A Haunt of Fears: The Strange History of the British Horror Comics Campaign

by Martin Barker

Book by Barker, Martin

Genres: Comics, History, Horror, Cultural

227 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

Reviews

[Bill Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A splendid book about the English war on American horror comics in the 1950s, a war that is more than just an echo of the Wertham campaign in the states. Barker gives a clear explanation of how the English concerns differed from those in the US and presents convincing argument that the English Communist Party was the first organized group to object to the decadent yankee culture threatening the youth of Britain. What the author also does brilliantly is provide an analysis of the critics' primary examples of bad comics -- notably the Feldstein/Kamen tale "The Orphan" -- showing how a certain mindset could turn a story completely inside out. I think everyone who has tried to come to grips with the attack on comics, and especially on EC comics, has had the feeling that Wertham and his cronies completely missed the point of the comics they were attacking, blinded by their prejudices. Barker proves the case. A strong contender for the best study of comic censorship written to date.