Pre Code Classics: Ghost Comics Volume 1

by Fiction House

A collection of the first eight issues of Ghost Comics, originally published by Fiction House from 1951 to 1953.

272 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2015

About the author

Fiction House was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. It was founded by John B. "Jack" Kelly and John W. Glenister. By the late 1930s, the publisher was Thurman T. Scott. Its comics division was best known for its pinup-style good girl art, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.

Reviews

[Bill Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first seven issues of the late era Fiction House spook comic, most of the material here was reprinted from earlier Fiction House titles. Nearly all the art is by "Iger Studios," which makes it very much a mixed bag in quality. At the best moments, one can see Jack Kamen peeking through the collaborative melange, but there is also other fine, anonymous work interspersed haphazardly among the hacks. The writing is generally awful -- no one bought these comics for the stories, and the real reason for their popularity and preservation -- gorgeous, gratuitous outbreaks of cheesecake -- is plentiful here. Comparison to Craig Yoe's recent Girls and Ghosts volume is inevitable and the Yoe book wins in every match -- price, presentation, textual context -- except completeness. PS' method of reproduction works well sometimes and very much provides the sense of reading the original comics but also leaves some pages dark, muddy, and less than desirable for an archival volume. Most, maybe all, of these comics are available to read free online but if one wants a hard copy for the shelf, this is likely to be the best we will get.