Wartime glory was long past when Quality Comics entered the decade of the 1950s. Gone were the big anthologies like CRACK COMICS, FEATURE COMICS, HIT COMICS, MILITARY COMICS, MODERN COMICS, NATIONAL COMICS and SMASH COMICS.
Only mixed bag standing was POLICE COMICS. Presenting in the lead KEN SHANNON (who got his own book for 10 issues). Interesting fact: another POLICE feature, namely T-MAN, got his own title, too, and lasted much longer (38 proud issues)!
POLICE COMICS petered out in 1953 – as did the spin-off greats like CRACK WESTERN and even DOLL MAN. New in the line-up were only one war book (G.I. COMBAT) and two soon failing teen humor try-outs. So Quality held on to their biggest assets (PLASTIC MAN and BLACKHAWK) and romance titles, a lot of romance titles.
And they tried their hand at horror – with just one title, though, the aptly named WEB OF EVIL. Quality was the LAST of the big companies to get on the bandwagon – in November 1952 (only publishing “shrimp” like Trojan, Sterling and Premier joined the horror craze after that date).
We don’t know how successful their WEB OF EVIL was, but it lasted for two whole years and 21 issues. They must have sold quite okay. Before we get all tangled up in that evil web, let us have…
A Look at KEN SHANNON
Jeez, Ken Shannon, private eye – the most chunky, beefy and colossal crime fighter there ever was. What’s with this guy’s diet? Is he related in any way to Ben Grimm’s Thing?!
Anyway, horror lore says KEN SHANNON is a hybrid book – mixing crime with horror. That is hardly the case. Four stories in ten issues deal with elements (or rather hints) of the fantastic or supernatural. But it all goes up in smoke in the end. There are logical explanations, thank god. So we find the DC ratio-twist at work!
(If you are wondering now what I mean by “DC ratio-twist” please confer to the DC HORROR section on this website, to be found under “DC artists”.)
We are going to talk about the four stories further down…
What about the covers? Well, three out of the ten DO have horror covers, nah, let’s say two and a half (see for yourself in our KEN SHANNON horror gallery):
The wonderful (!) cover of KEN SHANNON #3 is a first horror motif (as are #6 + #7). The corresponding story “The Corpse that Wouldn’t Sleep!” comes across like a promising horror yarn, but ends in a ratio-twist.
Shannon and assistant Dee Dee are called to the Tarrant mansion. Lady Tarrant’s dead ex-husband is stalking her! The detective spots a ghostly figure in the road and a bat-like creature swooping down on him. In the house they meet the husband’s crippled brother Fred who is confined to a wheelchair and designs puppets. Hmmm? Sound suspicious? You betcha! The plot thickens on page 7 when Shannon and the butler encounter the corpse rising from the grave.
Pretty creepy, huh? But on the next page Shannon investigates the brother’s room, finding him gone and swinging from ropes all around the garden. Fred is a human bat, operating a corpse puppet (or the actual corpse made into a puppet, gagggh). Great trickery, impossible to pull off. Doesn’t stop the writers, though.
If you want to see the whole story, I’ll just usher you over to Steven Thompson fantastic blog FOUR COLOR SHADOWS.
This is uncannily like DC HORROR’S ratio-twist. Could’ve been the same writers, far as I know…
KEN SHANNON #4 awaits with a séance story (“The Case of the All-Seeing Eye!”). The supernatural setting is quickly exposed as a hoax:
In #6 we get “The Vampire Mob” as lead story. Alas, the horror in it is pure pretext. An actor portraying count Dracula on stage is killed with a silver bullet. Shannon investigates and finds a Balkan gun running enterprise behind the murderous deed.
See the whole story posted on Karswell’s blog THE HORRORS OF IT ALL.
In issue #7 it’s “The Ugliest Man in the World!” creeping us out. This, too, is no horror story; the leading man in here is just ugly as a ghoul.
See “The Ugliest Man in the World!” posted on my website about interesting crime comics.
The motif of an ugly man destroying beauty has been covered as a horror story before. For a fun diversion click on our parent website FIFTIES HORROR and read “Horror on Canvas” (from BAFFLING MYSTERIES #6).
KEN SHANNON #9 presents us “The Flame of Doom!”, wherein an African sacrificial mask supposedly burns people to death. Story’s a nice Whodunit. A closed room, a murder mystery, some folks gathered to hear the detective’s solution of the case – in real time, people, yeah. It all happens in an hour. The killing method is laughable (let’s be frank), but these ten pages kept me entertained!
