WEIRD WORLDS! - Harvey Horrors

HARVEY HORRORS
C O L L E C T E D
W O R K S
CHAMBER OF CHILLS
VOLUME ONE
June - December 1951 Issues 21 - 24
& February - April 1952 Issues 5 - 7
Foreword by
Joe Hill
Joe Hill - Original illustration by Glenn Chadbourne
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WEIRD WORLDS!
STRANGE CUSTOMS!
and TRICKS to MYSTIFY YOUR FRIENDS!
A frankly fetid foreword by
Joe Hill
1. WEIRD WORLDS!
Many have wondered why the young are so obsessed with tales of horror
and menace! Why they delight over depictions of torture and unspeakable agony!
But the children of MEN are not so different from the young of other worlds!
Consider the juveniles of planet 1950! A land colored in the hues of a black-andwhite movie, in which the most astonishing geographical features were the towering
peaks of Jayne Mansfield’s gazongas, and the deepest shadows were cast
by the horrifying fiends who stalked the Universal Monster Movies!
In this world, the young were raised to believe in obedience, duty, hard work,
a clean and healthful love of athletics, and sex in the missionary position (on the
rare occasions the filthy procreative act was mentioned at all)!!
Yet the teachings of their elders often failed! WHY??
An atavistic, species-wide fascination with suffering and perversion led
many of the most fragile and imaginative of these children to explore forbidden
books which gloried in pain, madness, ghouls, black rituals, and buxom babes in
bewitching beribboned bare-back bustiers! These cheap, grimy, widely available
“COMIC” BOOKS – ironically named, for there was nothing COMIC about the
stomach-turning horrors that lay within them! – were for years thought harmless,
and so infected and warped a generation of minds, before they could be wisely
banned!
2. STRANGE CUSTOMS!
Obsessively reading, discussing, trading, and collecting these comic books was
the custom among the most fevered of the young in that world! The thought and
energy that went into acquiring and preserving such maggoty mags is beyond
imagining! A sample of the magazines that so mesmerized the children of planet
1950s is in your hands NOW!
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Featuring artist
Al Avison
(July 1920 - December 1984, USA)
Alfred Avison was a prolific figure in the Golden Age of comics,
creating The Whizzer for the debut of USA Comics, with fellow artist
Al Gabrielle and he very soon developed a talent for comic book terror.
His initiation to comic books came in 1940, when he was assigned as
Jack Kirby’s inker on the Novelty Press title Blue Bolt Comics #4 while
still studying at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. During this fledgling
period he was in the gainful employ of Timely Comics and actually
worked alongside his father George, a fellow commercial artist, on the
first and only issue of the slick magazine Man’s Home Companion
(October 1942).
Chamber of Chills #21 June 1951
Chamber of Chills #22 August 1951
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Image kindly supplied by Heritage Auctions (HA.com)
phenomenon. Captain America was
indeed one of the champions of the
vaunted golden age of comics, but his
title was plagued by a host of chilling
adversaries. When Al and Syd Shores
assumed the role as Cap’s regular team
of artists following the departure of
Jack Kirby and Joe Simon with issue
#10 early in 1942, the tone of this title
became somewhat darker. The covers
now enticed with graveyards, ghouls,
vampires, killer robots and murderous
hillbillies. The heroic dynamics espoused
by Jack Kirby thankfully continued to
pulsate across the cover and each and
every page, for this was a country in a
Image kindly supplied by Heritage Auctions (HA.com)
He was also known to have
freelanced for Fawcett Comics between
1941 and 1942 working on the original
Captain Marvel Adventures and was
busily supplying artwork to Harvey
Comics on a wide range of characters,
including The Red Blazer in Pocket
Comics #1 (August 1941), Casper the
Friendly Ghost, Captain Freedom, Joe
Palooka and The Green Hornet.
As early as Captain America
Comics #4 (June 1941), while once again
inking Jack Kirby’s pencils—this time on
‘Captain America in Hospital Horror’—he
demonstrated an affinity for the more
macabre elements of this burgeoning
Black Cat Mystery #34 April 1952
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Image kindly supplied by Heritage Auctions (HA.com)
Chamber of Chills
June 1951 - Issue #21
Cover Art - Al Avison
The Old Hag of the Hills
Script - Bob Powell
Pencils - Bob Powell
Inks - Bob Powell
Darker than Death
Script - Unknown
Pencils - George Appel
Inks - George Appel
The Chieftain of the Dead
Script - Unknown
Pencils - Vic Donahue
Inks - Vic Donahue
The Ghost of the Rue de Morte
Script - Unknown
Pencils - Rudy Palais
Inks - Rudy Palais
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Collect all 4 Volumes of Chamber of Chills from PS Artbooks
Chamber of Chills
Volume 1
Chamber of Chills
Volume 2
Chamber of Chills
Volume 3
Chamber of Chills
Volume 4