Family Entertainment

So … Archie comics were supposed to be wholesome alternatives to their more lurid Golden Age contemporaries? Rigghhhhhhht.

From Pep Comics # 41 (MLJ, August 1943). The house ad is signed by “Ginger.”

Sweet Revenge

Journey Into Fear #15 (Superior Publishers Ltd., September 1953) was one of many Pre-Code horror titles that received the (dubious?) honor of appearing in Dr. Frederic Wertham’s Seduction Of The Innocent.

A quick scan of the issue makes it apparent why the good doctor took such umbrage: vengeful zombies, heartsick ghouls and hunger-crazed werewolves practically leap off the pages with malevolent glee.

My favorite tale in that particular comic, however, concerns a monster of a less supernatural bent. After all, who is capable of greater horror than a man filled with jealousy and hatred?

Here’s “Revenge So Evil.” The story and art are not credited, although the piece looks to be the product of the Iger Studio.

Sex And The Single Super-Girl

The comics that offended “right-thinking” people in the 1940s and 1950s are tame by today’s standards, especially when compared to what major publishers offer on the stands these days.

Fox’s Phantom Lady may have been Public Enemy No. 1 to Frederic Wertham, but to be quite honest I’ll take the relatively respectful (and realistic) “headlight” art of Matt Baker and Phantom Lady’s wit, intelligence and competence over the one-dimensional, anatomically exaggerated bad girls currently offered by the “House That Siegel & Shuster Built.”

From Phantom Lady #19 (Fox Features Syndicate, August 1948), here’s “Wine, Women and Sudden Death” by Iger Studio writer and editor Ruth Roche (one of the most successful and prolific – if anonymous – female creators of the Golden Age) and Matt Baker.