See “The Flame of Doom!” posted on my website about interesting crime comics.
The very last (untitled) Ken Shannon story (in issue #10) is about a man hiring Shannon to look for invaders from planet Venus. When he finds them his client unmasks as a man from Saturn – and starts battling the Venusians!
Holy crap! What now?! The solution comes some panels after. Have a look at the final panels:
Yeah, absolutely logical. Still mind shattering. Ouch!
What do we learn from this? Quality was no stranger to the ratio-twist, as well!
And it did affect QUALITY HORROR. That’s why I packed the 22 horror books from Quality into one website along DC HORROR. Check out the Quality flavor of twisted ratio!
Five years before QUALITY HORROR took off with WEB OF EVIL, there was one genuine horror story – to be found in CRACK COMICS #51 (November 1947). In the lead feature, Captain Triumph battles a werewolf. See the awesome and frightening cover to the right.
It is a lengthy and wordy and winding 15-page (!) adventure I just flipped through. No surprises.
You know it all from the start. Very boring to us hard-boiled pre-code horror aficionados. They did these kinds of stories much better in the 50s (and needed only four or five pages for it). How the werewolf menace is overcome, you ask?
Captain Triumph delivers a fatal blow to the evil creature!
That took him 15 pages?! Well, it’s not Shakespeare, you know…
If you are still interested in reading this, open the book HERE on Comic Book Plus.
The Artists
And, well, apart from the output of the Iger Studio, nowhere else are we baffled by so much MYSTERY ARTWORK. Pretty much ALL of our art spotting has to be taken with that special grain of salt concerning artwork from the Quality company.
Spotting the artwork in Quality comics is a most ungrateful and frustrating task. Like with the Iger Shop, production passed through several hands. Penciling and inking are done by different artists.
Exception to this rule concerning QUALITY HORROR is the work of Louis Ravielli (he only appears in the later issues of WEB and may have delivered from the outside).
Time for our Who-did-what count (counted were whole stories).
Note: All of the following are PENCIL credits.
| Charles Nicholas | 28 |
| -mystery artwork- | 23 |
| Jack Cole | 17 |
| Louis Ravielli | 6 |
| Sheldon Moldoff | 2 |
| Sam Citron ? | 2 |
| Chuck Cuidera | 2 |
Each 1: Leo Morey, Bob McCarty, Edward Goldfarb and (maybe) Harry Lazarus.
Special mention belongs to CHUCK CUIDERA who is credited for almost all the covers. Furthermore he is probably the inker of some Nicholas pencils and some mystery art.
Some names do pop up or are mentioned. We will now look at the artists associated with QUALITY HORROR. And there’s only four we dare put a name on!
JACK COLE
Didn’t know there was an US dancer and choreographer by the name of Jack Cole. That’s what you get when you go searching the name on the internet. But HERE’s the comic book Jack Cole.
He had it all: talent, wit, success. His wife never disclosed why Cole committed suicide in 1958. Came as a shock to all involved.
Quality artist: Jack Cole
Cole was one of the formative artists of the 1940s comic book business. His PLASTIC MAN is a beloved milestone in comics’ history. His wild and dynamic compositions drew the attention of anti-comics-crusader Dr. Fredric Wertham who loved to show sample panels (out of context, because an imaginary dream scene was depicted) from his crime story “Murder, Morphine and Me” (1947).
See short discussion, incriminating panel and story posted on the wonderful blog “Pappy’s Golden Age Comics”:
Cole’s contributions to WEB OF EVIL (we credit him with 17 pencil jobs at least) register as the last comic stories this masterful artist did for the industry. As you might know, Cole started a second career away from comic books and created cartoons for the young PLAYBOY magazine in 1954.
If you want to learn a lot more about Cole and his work we transfer you trustfully to the expert blog “Cole’s Comics” – revealing more information about “Murder, Morphine and Me” (scroll down under this link).
The blog discusses some of Cole’s stories for WEB OF EVIL under THIS link. When these stories come up in our discussion below, we’ll again post the link – for your reading comfort.
Quality artist: Chuck Cuidera
CHUCK CUIDERA
The inker of BLACKHAWK for over ten years, credited from 1945 to 1956. He’s a phantom to me, I haven’t got the faintest idea what his art looks like. Does he look like Reed Crandall (whose pencils he often worked over)? Does he look like Jack Cole (who was defining the Quality house style)?
