Holly’s Hobby

“Flash Forward Time Machine Days” will be a little different than before, as one day each week this month we’ll be looking at the influence pre-code comics had on more modern comics and creators. And today we'll start it off with a look at one of my favorite stories from the wild March 1984 issue of Twisted Tales #7, written by Bruce Jones and illustrated by John Bolton.

Other artists to look for this month: Mike Ploog, Bernie Wrightson and more!

TOMORROW: Horror Leaps From the Pages!

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Last month I plugged Craig Yoe’s upcoming book "Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster" (available in April) and last night Craig himself emailed in with more info. Craig says:
“I recently discovered incredible, previously unknown, fetish art by the creator of Superman, Joe Shuster. The artist and his writing partner, Jerry Siegel, had sold Superman for 130 dollars. When they sued to get the rights back they lost and got drummed out of the comic book industry and Shuster fell on hard times. It was unknown that to get by and/or because of a personal interest in the subject, Shuster then did S&M porn for under-the-counter booklets called "Nights of Horror," sold in Times Square in the early fifties.

The back story I uncovered involves the Mob, showgirls, neo-Nazi Jewish juvenile delinquents, inspired by Shuster's art, known as the Brooklyn Thrill Killers, the famed anti-comic book crusader Dr. Frederic Wertham, Senate investigations, cops on payola, the books being banned by the Supreme Court, teenage girls being horse-whipped in the park, two murders...and dare I say MORE?

I have a full color coffee table art book I wrote and designed coming out April 1 (no fooling!) about all this, "Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-Creator Joe Shuster". The publisher is the number one leading art book publisher in the world, the prestigious Abrams. I'm blogging about the book and revealing lots of rare art and info that didn't fit in "between the covers": http://secret-identity.net“Thanks for the update Craig!
---Karswell

The Wishing Hour

Countdown to Halloween: Post #4B! Our second post for today also comes from the Modern Age. I hope you don’t mind, but as previously mentioned it was a real struggle to find Halloween themed stories worthy of posting here for an entire week since the golden era is pretty dry on the subject… but I’m sure you’ll agree, this tale fits the bill nicely.

I can still remember the first time I ever saw a fully painted story by John Bolton... totally blew my mind. From the 1993 issue of Millennium Publication’s Asylum #1