Heading: Readers Shocked; Morse Mocked?
Author:
Title: MISTER MYSTERY No. 13
Place Published:
Publisher:Stanley Morse [Indicia: Aragon Magazines, Inc.]
Date Published: September, 1953
Description:

CGC certified: VG (4.0). White pages. Cover: Bernard Baily. Art: Tony Mortellaro (3 stories), Gerald Altman (2 stories). GPAnalysis: A 4.0 sold for $855 in January 2020; a 3.5 sold for $1020 in April 2019.

Crazy cover scenario — it looks like a guy with hairy hands is drowning a bum in a big vat of soup. Keen-eyed horror hounds will notice that the victim, with his ratty black hair, bushy brows, facial warts, and wino whiskers, is more or less identical to the victims on the covers to Mister Mystery #'s 11 and 12, also by Bernard Baily. Maybe Baily modeled the victim on someone he hated? Come to think of it, has anyone ever seen a photo of publisher Stanley Morse, who is said to have been a penny-pinching, creditor-stiffing pain in the ass? There are no pix of him to be found on the internet or in any pre-Code histories or 'zines. How great would it be if Morse had ratty black hair, shaggy brows, warts and perpetual stubble? Just sayin'.

Anyhoo, the real fun starts under the covers, with Tony Mortellaro's bizarre "The Gossips," which pre-Code savant George Suarez calls "a classic of crudeness." In the story, three gossipy old bats slut-shame and otherwise disgrace several schoolgirls into suicide, and end up suffering a barf-inducing revenge: their heads are chopped off, mutilated, and impaled on spikes as a warning to busybodies to hear, see, and speak no evil.

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.