When you go look for Chuck Cuidera pencil work in the database, you’ll get only guesses. There IS signed pencils by him – in 1942!
Cuidera signed 11 BLACKHAWK stories from MILITARY COMICS #1 to #11. He was actually responsible for “The Origin of Blackhawk”. His style in the 40s is an Eisner swipe. Well, they all did it this way.
So he gets better, he picks up tricks from Cole and Crandall – and ten years later Cuidera might look like the guessmen say he does. All those Cuidera guesses (“Chuck Cuidera ?”) might in fact BE Cuidera.
Cuidera went on to ink for DC Comics in the 1960s (BLACKHAWK again – and some HAWKMAN, how fitting).
CHARLES NICHOLAS
This is the man leading our assignment charts, el Numero Uno de QUALITY HORROR. You’ve probably never come across his name. We did. Charles Nicholas is one of the most prolific pre-code horror artists. I and Jim Vadebonceour, Jr. spotted his art only recently – meaning we could put a name to many stories marked as “mystery art” up to around 2012 when I started researching pre-code horror.
So. Charles Nicholas. Let’s give the man some credit. He’s in all the number ones – wait and see; read ‘em and weep: Veteran starting out with Fox’s MYSTERY MEN COMICS #1 from 1939, drawing the “Blue Beetle” feature! He’s also in Quality’s NATIONAL COMICS #1 from 1940 and HIT COMICS #1 from the same year – responsible for “Kid Patrol” resp. “The Red Bee”.
In 1941 he works for MARVEL and appears in YOUNG ALLIES #1 and USA COMICS #1. Furthermore providing art for “Hurricane, Master of Speed” to be published in CAPTAIN AMERICA.
Nicholas drops off the radar for the year 1943, probably doing his stint in the military. The “Miss America” feature from MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS is added to his workload in 1944.
Post-war years and late 40s see him toiling away at Marvel and contributing art for Holyoke’s SPARKLING STARS on the side. In the 1950s Nicholas is assigned to crime stories (CRIME EXPOSED, CRIME MUST LOSE) for a short while and then enters a world of horror!
Quality artist: Charles Nicholas
ACG lets him draw for all of their four titles ADVENTURES INTO THE UNKNOWN, FORBIDDEN WORLDS, SKELETON HAND and OUT OF THE NIGHT. He appears in ACE HORROR’s titles BAFFLING MYSTERIES, BEYOND and WEB OF MYSTERY. In 1953 he joins the line-up in Quality’s WEB OF EVIL. He’s even sighted at Avon’s EERIE, Story/Master’s MYSTERIOUS ADVENTURES and Fawcett’s STRANGE SUSPENSE STORIES (although only once each).
In total there are about 66 pre-code horror stories credited to Charles Nicholas!
And he continued doing some code-approved horror stories for Charlton and American Comics Group (ACG). The restless artist remained with Charlton where he “enjoyed” a 23-year run as penciler!
Confusing footnote: the pen name “Charles Nicholas” has been shared briefly by Jack Kirby for a three-month interval at the Fox Features Syndicate AND shared, too, by Chuck Cuidera (whose two first names are CHARLES NICHOLAS Cuidera)!
Comics historians however claim to have sorted out this mess and state that all of the above is a third man actually called “Charles Nicholas” – although his birth name was Charles Nicholas Wojtkoski.
LOUIS RAVIELLI
Quality artist: Louis Ravielli
I almost cringe by giving a hack and swiper like Ravielli a credit here. But his “hackiness” (meaning crude art) made him identifiable from the anonymous Quality crowd.
It may be an indicator that Quality didn’t give much of a damn about their horror books by giving Ravielli a job in their horror line (and only in the later issues).
First regular (and often signed) appearances occur at Avon in 1950, where he continued to work into 1956, mainly on titles like CAPTAIN STEVE SAVAGE and FIGHTING UNDERSEA COMMANDOS.
Ravielli tried to emulate the illustrative style of his Avon colleague Everett Raymond Kinstler – to little avail. I think he’s sometimes swiping from Al Williamson, too. And his trademark are foggy patches of mist stretching horizontally through his panels.
The years 1953/54 see him doing odd jobs for Atlas/Marvel and Quality. His most spectacular job being the four-page shortie “White on Black!” for STRANGE TALES #23. Ravielli left the comics business in 1955. On his tab are only 14 horror stories.
