*Horror 1940-1959: Perhaps most famously renowned for his Phantom Lady art and the gorgeous work for the St John Romance line, Matt Baker also contributed to that company’s horror comics, and this week we have two beautiful examples of his cover art from 1954. The St John title Nightmare was rebranded after #13 as Amazing Ghost Stories, and we have both the last issue of Nightmare and the first issue of Amazing Ghost Stories.
Amazing Ghost Stories #14 has a cover very reminiscent of the Creature From the Black Lagoon movie, with superior interior art by Goldfarb, Kintsler and others. The comic is clean, tight and flat with firmly-attached staples and white pages. There is minor corner blunting, a little spine wear and a 4 cm colour-breaking crease across the top right cover corner; there are also a couple of tiny creases across the bottom right cover, but none of these detract from the rich, unspoilt cover image.
Nightmare #13 has a mermaid-like cover in rich shades of green, with high quality interior art by Dan Barry, Bob Powell and George Tuska. The comic is clean and flat with the bottom staple off at the front only and a light crease in the corner of the back cover; no other defects, an absolute minimum of wear and off-white to white pages. Both issues are vastly superior in condition to most pre-code horror comics we come across, and the condition shows off the work of Matt Baker, whom we consider the finest 1950s artist (outside the EC stable) to work in comics. A rare opportunity. High resolution images are available on request.
PICTURED:
AMAZING GHOST STORIES #14 VG £800 SOLD
NIGHTMARE #13 FN- £500 SOLD