"The peak experience is climbing the mountain."

     This koan captures my feelings about the high point in comics history. I used to think it was 1953, when the fantasy genre perfected the graphic short story, but now my tastes run to 1952, when excitement and innovation made every month more amazing in an ever-expanding comics universe. But 1952 was fifty years ago, and the days when they sold a billion comics a year are long gone. That just makes diving into a few classic books even more enchanting! So--

     Shock SuspenStories #1 (Feb-Mar 1952) premiered a sophisticated anthology format composed of a 'Crime SuspenStory,' a 'War SuspenStory,' a 'Science Fiction SuspenStory' and a 'Horror SuspenStory.' The four "root" genres were--of course--the four that EC excelled in.

     The crime story was a Jack Kamen drawn fable of unholy matrimony, one of many in which a husband murders his wife or vice versa. Here it is the latter. Next Jack Davis art adds pizzazz to a low-key war story wherein a camp commander must preside over his son's execution for cowardice.

     Joe Orlando drew the SF offering, "The Monsters." It's one of those "the horrible aliens turn out to be humans" tales--maybe a little too familiar to really shock but an enjoyable read. The horror finale boasts art by 'Ghastly' Graham Ingels. "The Rug" is another paint-by-numbers plot, a hunter becomes the hunted after killing a grizzly bear to make a rug. None of the stories in this issue were spectacular, but none were stinkers. The cool anthology concept and the fine Feldstein electric chair cover wrap the book into a smooth package.

     Spellbound #1 (Mar 1952) was the first issue of the second of five fantasy titles that Atlas started in 1952--far more than any other company. They maintained pretty good quality as well, featuring a wide variety of artists. After a spooky graveyard cover the fun begins inside with "The Stuffed Shirt" wherein an ugly taxidermist goes murderous after his assistant steals his girlfriend.

     "Step into My Coffin" is not quite the weirdie depicted on the cover, but it's a solid story of a man who uses a suspended animation drug in a scheme of life insurance fraud. The crisp art on this dark look at human nature is by infrequent contributor, Martin Rose.

     "The Eye That Never Closed" is a winner all around. The plot--a man murders his rich uncle hoping to inherit the estate and then is haunted by the dead man's still-staring eye--is good, and Dick Ayers' distinctive drawing matches it in paranoid intensity. That's followed by an uninspiring page-turner about a man who wears a monstrous mask while committing his crimes only to find that his own face changes. "Horror of Crag Island" wraps things up with more murder, more grim irony, and effective illustration.

     Dell's Four Color #375 (Spring 1952) was their first John Carter of Mars adaptation, translating Edgar Rice Burroughs' novel of interplanetary adventure that first appeared in pulp publication in 1912. The art by Jesse Marsh (who also drew Dell's Tarzan) has clean bold outlines adorning the pages with decorative motifs that require little shading or feathering. If it's a little flat at times it's always handsome and serves the narrative well--letting the action maintain a whirl-wind pace.

     During a battle on Earth, soldier John Carter seeks shelter in a cave where he's overcome by a "strange vapor." Then a beam of light transports him to Mars. There the lighter gravity lets him make enormous leaps and gives him extraordinary strength! This comes in handy--as Mars is composed of warrior cultures whose specialty is hand-to-hand combat. The Martians do have advanced science, with rockets and ray-pistols, and if they've stopped short of using weapons of mass destruction in their warfare they're smarter than we are. Carter quickly takes sides with the local humanoids against four-armed giants. He befriends Dejah Thoris, a young woman whose royal blood makes her a political pawn in need of frequent rescues.

     The story and art are both possessed of a simplicity that may seem quaint, but there is a mythic power here--space opera refined to an essence. And Dell's superb format--32 page cover-to-cover novel with supporting material on the inside and back covers--could hardly be improved upon. There were only two more John Carter Four Color issues, but the three stand as one of the great accomplishments of the era.

     All three of these companies had more big things happen later in 1952. Soon after this John Carter issue Dell released the first issue of the ultimate humor character, Uncle Scrooge. The 21st-century should appreciate both the hilarity and the wisdom of Carl Barks' fables of that cranky capitalist, the world's richest duck. Atlas, in June, boosted their fantasy titles to over a dozen with the addition of Uncanny Tales and Journey into Mystery. And, cover-dated October, EC began the title that would prove their salvation when the comics censorship movement fought to bring them down: Tales Calculated to Drive You MAD.

     As a personal footnote, I was born while the three comics discussed in this article were on the stands, and maybe it's not just coincidence that I've spent so many years collecting and celebrating the books of the early 1950s!

Pat Calhoun has been collecting, researching and appreciating comic books since the early 1960s, and is a nationally recognized comic book historian. Pat resides in Santa Rosa, California.