Heading:
Author:
Title: DARK MYSTERIES No. 10
Place Published:
Publisher:Story, aka Master/Merit [Indicia: Master Comics, Inc.]
Date Published: December-January, 1953
Description:

CGC certified: Fine (6.0). Off-white pages. [4.0, off-white or white to off-white] Cover: Hy Fleishman. Art: A.C. Hollingsworth, John D'Agostino, Hy Fleishman, Harry Harrison. Overstreet: "Cannibalism story; witch burning cover." Two EC swipes: "Sea of Ghosts" is cribbed from "The Slave Ship" (Weird Fantasy #8), and "Food for Thought," in which a cannibal cutie munches her own meat to spare her sweetie, is copped from Johnny Craig's "Two of a Kind" (Vault of Horror #26). GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade. The closest grades are a 7.0 that sold for $2232 in December 2017 and a 5.0 that sold for $225 way back in 2003. More recently, a 3.0 sold for $1200 in April 2021. PBA sold a raw 1.8 for $468.75 in February 2022.

"[Dark Mysteries] #10 contains 'Sea of Ghosts,' a tale whose theme has been swiped time and time again in the 1950s. I don't know if EC told it first, but they told it best.... Illegal slave traders are overtaken on the high seas by the authorities. Quickly they dispose of the evidence by casting their enchained living cargo into the ocean." — George Suarez, Tales To Terrible To Tell #5. NEC: 1992, p. 33.

The EC story Suarez references is "The Slave Ship" by Feldstein and Roussos (Weird Fantasy #8, July-August 1951). According to Qiana Whitted's EC Comics: Race, Shock and Social Protest, "Predating the Shock SuspenStories preachies is an often-overlooked story called 'The Slave Ship,' which marks EC's earliest experiment with race and social-protest comics through science fiction." The vengeful slaves in the Dark Mysteries version of the story are Chinese "coolies" rather than Africans. This change may have been made to avoid depicting black men lopping off blonde gals' heads — a Jim Crow-era taboo not even EC dared to transgress.

Consignments welcome for PBA's Fall 2022 Comic Book sale. Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, original art, vintage comic-related photos and ephemera sought. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.

A limited edition of 100 softcover and 6 hardcover catalogues are available. 140 pages, fully illustrated. Fun reference, great keepsake. Softcovers $40, dust-jacketed hardcover with limitation plate $200. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com.

Consignments welcome for PBA's Fall 2022 Comic Book sale. Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, original art, vintage comic-related photos and ephemera sought. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com.