Stanley Morse

Hallowe’en Countdown VIII, Day 9

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« True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. » — Kurt Vonnegut

Tonight, we’re slumming it up on the cheap side of the tracks. If you thought — and I quite understand you on that point — that Myron Fass’ Eerie Publications were scraping the bottom of the barrel for their market share, then you likely weren’t aware of his fellow cheapjack opportunist Stanley Morse. For a bit of background on Fass, check out these entries from previous countdowns: Hallowe’en Countdown II, Day 1; and Hallowe’en Countdown VI, Day 27… so I don’t have to repeat myself.

Furthermore, here’s my brief introduction to the dodgy wonders of Morse’s ‘Stanley Publications’. I recently came upon all the short-lived line’s covers and was struck by their certain je ne sais quoi. Doubting my senses a little, I queried ds, and she concurred: it’s raw, it’s primitive, but not devoid of a bizarre sort of charm.

Here, then… is a gallery of the entire run of Stark Terror!

This is Stark Terror no. 1 (Dec. 1970, Stanley); cover art by Frank Carin (né Carino).
This is Stark Terror no. 2 (Feb. 1971, Stanley); cover art by Carin.
This is Stark Terror no. 3 (Apr. 1971, Stanley); cover art by Mexican illustrator Héctor Castellón .
This is Stark Terror no. 4 (June 1971, Stanley); cover art by Carin.
This is Stark Terror no. 5 (Aug. 1971, Stanley); cover art by Carin. Just in time for cancellation, a new logo, possibly by Ben Oda.
As a bonus, here’s the surviving original art to the publisher’s Ghoul Tales no. 1 (Nov. 1970, Morse); artwork, again, by Mr. Frank Carin.

« Veteran genre-crosser Carin delivered this new-for-1970 cover, insinuating troll-like creeps into a mad-doctor/torture-chamber situation. (The published version contains a touch of self-censorship, obscuring one conspicuous element of nudity with layers of color.) Carin is an enigmatic figure in midcentury comics, traversing the idioms of Funny Animals, Good Girl Art, adventure, and lurid shock value. » [ source ]

– RG

Hallowe’en Countdown V, Day 9

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« I don’t know what the hell I published.
I never read the things. » — Stanley P. Morse

In the sinister wake of Warren Publishing‘s success with Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, old-school fly-by-night 1950s comics publisher Stanley P. Morse (Aragon Magazines, Gillmor Magazines, Medal Comics, Media Publications, S. P. M. Publications, Stanmor Publications, and Timor Publications…) dusted off some of his old pre-Code chillers in the late 1960s and early 1970s in black and white magazines such as Shock (15 issues), Chilling Tales of Horror (11 issues), Ghoul Tales (5 issues) and Stark Terror (5 issues). It certainly wasn’t all junk: after all, Morse had published Weird Tales of the Future and Mister Mystery, with their Basil Wolverton and Bernard Baily classics…

Unlike Eerie Publications’ grey-toned and blood-and-gore-ified reprints, these are, as far as I know, unretouched, not to mention decently printed.

This is Shock Vol. 2 no. 5 (no. 10, November, 1970, Stanley Morse). Edited by Theodore S. Hecht.

Maybe it’s just me, but isn’t Kurt Schaffenberger just about the unlikeliest pick of cover artist for a pre-code horror anthology? Sure, he fit in nicely with ACG’s gentle moral fable aesthetic, but aren’t you just expecting the Man of Steel or The Big Red Cheese to swiftly sweep in, catching the damsel-in-distress before the A Train smooshes her?

To wit: one of Kurt’s fun ACG covers, this is Unknown Worlds no. 43 (Oct.-Nov. 1965, ACG).

-RG

Hallowe’en Countdown IV, Day 5

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« Merchant and pirate were for a long period one and the same person. Even today mercantile morality is really nothing but a refinement of piratical morality. » — Friedrich Nietzsche

This charming rogue doesn’t look like he’s going to share his pretties with just anyone, so be sure to ask nicely.

This is Weird Mysteries no. 7 (Oct. 1953, Stanley Morse). Cover by Bernard Baily (1916-1996), whom we’ve previously spotlighted.

Stanley P. Morse ran a rather fly-by-night operation, even by funnybook industry standards, but someone in there had some taste, as evidenced by the classic material produced under its various dodgy banners (Aragon, Gilmor, Key Publications, Media, S.P.M., Stanmor, Timor…) by such notables as the aforementioned Mr. Baily, Basil Wolverton (including his enduring The Brain Bats of Venus) and a fledgling Steve Ditko.

This particular issue includes Fredric Wertham favourite Mother’s Advice, but really, the whole issue’s pretty wacky.

You know, this one. Art by Tony Mortellaro.

Still, the highlight of the issue has to be a brilliantly idiotic short tale intriguingly entitled… Sssshhh. Here it is:

  • Scripter unknown, with pencils by Sal Trapani, with inks by S. Finocchiaro. I have to say that this is my favourite-ever work by Trapani, a hack if there ever was one, whose inking jobs (his specialty in later years) generally did no favours to anyone’s pencils. And he had quite a prolific career, which was surely not hindered in the least by his being Dick Giordano‘s brother-in-law. For the defence, one of my close pals and colleagues holds that Trapani’s inks over Herb Trimpe‘s pencils on The Incredible Hulk (issues 156-166) were the finest of Trimpe’s lengthy run on the title. As far as that goes, I’ll stick with John Severin, but I do concede that Trimpe and Trapani did mesh well.

In his spare time, Trapani was the driving force behind the Society of American Vintage-radio Enthusiasts, which makes him very cool indeed. Here’s a compelling account of the early days of the movement to preserve this crucial art form. And it wasn’t just passive preservation: here’s an original recording of classic radio plays he produced in 1972.

-RG