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Author:
Title: DARK MYSTERIES No. 13
Place Published:
Publisher:Story, aka Master/Merit [Indicia: Master Comics, Inc.]
Date Published: August, 1953
Description:

VG- (3.5). Spine a bit rolled, spine stress, 1/4" split at top spine, 1" split at bottom spine, tiny color flakes to bottom edge of front cover, small creases to right corners of front cover, tiny nicks to top edge of back cover, light crease to bottom corner of back cover, staples a bit pulled. Off-white pages. Cover: Hy Fleishman. Art: Dick Beck, A.C. Hollingsworth, John D'Agostino?, Hy Fleishman? Overstreet: "Dismemberment cover and story." GPAnalysis: No reported sales in this grade. A 4.0 sold for $384 in February 2021.

This crazy mag starts off with a barf-inducing severed foot cover by Hy Fleishman, under which we find Dick Beck's even queasier "Horror of Mixed Torsos." This bonkers story features an ugly guy who works as a mortuary assistant because "only the silent dead do not run from me!" One day his unrequited crush dies unexpectedly and ends up on a slab in his mortuary. He buries an empty casket and stashes her corpse in air-tight tube his pad, presumably only taking her out of her tube when he's in the mood for a "cold one." He murders the dead girl's uncle and a nosy cop, chopping up their bodies and mix-and-matching their torsos and legs in a ghoulish game of Tetris. Sure enough, the two mixed bodies return to life to extract ghoulish revenge.

Pre-Code scholar George Suarez derides "Horror of Mixed Torsos" as "a story which might well be credited with both the worst title and dumbest plot in the history of comics," featuring "especially lousy coloring" and "atrocious production standards." He's right, of course, but we mustn't overlook that a shabby tawdriness is central to the appeal of most non-EC pre-Code horror — the slackness of the production efforts reflects the moral slackness at the heart of the entire enterprise. There's a refreshing candor in the seediness of pre-Code horror mags: they promise nothing but cheap thrills, and deliver in spades.

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.