Pre Code Horror Comics

I was going to post more game concept art but got sidetracked when I found that Confidential File video. So we'll keep up with the 1950's horror for the rest of the week.

Horror comics of the 1940s and early 1950s are often called 'pre-Code' horror in reference to the Comics Code Authority, a censoring board that was created in response to Dr. Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent and the subsequent public outcry against crime and horror comics. Since violent, gory and lurid content were what made pre-Code horror comics great, the stifling effect of censorship resulted in bland comics that didn't sell. The horror comic market was dead, killed by the Code.

Captain America Comics #74 (Oct. 1949) was originally titled Captain America's Weird Tales #74. oddly enough, this was because of Timely's ultimate turn to Horror comics in the 1950's. The title was meant as the final issue of Captain America Comics but one more issue followed: Captain America's Weird Tales #75. It had no Captain America stories in it and was instead an early Timely/Atlas horror comic.