COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Haunt of Fear 19 Universal
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Grade:
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8.0
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Page Quality:
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OFF-WHITE TO WHITE
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Certification #:
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2000588005
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Owner:
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Satyr
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
1953, EC; Used in SOTI and NY Senate Investigation. Classic gory story, "A comic book baseball game" by Jack Davis. Bondage/Decapitation cover.
Haunt of Fear #19 contains one of the most notorious Pre-Code Crime stories ever published, "Foul Play", in which a revenge-minded baseball team dismembers a rival player and uses his body parts and organs as the accouterments of a ball game. One of the most famous horror stories ever published in comic books, it was cited in Frederic Wertham's anti-comics book, Seduction of the Innocent. Not to be overlooked, this classic 1953 EC also features a terrific 'double-beheading' cover by Ghastly Graham Ingels.
EC put out groundbreaking comics in virtually every major genre throughout their publishing history, but it was certainly their Horror line -- Haunt of Fear, Tales From The Crypt, and Vault of Horror -- that made them a household name. In fact, perhaps no other publisher is as closely associated to a genre as EC is with Horror. Bill Gaines and Al Feldstein were not the first editors to bring ghoulish tales to the pages of comics, but starting with Haunt of Fear #15 (#1), Crime Patrol #15, and War Against Crime #10, they did it with an artistry and intelligence that immediately set them apart in a growing field. Narrated by a terrible trio of wise-cracking witches, EC's shocking tales of supernatural vengeance were presented with a unique sense of humor that made them an instant hit with readers hungry for edgy material. They were also among the first titles to come under fire from industry critics for their subversive content and graphic imagery, and were featured prominently within Dr. Fredric Wertham's scathing indictment of the comic book industry in Seduction of the Innocent, which led to the Congressional hearings examining the link between certain comics and juvenile delinquency. By the middle of the 1950s, the Horror genre in comics had been largely defanged by the Comics Code Authority but the lasting impact of EC's Horror line is unmistakable. Not only would these classic comics spawn a host of imitators within the comic book industry, but they would also serve as a the creative inspiration in movies, books and television up to the present day.
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