Horror Comics
Horror comics are a genre specifically designed to evoke fear and anxiety in their readers, employing unsettling imagery and exploring psychological terror through their narratives and characters. Emerging predominantly in the late 1940s and early 1950s, this genre gained prominence under EC Comics, particularly through iconic series like *Tales from the Crypt*. However, the rise of horror comics faced significant challenges, culminating in the establishment of the Comics Code Authority in the mid-1950s, which imposed strict content regulations that curtailed their development.
Despite these restrictions, horror comics adapted over the years, becoming more experimental and diverse in their storytelling, especially during the 1970s when publishers began to bypass the Code by producing black-and-white magazines. This resurgence continued into the 1990s and 2000s, fueled by a broader cultural interest in horror across various media, including film and literature. Key works such as *30 Days of Night* and *The Walking Dead* not only revitalized the genre but also contributed to its mainstream acceptance, leading to adaptations in film and television.
Today, horror comics remain a vibrant niche within the comic book industry, with major publishers like DC and Marvel, alongside independent entities, regularly releasing horror-themed series. The genre continues to inspire new creators and engage audiences, solidifying its place in popular culture.
Horror Comics
Definition
Horror comics purposely seek to produce fear and anxiety in readers. This is through uncanny or distorted imagery, the expression of the psychological terror of the characters or narrative, or other means.
Introduction
Along with superhero and underground comics, horror comics have had a significant and problematic influence on comics and cultural perceptions of the form. Horror comics started later than many other comic genres, fully emerging in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Under the guidance of editor William Gaines, EC Comics became the major horror comics publisher in the early 1950s. Following a series of congressional hearings in which a Senate subcommittee investigated the alleged harmful effects of comics, the comic book industry established the Comics Code, a set of industry standards that significantly restricted the content of horror comics and led to a significant decrease in their publication.
Publishers had begun to circumvent the Comics Code by the late 1960s. In 1971, the code itself underwent revisions that loosened its regulations. Horror surged during the 1970s with the major publishers but slowed into the 1980s. Independent publishers took up the gauntlet, publishing an array of horror comics, including Arrow Comics' Deadworld and Eclipse Comics' anthology series Tales of Terror. Horror comics remained on the periphery during the 1980s and 1990s. Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Ghost Rider, and Blade were successful, but many horror series were short-lived. They only survived through the 1990s.
The rising popularity of the horror genre in prose fiction, film, television, and manga created a new demand for horror comics in the 2000s, prompting several new talents and regular series to emerge. Crossovers also served to increase the horror genre's popularity. For example, Ash Williams from the Evil Dead film series (1981-1992) appears in the Marvel Zombies universe in Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness (2007). In Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash (2007), he is pitted against Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger, characters with their respective horror film and comic franchises. The success of horror comics during this period allowed creators to experiment with creating complex, macabre stories.
Early Horror Comics
The first horror comics were predominantly adaptations of literary works. Created by Dick Briefer, The New Adventures of Frankenstein became a regular feature in Prize Comics starting in 1940. The story pitted Mary Shelley's monster, erroneously identified as Frankenstein, against various foes, including superheroes. By 1945, Briefer reinvented the series as a lighthearted, humorous narrative. An adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) was published in 1943 as part of the Classics Illustrated line of graphic adaptations of literary works and adaptations of Frankenstein (1818) and a collection of stories by Edgar Allan Poe followed.
For much of the 1940s, only a handful of horror titles were published since superhero, crime, and other genres still garnered the most attention. Beginning in 1944, the superhero anthology comic Yellowjacket Comics included the series Tales of Terror, which ran for two years. Publisher Avon Comics released the horror anthology Eerie in 1947, though it never saw a second issue. One of the few ongoing horror comics, Adventures into the Unknown, was published by American Comics Group in 1948 and lasted until the 1960s. As crime comics caught on with comic readers, especially young men returning from World War II late in the decade, horror comics became increasingly popular.
EC Comics and the Comics Code
Under editor William Gaines, the publisher EC Comics rose from obscurity to fame in the late 1940s and 1950s. Its breakthrough series, The Vault of Horror and Tales from the Crypt, debuted in 1950 and triggered a cascade of similar horror comic publications. Vying for readers, the publishers collectively pushed the limits of gore and violence with each issue. The violence of horror and crime comics drew attention to the comics industry, much of it negative. Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham linked comic books to juvenile delinquency, arguing in Seduction of the Innocent (1954) and other publications that the content of comics was hurting the children of the United States.
