EERIE NO. 1 COVER RE-CREATION

Nearly a half-century after drawing the cover for Avon's EERIE #1, the first all-original, all-horror comic book in 1947, Bob Fujitani painted a re-creation of his work in 1994.

It is not known if it was a commission or for his own enjoyment, but the result is astounding, especially when one considers the simple line work of the original. The re-creation was painted in oils on a 16" x 20" canvas board. It is currently up for auction. At the time this was written, the current bid, including a buyer's premium, is $408, but is sure to go up from there until the auction closes in mid-January.

[Image Source: Heritage Auctions.]

I wondered how this new image would actually look as the cover for EERIE #1, so I had some fun and took a few minutes to "re-imagine the re-creation".

PRE-CODE HORROR COMICS COVERED

It's no secret that a lot of the appeal for Pre-Code horror comics are the covers. After EC showed how it was done, virtually every other publisher that sold horror comics jumped on the wagon and attempted to outdo each other with some of the outrageous, shocking and excessive images they could come up with.

Here are a few examples that range from mild to wild and that are currently up for sale at Heritage Auctions. The finished, color covers are also shown as a comparison. Included are a few of the most notorious covers that came out of that era.

1. CHAMBER OF CHILLS #21 (Harvey, January 1954). Seen here is the preliminary cover art designed by Warren Kremer using ink and crayon on onion skin paper (when was the last time to heard of that?). He then handed it over to Lee Elias for the finished work. Be sure to check out the notes on the margins -- "Guys dead at desks"!

2. CHAMBER OF CHILLS #24 (Harvey, July 1954). Cover art by the great Lee Elias.

3. CHILLING TALES #16 (Youthful, June 1963 ). Unknown artist illustrating the only cover for this title not done by Matt Fox.

4. TALES OF TERROR #1 (Toby, 1952). Cover art for this one-shot by Gene Fawcette. It was pulled by Toby after one issue after a complaint by EC that the title was already being used by them. It was reprinted by I.W. Publishing in 1958 for EERIE #9.

5. TOMB OF TERROR #15 (Harvey, May 1954). Cover art of a classic by Lee Elias.

5. WITCHES TALES #25 (Harvey, June 1954). Another classic cover by the great Warren Kremer.

BIG EC COMICS AUCTION

Now in session at Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas is a large offering of EC Comics up for bid from the collection of EC uber-fan, Roger Hill. Officially listed as "2024 August 22 - 23 The Roger Hill Collection EC Comics Showcase Auction #40273", the catalog totals over 300 titles spanning EC's entire output including horror, crime, romance, westerns and more.

Here are samples of the crime and horror titles, including some of the more notorious covers.

[Image source: Heritage Auctions.]