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Next confusing footnote about further possible artists: Jerry Bails’ “Who’s Who of American Comic Books” credits a certain Irvin Steinberg to have penciled horror at Quality in 1954. Huh! We do not know anything about that. Some entries to the (generally fabulous) Who’s Who are sadly false …
The Covers
Fright scenes, fright scenes, fright scenes!
On QUALITY HORROR’s title pages there’s always someone being frightened by something!
A white skeletal zombie frightens a building crew, a witch frightens two people in a row boat, a ghostly apparition frightens a couple in a ship’s cabin, a monster rears its ugly head and frightens a woman, a looming spectre frightens a passer-by in the street, a corpse at the window frightens a man inside the room…
and these motifs sometimes repeat themselves!
Some of these are wonderful, some are only run-of-the-mill. Presenting you here my favorite three covers:
QUALITY HORROR often works with a full splash.
Meaning they start off with one big splash panel – which is nice. Looking good. Took me awhile to figure their system (which is quite simple). The lead story gets a full page splash in each issue! The other stories have the usual ones consisting of three panels.
The Stories
QUALITY HORROR does not find its own footing. The writers take motifs out of the “How to do horror” model kit and paste together their kind of horror stories. Am very much reminded of the practice at STANDARD HORROR. Do one story about each of these topics: ghosts, witches, genies, devils, demons, magic artifacts, zombies, shrunken heads… and so on…
Quality employs only ONE NARRATIVE – the all-knowing third person.
There are no first-person narratives (“I”) and also no second-person narratives (“You”). And no hosted stories. No host characters greet the reader to offer guidance, irony or morale.
STORY TITLES
Quality liked alliterations! “Phantom Freaks”, “Dance of Death”, “Monster of the Mist”, “Hangman’s Horror”, “The Beast from Beyond”, “Flaming Vengeance”, “Timepiece of Terror”, “Hideout in Hell”, “The Medium of Murder” and “The Hamlet of Horror”.
Anything with DEATH was another favorite.
“Death’s Album”, “Rehearsal for Death”, “Dance of Death”, “Orgy of Death”, “The Man Who Cheated Death”, “Death Prowls the Streets”, “Death’s Highway”, “The Shrunken Heads of Dr. Death”, “The Witch of Death”, “Death’s Vengeance”, “Scared to Death”, “Death’s Album” and – of course – “Death from the Tomb”.
And they had a run of titles beginning with CORPSE.
“The Corpse that Wouldn’t Die!”, “The Corpse that Wouldn’t Hide”, “The Sealed Corpse”, “The Corpse Who Prowled by Night” and “The Uninvited Corpse”.
QUALITY HORROR sounds a lot like DC HORROR (“The Man Who…”), actually. Sometimes they sounded exactly like the product of the competition:
“Ghosts of Doom” (in WEB #1)
“The Man Who Saw Doom” (in WEB #6)
“The Man Who Cheated Death” (in WEB #7)
“Creature of Doom” (in WEB #8)
“The Moulder of Doom” (in WEB #11)
“The Man Who Lived Forever” (in WEB #21)
“The Monster They Couldn’t Kill” (in WEB #11)
“The Brain that Wouldn’t Die” (in WEB #10)
“The Fiend Who Lived Forever” (in WEB #17)
I wonder if they speculated on being confused with DC books…
In general is QUALITY HORROR a more outlandish version of DC HORROR.
A word about color, too…
The coloring of Quality’s pages is (right behind FAWCETT HORROR) abysmal. A big hogwashing affair, dispersing the artists’ efforts beneath it. Check out a page from WEB #3. Whole characters and areas are drowned in the same tone; foreground and background are separated by color. I find that plain awful.
I am tempted to bring out my 3D-glasses and try if it will look better…
It gets better, though. Issues from # 5 on aren’t as hurtful as the early ones! They do start to care. Sorry for exaggerating. But Quality’s first tries at coloring their horror books indeed were frightful!
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Note: AVON, DC & QUALITY HORROR is a spin-off of the German website FIFTIES HORROR (presenting pre-code horror in general to an unsuspecting public). AVON, DC & QUALITY HORROR specializes in the products of three specific companies and is therefore drafted in the English language. The sister websites ACE HORROR, FAWCETT & CHARLTON HORROR and FICTION HOUSE & STANDARD HORROR are already online. Look for the links just below…