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The Horror! The Horror!: Comic Books the Government Didn’t Want You to Read
by Jim Trombetta
US: Abrams Comic Art
300pp. $36

The Horror! The Horror! is a compendium of 1950s horror comic-book covers, art, and stories that upset politicians, psychiatrists, and parents—so much so, that comic-book publishers soon censored themselves, instituting a “code” that remains in force. Compiler Jim Trombetta adores these stories, and is thus an apt analyst. He makes two points about the ’50s horror stories: They brought the Cold War ‘Red Scare’ to kiddy-level, replacing ‘Commies’ with Zombies; “in April 1954, comics became the first pop-art medium to be regulated nearly out of existence by the (U.S.) government.”

The stories – spooky, freaky – are tame by today’s standards (or lack thereof). But Trombetta stresses their “uncanny quality,” and their vivid ironies and brilliantly plotted malice allow them a priceless timeliness. So, in “Cycle of Horror” (Chamber of Chills, March 1953), a murderer keeps encountering his victim’s corpse, no matter where he runs. In “Tag… You’re It” (Tomb of Terror, July 1954), protective parents discover, too late, that their tyke is a vampire.

Says Trombetta, the horror comics mirror 50s frights: Nuclear war, brainwashing, juvenile delinquency, homosexuality, libertinage, and even hunger, and so on. Artists illustrated these fears by animating corpses and skeletons, loosing cannibals and monsters upon cities, and by painting lots of giant-sized, Freudian symbols. Although Trombetta fixates upon the look of the horror comics (that resemble “stained-glass windows” in their colourful art), he is nicely literate – he has been a Shakespeare scholar – and refers severally to Canada’s late, great literary critic, Northrop Frye (whose centenary is next year).

The Horror! The Horror! is not only a loving testimonial to a past era of pop, juvenile culture. The reproduced comics are fun to leaf through, and Trombetta’s commentary is witty and thoughtful: a fantastic read. The 300-page, oversize volume also includes a 30-minute DVD of an actual 1955 TV program attacking comic books for their dangerous immorality.

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