*Vintage UK/Australian Reprints of US Material: In the early 1950s, a small number of horror comics (around 40) were produced by a variety of UK publishers reprinting US pre-code horror stories in black and white. Just as in the USA, these became notorious and subject to censorship which led to their discontinuation. There’s a lot of information online about the banning of UK horror comics if you want to know more, and I particularly recommend a youtube video by Canadian Dave Dustin on the subject (see the Links page in our Extras section for more information). These UK horror comics have become both extremely rare and much sought after in recent years, and this week we have one that also fits our L B Cole Miasma feature. L B Cole was one of the most famous of Golden/Atomic Age cover artists. He drew in a variety of genres, and was artistic director at Star, illustrating 95% of the company’s covers; his lurid, feverish style, almost hallucinogenic, graced horror, science-fiction, jungle and romance alike. Here we have the UK version of Startling Terror Tales, published by Arnold in 1954, with a particularly unsavoury example of Cole’s work.
PICTURED: STARTLING TERROR TALES #1 CGC 3.5 VG- £450 Arnold number this as #1, although the CGC label calls it #9 (which it is a partial reprint of). Also contains stories from Spook #28 and Shocking Mystery Cases #58. Unrestored blue label, cream to off-white pages. PLEASE NOTE: The CGC case is severely cracked at the rear, top side and one corner. This is as it came to us and appears to be the result of impact damage rather than tampering. Certainly the CGC grader notes match the defects for the encased copy, so we believe this is a genuine CGC copy. SOLD