1948. A young couple approaches a house beneath a dark sky in…
9
Crime and Punishment #1
Crime and Punishment #1: Lev Gleason Publications, April 1948. Charles Biro drew a six-panel sequence across the cover of…
10
Journey into Fear #1
Journey into Fear #1: Superior, May 1951. A hooded figure frames a woman between two enormous hands on the first cover of…
11
This Magazine Is Haunted #1
This Magazine Is Haunted #1: Fawcett, October 1951. Sheldon Moldoff puts the host Dr. Death on the cover of the first…
12
Shock SuspenStories #1
Shock SuspenStories #1: EC Comics, February–March 1952. Al Feldstein places the electric chair at the center of the cover…
13
The Haunt of Fear #17
The Haunt of Fear #17: EC Comics, January–February 1953. Graham Ingels, who signed his horror work Ghastly, illustrated the…
14
Menace #5
Menace #5: Atlas, July 1953. Bill Everett drew this cover for Zombie!, the issue's lead story written by Stan Lee. It…
15
Web of Evil #5
Web of Evil #5: Quality Comics, July 1953. Jack Cole penciled The Man Who Died Twice, the cover that turns an…
16
Weird Mysteries #5
Weird Mysteries #5: Gillmor Magazines, June 1953. Bernard Baily draws a doctor's hand lifting a brain above a head. The…
17
Mister Mystery #12
Mister Mystery #12: Stanley Morse, July–August 1953. Bernard Baily brings the reader close to a threatened eye injury. The…
18
Black Cat Mystery #50
Black Cat Mystery #50: Harvey Comics, June 1954. Lee Elias draws a man staring at his hands as his face disintegrates…
19
Justice Traps the Guilty #58
Justice Traps the Guilty #58: Prize, January 1954. Marvin Stein draws a Northwest Mounted Police helicopter pursuing a…
20
The Haunt of Fear #24
The Haunt of Fear #24: EC Comics, March–April 1954. Graham Ingels drew this cover for an issue entered as evidence in the…
21
Shock SuspenStories #14
Shock SuspenStories #14: EC Comics, April–May 1954. Wally Wood shows a man being shot at close range. The Senate's juvenile…

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