Since I've been talking about zombies, how about horror comics...

Horror comics are an interesting thing. Vastly popular when the medium was first coming into its own, EC Comics was at the forefront publishing horror, crime, and science fiction titles. Better known as the publisher of Mad Magazine at this point, EC's horror line all but vanished by 1955, shortly after the Comics Code Authority came into being.

The impetus of the CCA was Dr. Fred Wertham and his book, Seduction of the Innocence. Wertham, a psychiatrist, linked juvenile delinquency to comic books based on flimsy evidence and sloppy processes. In spite of that, his book was well received and sparked a major censorship movement with parents and government.

In a move to avoid major governmental interference, as the senate launched an inquiry into the industry, the industry itself launched the CCA and imposed their own limits. EC's horror and crime lines, typically considered more adult fare, had difficulty passing the industry's strict guidelines - those guidelines are where much of the superhero moral code was born that permeated DC throughout the late 1950's until the 1980's.

EC's horror comics, often hailed by industry historians as ahead of their time, went away. In it's place, comics like the watered down 1960's entry from DC; Strange Adventures.

But a new player hopped on the boat in the mid 1960's - Warren. Warren skirted the issue by publishing their comics as magazines, rather than comic books, thus avoiding the need to pass their work through the Comics Code Authority. The big three that came out of Warren (at least that I enjoyed), were Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. Often done in anthology format, these magazines would have several short horror pieces. In the cases of Eerie and Creepy, they were strung together by a Tales from the Crypt Crypt Keeper sort of character - Uncle Creepy and Cousin Eerie.

Unfettered by the limitations of the CCA, artists like Neal Adams, Frank Frazzetta, and Gene Colan stretched the limits of comic art at the time, exploring places that hadn't been seen in the medium in a decade.

Why? Because these were the teenagers ten years earlier that saw the EC horror comics, and as adults in the 1960's were demonstrating their artistic influences.

Personally, I have always had a soft spot for these magazines. They are the bridge between EC in the 1950's to Heavy Metal in the 70's and 80's and the Silver Age grandparents to DC's Vertigo horror comics like Hellblazer, and more recently, Marvel's Legion of Monsters line, which is even reminiscent of those anthology magazines, running at least two stories with wildly divergent artwork.

For those who haven't caught the Legion of Monsters, I would recommend the titles that I have seen, with the caveat - be prepared to expect at some point during the run some weak tales. It is just the nature of the anthology style beast.