The resulting social controversy culminated in a series of hearings before a US Senate subcommittee held in April and June 1954. Gaines and Wertham spoke at the meetings, but the committee ultimately sided with Wertham. Seeking to avoid government regulation, the Comics Magazine Association of America was formed and responded by establishing the Comics Code Authority (CCA), which self-regulated content for the comics industry by the newly drafted Comics Code. The code drastically diminished the range of horror stories that could be told, banning stories dealing with "walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism," as well as "all scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism," and more. Comics could be published without the CCA's approval. Still, many vendors and distributors needed the CCA seal to stock comics. Several publishers went out of business following the implementation of the code.
Horror Comics Escape the Code
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, horror comics maintained a limited presence in the industry. EC Comics began to focus primarily on MAD magazine, and other surviving publishers either terminated their horror series or transitioned them into other genres such as mystery, science fiction, superhero, and suspense. Horror comics remained predominantly monster stories that were derivative of 1950s monster films, developed in response to the rise of nuclear power and the escalating Cold War, or served as vehicles for superheroes to showcase their increasing powers.
Toward the middle of the 1960s, comic publishers circumvented the CCA. They published horror comics as black-and-white magazines, which did not require the CCA's approval. Warren Publishing was the leading publisher to explore this avenue for horror comics, publishing Creepy, an anthology of horror stories much like those from the early 1950s, beginning in 1964. By 1970, other publishers had followed this trend. The following year, the CCA lessened the severity of the code after Marvel Comics published several issues of The Amazing Spider-Man addressing drug abuse without CCA approval. The success of these comics proved to publishers that they could produce material that violated the code and be met with success. As the 1970s progressed, Marvel and DC Comics established various horror series, both anthology comics such as Chamber of Chills and Secrets of Sinister House and ongoing series such as Swamp Thing and The Tomb of Dracula.
Modern Age Horror Comics
The rise of the direct-market distribution system also lessened public concern about the nature of horror comics. Comics were increasingly sought out and purchased at comic book stores instead of the newsstands of the previous generation. By the 1980s, independent publishers dominated the genre.
During the 1990s and 2000s, the rise in popularity of the horror genre in prose fiction and film and the further loosening and virtual demise of the Comics Code contributed to a further increase in the publication of horror comics. The market was also increasingly influenced by the rise of manga, which included a significant influx of horror narratives by such creators as Hideshi Hino and Junji Ito. As publishers developed their rating systems or sought out adult audiences, the public concern about horror comics' content and graphic nature was vastly diminished.
Horror comics increased in popularity during the 2000s partly because of the success of Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith's 30 Days of Night (2002) and Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead (2003-2019). Though independent publishers published both, their popularity pushed DC and Marvel to publish a range of horror comics in the following years, often through their adult imprints. Horror comics returned to the mainstream with monthly publications of ongoing vampire, werewolf, zombie, and other horror-centered narratives.
Impact
The popularity of horror comics during the 1940s and 1950s and the subsequent controversy that led to the creation of the Comics Code played a significant role in creating the perception of comics as children's entertainment. With the Comics Code in place, comics were essentially banned from telling complex narratives for a generation, preventing the growth and development of comics as a sophisticated medium. However, pre-code horror comics significantly influenced many horror storytellers of the twentieth and early twenty-first century; John Carpenter, Stephen King, George Romero, and R. L. Stine, among many others, credit horror comics with inspiring their forays into the genre. Horror comics remain a substantial niche, with mainstream publishers DC and Marvel and smaller companies publishing horror series regularly.
Horror comics inspired the film series Creepshow (1982-2007) and the television series Tales from the Crypt (1989-1996). Several comics have been adapted into films, including 30 Days of Night (2007), the Blade series (1998-2004), and Faust: Love of the Damned (2001). In 2010, The Walking Dead was adapted into a successful television series, calling attention to the enduring popularity of the horror genre.
In 2024, the global market share of comic books had reached $1.3 billion, with expectations it would grow to almost $2 billion by 2032. Horror-themed comics continued to be a popular with audiences, and important sources of revenue for publishers.
Bibliography
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